Concentration

What is the central idea of your concentration?           Chance Chen

3D:I was inspired by ordinary expensive jewelry, which I have always have thought accessories comes in as an important part to complete your whole look. Then later on thought about how hard could it be to make all those pieces, you must have full knowledge, whole set of tools and source of material, that would be hard to get in your hands without being a professional or an accessories design or jewelry design student. Besides, although high street jewels can be cheap and look good, but personally I often feel like they are hard to maintain comparing to their price. There are times that I bought a piece into my collection but I only get to wear it once or twice, because that the detail pieces come off, or the color has faded due to the reason that it is not real metals. On another hand, for metals and crystals that are real, it’s kind of hard to find extraordinary designs using those expensive material, because often they are counted as rare pieces and extremely expensive. The trend in fashion lately, obtain over-sizing designs or over the top designs, but often they look good but weighting up to their price and how long a high street piece can maintain without ruin pieces here and there within a couple of times wearing, it is not balanced. Therefore, I came up with the idea of making jewelry out of paper, molding plastic paper. It’s very cheap, although it won’t be something you can keep a long time, but it definitely can race with the fast changing trend, balance out the worth of the art work pieces and it’s pricing. Of course that this wouldn’t be the most realistic thing to do marketing wise, but I thought it would definitely be something that’s interesting to make, and maybe also at the same time reminding people the idea that I’m trying to bring out, it’s never about the price of a piece of artwork, but it’s the design that worth the most; as my own view on the designer brands, although it’s material are worth the price, but it’s never about the name and fame that comes with it, it’s always about the designs that attracts me.

How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea?

3D:In the concentration part, we have to make 6 to 12 pieces of work, which I’m thinking of making 6 pieces, due to that in my concentration collection, there are a lot of details and craftsmanship in within. In each piece of my work, it’s an idea on a design, so that explains why I have usually two to three works in each piece. For example: In piece number 1, I have taken gold cardboard paper, black cardboard paper and shredded gold wrapping paper, turning them into a chain necklace, a oversized gold watch and a chain bracelet. I would consider this piece of artwork as the piece that brings out the most of the main idea. Gold jewelries are expensive, Apart from the design, that’s the first thing that we notice, therefore, I thought I would be the most ironic piece out of all, that the fact I’m replacing something expensive to cheap pieces of paper. In piece number 2, I was inspired by the Braque style pattern and lace, so I used simply black cardboard paper and cut out pieces of designs that I drew out before hand. Then I sewed the pieces of designs into one, making it into a necklace and a bracelet, after chaining the finish pieces into one by using cheap thin chain, giving the work a more wearable aspect. In piece number three, I cut out red cardboard paper and made hollow design around the design, then later cut out the molding plastic gold paper into the shapes that fits into the hollow part of the red paper, turning them into dramatic necklace, bracelet and earrings. I had some criticism along the way, being told that I should consider making pieces that look 3D without even wearing them, so in piece number 4, I took more molding plastic paper in gold, cut them out into shredded like, then cut out a small bit of gold cardboard paper, cover it with industrial use quick dry glue, and stick on the shredded paper making them stand, creating this spiky and bling piece as necklace, ring and earrings. In piece number 5, I continued working on the gold molding plastic paper and cut them out into half butterfly wing into different size that I have drawn out earlier. Then I took one shred of gold cardboard and cover it with the quick dry glue, then stick on the half pieces of butterfly wings, creating this effect that not only it looks sculpturally interesting, the plastic wings also reflects the lights while moving them, which it really stands out and I would say it’s my favorite so far out of the collection. In piece number 6, I’ve taken silver molding plastic paper…