This project was one of the first few projects I did at the Manchester School of Art, and was created as part of a brief entitled Tradition and Innovation. The aim of this brief was to take traditional: methods, ways of thinking, ways of making and be innovative and creative - producing work using those traditional ways in order to create something new with them. So with this notion in mind, I began to think of ideas for what I could do to bring together tradition with innovation, after much deliberation and discussion with my partner - we came up with the basis for my project (a basis which would lead me onto creating the final pieces you see before you). This basis was to take my love of finding and collecting old objects/pieces of  old objects - whether that be out and about whilst walking/hiking or whilst gardening at either of our parent's houses - and use these things I find to create pieces of jewellery from them.  As the majority of objects I find are mainly pieces of old objects and are also mainly ceramic pieces - shards of old ceramic vessels, plates, platters etc., I decided that I could use these found objects that I have collected, as the tradition aspect of my project - as many of these pieces are either from traditional British ceramic porcelain/earthenware/stoneware/terracotta etc., imports/souvenirs from places such as China/ Japan etc. or traditional British made ceramics but decorated in the style of Chinese, Japanese etc. ceramics. With this as the starting point for the traditional aspect of my project I then began to think up of ways that I could use the ceramic pieces in order to create jewellery out of them -  ways that could be used and manipulated in order to form the innovation side of project - some of these ways of making included using other materials in order to encapsulate and preserve these fragments, materials such as cement, concrete, metal, clay and resin. After much deliberation I decided that my chosen material would be resin, this is due the fact you can manipulate it in any way you see fit in order to create unique objects by using different shaped moulds, as well as as the fact that it is a transparent material - so I thought it would be perfect to both encapsulate and display the found pieces in. Once I decided what materials and what processes I wanted to use, I began collecting both research and objects in which to use in my project, starting by visiting various destinations such as: the Stoke-on-Trent Potteries and Museum to gather research on ceramics (past and present) and also the beaches round the North East (where I am from) to gather interesting found sea ceramics (and glass) that I could use in my project. Once back from my various visits, I began to combine my found ceramics (and glass) with my clear water casting resin, in order to create tests which I could used to inform my next stages. To create these test I used bought ice-cube trays, as they were cheap and easy to use to create multiple tests from.

After these had set and cured, I started to think of ways of how I could use these geometric ice-cubes to make pendants from; arranging them into different formations and sketching these ideas down as well as sketching down ideas for what metal attachments I could pair with them to make them into wearable objects. After talking my ideas over with a technician at the school, I decided to go with the his idea of soldering threads to jump rings in order to attach my resin pieces to either make a bracelet or necklace - the reason I went for this idea is because it was the best method (I believed), as it wouldn't detract from the resin pieces and as there was a thread it would be fairly easy to set them into the resin. With this as my chosen for of attachment, I began experimenting using different bought geometric moulds and different ways of attaching my threaded jump rings either by setting them into the resin or by drilling them into the resin. After doing these experiments, I decided that not only did I need to find an easy way of making my own moulds, but also that I should think of a way that would better tie in my research with my making process. With these ideas in mind I chose to have a colour palate inspired by the some of the pottery I observed at the Stoke Potteries, such as Wedgewood Jasperware and Spode's Italian Blueware - blues and whites, as well as this I also set to work creating moulds using a gift box net as template and recycling plastic packaging to form the moulds from. I then combined these ideas and set my blue and white ceramics (and glass) into my hand-made moulds; surprised by the unique and beautiful geometric forms I had managed to create, I initially began to start designing ideas for a bracelet. However, due to the nature of the resin gems I had made, I had to quickly change my idea from a bracelet to a necklace and swiftly began designing necklace ideas. After picking a final design I spent my last few days creating this necklace, before I had to hand  in my work for our deadline. Despite only having a matter of days to create this piece, I really adore what I produced and think it embodies all my ideas and fits perfectly with the brief we were given.