Durban University of Technology Jewellery Design BTech students will be exhibiting their work at the Artisan Gallery tomorrow on Wednesday 19 September 2012.
This exhibition, themed “flourish”, is a display of contemporary jewellery based on, among other sources, traditional weaving, Mehndi, nursery rhymes, gardening, graffiti and filigree.
Chris De Beer, DUT Jewellery Design Programme Co-ordinator said DUT Jewellery Design BTech students have an exhibition in different Durban galleries every year. This year, he said, the Department was lucky because the Artisan Gallery was looking for people to showcase their work (in the gallery) and the Department also needed a venue. “We had to come up with the theme and chose ‘flourish’ because it shows growth, newness, something extravagant and pretty and it is also tied in with green sustainability,” he said.
DUT BTech Jewellery Design student Shelona Soogrin said she is extremely honored to get a platform to showcase her work as it is harder to get that opportunity when one is no longer a student. “I use Mehndi patterns and the process of applying it to skin to my designs and work,” she said.
Another DUT Jewellery Design BTech student Deidre Green said her inspiration is more often taken from the Hibiscus flower. She said the frilly edges of the flower remind her of a lady’s dress.
“I use the delicate technique of filigree within my work. This is an ornate lacelike technique which involves long tedious hours of carefully placing thread like wires into ‘the petals’. I’m happy to be exhibiting my work. It’s a great platform,” she said.
De Beer added that students are nervous because their work sells at the exhibition. “They are caught up in a two-way dilemma of being happy if their work sells, but then they have to make more which means more work for them. But, hopefully the exhibition will go well,” he said.
–Nongcebo Khumalo
Caption: One of Deidre Green’s designs which be on exhibition at the Artisan Gallery this Wednesday (19 September 2012). Green is a DUT Jewellery Design BTech student.
