Today my piece is no longer precious. I remember an old art teacher telling me that you can only achieve something greater after you feel your piece is no longer precious, therefore allowing you to fully take control without holding anything back.

Thank you Betsey Heeney

Importance of Design

The more the piece takes a physical form the more its design is altered. It is becoming so delicate that the large stones I had planned on using at the top now appear garish. I have decided to swap out the large stones for the teardrop ones I had planned on using in the center which also now look too big.

As this project has become a design project I feel that it is far more important to adapt the piece to maintain a good design rather then let it become tacky by sticking with original plans.

Lesson learned

In this project I relied too much on technology; that it would be there to do what I wanted whenever I wanted even at a moments notice. This was a very bad way to think. By doing so I jeopardized my entire project.

Its time to step back and place my faith not in technology but in my own skills.

Its not the end..

I messed up quite badly. I let myself get too upset and therefore rushed int cutting my pieces. I should have never just traced the pieces from the laser-cut. I should have stuck the actual patterns on instead. If I could do it again I would. This is why the pieces are so uneven. It was a terrible mistake.

But...

having a more organic and hand made tiara is ok because in my brief it states that the piece should be antique looking and not something that could be bought at Claires.

I have been evening out the pieces as best I can with a needle file and sandpaper but I still may have to cut off some of the appendages on the piece I first made as they are terribly thin and don't match the others. I should be able to cut some new ones and solder them to the main stalk with a minimal seam.

I will be staying late most days now

Not Going Well

I am quite upset with my project. I looks like I have a very expensive of scrapmetal on my desk. The pieces require a gargantuan amount of cleaning up and I dont know if I can do it.

I accidentally cut off one of my spirals with my saw, nothing is remotely even, I have 3 weeks left, the dremel isnt doing much, and it just looks so bad.

I really have no choice but to proceed as I cannot afford more materials.

No CNC

I will not be using the cnc to cut out my pieces.

It is very frustrating to have to cut my pieces out by hand after spending so many hours perfecting my plans. There are only three weeks left to complete this project.

Marking

Cutting

filing

sanding

base construction

assembly

large stone settings made

large stones set

marking for small stones

drilling for small stones

setting small stones

cleanup

finishing

I could really have gone without the first four. I know now I have no chance to get on the cnc so I started today marking and cutting out my pieces.

I used my laser cutouts as templates and traced them onto the metal with sharpie. I am a little rusty with the jewelers saw but it did't take long to get back into it.

I cut out all of the basic shapes today.

I have been considering the comment from yesterday about my design being flat. I believe they are quite right and something is needed on the top.

The large gems really do look like plants beginning to bloom so I am adding some extra small leaves folding outwards coming from the main stone. This little detail will have a nice effect and not significantly add to cost.

I am going to be using 1.2mm silver instead of 1mm. I feel that adding a little extra width for stability makes up for the slight increase in cost. While 1.5mm or 2mm would be even better sadly it really just isn't in my budget.

The stone count is finished

Size P1 P2 P3 Band Per Side Total

1mm	26	28	24	3		83		166		0.04		6.64
1.1	11	8	13	1		33		66		0.06		3.96
1.25	11	7	5	2		25		50		0.06		3
1.5	10	8	1	1		20		40		0.06		2.4
1.6	12	3	11	3		29		58		0.06		3.48
1.75	3	1	3	0		7		14		0.06		0.84
1.8	0	0	3	2		5		10		0.06		0.6
2mm	7	18	7	2		34		68		0.06		4.8
2.5	12	4	2	2		20		40		0.09			3.06
2.75	0	0	0	2		2		4		0.09		0.36
3mm	2	2	0	1		5		10		0.1		1
3.5	1	3	5	2		11		22		0.13		2.86
3.75	2	4	2	1		9		18		0.16		2.88
4mm	3	2	1-	4		10		20		0.19		1.9
5mm	2-	1-		0		3		6		0.3		1.8
6mm	1-	0		0		1		1		0.37		0.27
										COST TOTAL ===		£39.85