•Theresa Burger is a jewellery designer based in Cape Town, South Africa and Dublin, Ireland. She is a graduate of Cape Town Peninsula University of Technology. Between 2005 and 2009 she completed a BTech degree in Jewellery Design and Manufacture and graduated top in her class. In those five years she was trained as a silversmith, learning metalworking techniques, drawing and design.
•The training also included hand manufacturing in 18ct gold and platinum in the final 2 years. She also took part in a national platinum competition, PlatAfrica in 2008 and 2009.She likes to combine wood an resin with precious metals. She has got a strong passion for design.
•She is currently enrolled at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, in a 2 year MA degree.
Although a lot of her designs are very nature-like, she recently started using (and learning) the CAD CAM technology where drawing up the pieces on Rhino and then cutting and casting them.
“I love life and I am fortunate enough to be able to travel regularly and delight in absorbing foreign cultures and sights.”
She believes exposure to such places and people helps with her design inspiration and self awareness. She also feels that the process of designing and making her own jewellery enriches her life and she loves exploring these creative energies.
Although a lot of her designs are very nature-like, she recently started using (and learning) the CAD CAM technology where drawing up the pieces on Rhino and then cutting and casting them.
“I love life and I am fortunate enough to be able to travel regularly and delight in absorbing foreign cultures and sights.”
She believes exposure to such places and people helps with her design inspiration and self awareness. She also feels that the process of designing and making her own jewellery enriches her life and she loves exploring these creative energies.
•She manufacture most types of jewellery, from rings, neckpieces, earrings and brooches. She describes her jewellery as being contemporary individualistic items that reflects her creativity. She enjoys the designing process and her items always begin with pencil and paper. The most important aspects to her designing is that the objects are wearable and aesthetically pleasing. The meshing of these two elements in a design are essential to all the jewellery she designs and manufacture.
“I go through stages where my designs are very organic and narrative in nature and then stages where they are abstract and the designs are less literal.”
•Where does her design inspirations come from?
•There are many things that inspire her, she believes that it is imperative as a creative person, one must know what inspires you. She also believes that anything that has potential, has the power to inspire us. She is very inspired by the beauty of nature (where as I am aswell) but also by previous art and craft movements, her favourite being the Art Deco period. A lot of her work also revolves around autobiographical themes, and sources from her own personal experiences. With her current collection it is Africa that is her source of inspiration, like colours, textures and vibrancy serve as fantastic inspiration sources.
•What materials and methods does she use? She has mostly been working in silver, but also have gold and some platinum experience. Her 2008-2009 graduate collection consists mainly of silver, semi-precious stones and resin. The collection mainly revolves around her family tree and each item was inspired and designed around various family members, the tree going back 3 generations. For this particular collecting she used more traditional metal fabrication techniques, a lot of hollow construction and piercing. Of course resin work is a big favourite of hers and she loves experimenting with various ideas. She produced a collection of rings where she made the ‘stones’ from the resin in different geometric shapes, using clear resin set holding suspended gold or silver leaf. She is currently working on a collection she calls ‘AfricaRich’ . This body of work is more commercial and designs have been simplified for faster production. She has incorporated silver, different woods, bone, animal horn, recycled glass beads and epoxy resin to create vibrant and fun items.
•I really can relate to her tipe of work because I also feel comfortable and inspired by nature but sometimes like clean lines and geometric shapes. It is also very inspiring to see how beautifully she incorporates resin and wood into her designs, something I really want to look into.
Elretha, you have explored the Designers influences, approach to design, use of materials and techniques. Go deeper with this by referring to actual pieces and how she has achieved this. There is repetition at the beginning of your writing and the text colour is very difficult to read. Explain what is going on in the images as some of them aren't very clear. You do need to reference actual quotes.Generally add more body to your writing, covering all the sections of the template.
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