Yay, another wedding to share with you on the blog. I love sharing weddings. This time our rose gold garland hair comb was worn by the beautiful Gillian on her special day. Gillian and her husband, Paul, had a beautiful Winter wedding in the Western Cape.
All images by Modern Hearts.
I always love to see pics of how my customers wear their SMITH jewellery, but this was even more exciting as I was commissioned by Minette to create something custom especially for her wedding.
Minette and her dress designer, Erna, came across me at last years Design Indaba. They had this idea to create a shoulder custom brooch and matching earrings for her wedding dress. It was so lovely being part of the process, I was even invited to a dress fitting. But after much discussion, we decided to use the brooch in her hair instead, I think that it turned out perfectly.
Minette had a destination wedding in Ponto do Ouro in Mozambique on the beach. Thanks so much for sharing your special day with us Minette.
For more images go to Lad and Lass Photography.
So might have have seen my posts on Facebook and Twitter about the Remake Challenge and wondered what I was on about. So here is the down-low:
‘The Live Eco Remake Design Challenge is a sustainable design competition that challenges students and emerging designers to create mainstream clothing and objects whilst adhering to sustainable design principles and eliminating waste in their production methods.’
This year KIN (one of the first shops I ever stocked) decided to support the competition by pairing up some of their jewellery designers with the fashion finalists. So I was teamed up with Leandra du Bruyn who created beautiful textured work in pale tones. We chatted a bit and decided that my Natural Collection best suited her designs and we decided to build on that and incorporate brass.
The prize giving for the competition happened last week Thursday, and I am very pleased to announce that Leandra came 2nd place! I like to think the jewellery helped a little…
And here you go, some images of the jewellery. I’m quite please with the final result and am thinking about making more to sell through my stockists, what do you think?
All jewellery images courtesy of KIN.
Charlene approached me some months ago because she wanted to get her husband-to-be something a little different for their wedding day. She chose our awesome gilt bicycle cufflinks and then ordered a plain tie slider to go with it.
It is ALWAYS so nice to get images from ones customers showing you how they wear your jewellery. Especially when they are professional pics like these. So thanks so much Charlene for sharing your special day with us, and congrats to you and Kevin.
All images are by Blink Photography
If you have any of my jewels and would like to send photo’s through, please send them to info (at) smith-jewellery (dot) com
So you may or may not have heard, but we paired up with Lalesso last weekend to show off our jewels at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town. Here a re a few snaps from the show:
All images by Simon Deiner / SDR Photo.
So here it is, some of my newest collection – Bone Couture! See my previous post on what went into the making of this (a lot of gore and guts) and click here for our beautiful catalogue:
All images were taken by myself.
If you like what you see, you can shop Bone Couture here.
I am launching a new collection and thought I would share the process that went into making it:
This range started over a year ago when I found a fresh Bokmakierie carcass on the side of the road in Namaquland. With my friend, who is an amateur taxidermist, we skinned it, saved its wings and feet and lopped off it’s head. We then found some styrofoam and spread out it’s wings and feet in positions we liked, sprinkled it with borax (to dry out the flesh) and sealed the head in a bag to dump in acid later.
I then decided I wanted to broaden the range and incorporate other animals. I thought it would be awesome to create and articulated vertebrae necklace and went on the hunt for a snake. It took some time to locate someone who was willing to help me out and eventually the Snake Park in Kommetjie agreed to give me two dead snakes (both having died of natural causes). I then headed over to my friend’s house to skin and de-bone the snakes. The rest of the meat was then taken off by leaving them in acid for a couple of weeks.
Once I had all my bits I took them to my caster who then made molds of them. He injected the silicone molds with wax and gave them back to me to then work further to create other designs. Once I was happy with them, I took them back to my caster and he cast them into either silver or brass depending on my needs.
Tomorrow, the collection is officially launched to the public, so keep an eye out on Facebook or Twitter to make sure you catch it.
Today is the 6 month anniversary of my wedding to my husband (yes, it really has been SIX MONTHS ALREADY)!! So I thought it would be a good time to share some pics of our wedding.
We were married in a green belt near Kirstenbosch in Cape Town; where we had a choir greeting the guests and my brother leading the ring ceremony. We then walked across a little (homemade) bridge to my parents house for the reception in their beautiful garden. It was really a magical day with lots of friends, family, good food and music.
Thanks to Monica Dart for her beautiful images, you can see more of the wedding here.
I made all the jewellery for the wedding (obviously) including the copper belts for the bridesmaids and the cufflinks for the groomsmen. If you like any of it, you can get it here.
Also, thanks to Ian from Vision on Fire for our beautiful wedding video:
We are a fan of fun moments but not a fan of photo booths, so we did our own DIY slow-mo booth instead. Luckily, we had most of the gear and talented friends to man the booth and edit the video afterwards. If you like the idea, make your own using this tutorial.
My dress: designed by me and made by Verona Dove Dave’s suit: custom-made in Thailand Venue: my parents’ garden Hiring: Urban Tonic Food: Zest Catering DJ: In The Mix Productions Invites: Secret Diary Make-up: Fran Carter Flowers, dessert, co-ordination and everything else: my mom.
As Fathers Day usually falls on or around my birthday every year, our family don’t really make a big deal about it (I know, my poor Dad). But a lot of my mates’ family’s do celebrate, so I decided to make a last-minute gift guide for them – only 4 days left people!!
1. ‘The Urban Steed’ from Jesse James, R1800 2. ‘Hands Up’ Tie Slide by SMITH Jewellery from Hello Pretty, R335 3. ‘A-Holes And D-Bags: Darth Vader’ by Patrick Latimer from KIN, R295 4. Umtwalo backpack by Inga Gubeka from Stable, POR 5. ‘You’re Classic, Charlie Brown’ sculpture by Nick Marcus from KIN, R1500 6. ‘The Hill’ in Imbuia Glasses by Kraft from Hello Man, R1500 7. Ipad Sleeve by Wren Design, R345 8. ‘SolaNova’ portable solar charger by Eco Studio from Stable, POR 9. Mini Jack Lamp by The Artisan, R795 10. Gilt Golfer Cufflinks from SMITH Jewellery, R685 11. Cherry Wood Iphone Cover from Houdt, R220
Sjoe, I can’t believe it has been over SEVEN MONTHS since I last posted. I am shocked, saddened, and embarrassed by this fact, but what can I say – life gets in the way of things sometimes.
In my case it involved a wedding (mine), a honeymoon, another wedding (not mine), the Design Indaba, new ranges, a new house, a new studio and general work obligations. Although these last seven months should really tell me that it’s time to say farewell to the old blog, I’m still not really willing to do that. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make some real time soon and continue with my posts…
