Art Deco

In my previous post I promised to tell you more about an Art Deco inspired watch band that I have been working on. I like lots of different design styles such as Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts and Gothic Revival, but I keep being drawn back to Art Deco. I love the clean lines and beautiful shapes. I have several sketch books full of Deco design ideas, I even have a Pinterest board devoted to it.

I recently had the idea of designing an Art Deco inspired watch band. For a number of years I have bought watch faces and created my own beaded watch bands. I have really small wrists and hands so I find it very difficult to buy a dainty watches that fit me. I used to have to resort to chunky leather straps. Then one day I decided to have a go at making my own. My first design was a very basic ladder stitch pattern but I loved wearing it. It was comfortable and attractive.

This time I chose a square silver watch face. I then created a series of peyote stitch squares with open centres. I used my two favourite colours - blue and green. I then linked the squares together with green fire-polished crystal beads and finished the whole thing with a magnetic sterling silver clasp.

These images were taken by my OH, who used them as part of a project for a photography course. The photo above is a basic shot of the watch on a neutral background.

He took this shot of the watch lying on my sketchbook to emphasise the fact that it had been designed and handmade by me. I try to keep sketches and notes for all of my designs so that I can replicate them or re-use certain elements. Plus, it is a nice record of how my work has developed over the last 8 years.

In this photo was taken with the watch lying on a mirror. He deliberately left space around the image. The brief was to come up with a layout which could be printed in a magazine, and so space needed to be left so that text could be inserted.

I think that they are really good photos, but of course I am biased!

I now have an idea for a necklace rolling around in my head. More about that in the near future.