Theresa Burger

For the week of the 9th till the 15th of July, jeweller Julie Connellan and myself set up a jewellery Pop Up Shop in the RHA gallery in Dublin. It was a great experience and opportunity to meet and mingle with customers as well as exposing the work to a new audience!

Would like to thank everyone who came out and supported us, its most apreciated!

3D printed earrings

RHA window

Julie's black rubber earrimgs

3D printed work

Resin, wood and leather pieces

Shop

Shop outside

Wood and resin pieces

Julie's silver brooches

Photos from the Futuremakers shoot in April 2011 – Dress by Shelly Voom and photography by Paul Sherwood!

Futuremakers 2011

Futuremakers 2011

Futuremakers 2011

Futuremakers 2011

In November my MA work took a turn and moved towards using CAD CAM technology. All super exciting stuff, an area of the industry I know very little of but am learning. Just thought I’d add some images of a few blanks for rings that have just been cut from a CNC machine. They are very basic geometric shapes, some of which I have used and modelled on Rhino into more complex wire structures. Which will soon be wax printed and cast – more images to follow shortly…

Gonna be at the NCAD Xmas market tomorrow – market will be in The Complex, Smithfield from 10:30 – 6:30! If anyone is around in Dublin, please come support your local art students and pick up some handmade Christmas gifts!

Here are a couple of my favourite photos of the stock that will be up, if you wanna view more check my Flickr!

Wooden & Silver Rings

Resin and Silver necklaces

Resin ring

Wood rings

Resin Earrings

Last night, November 3rd was the launch of the Design Tree exhibition, part of Dublin’s Design Week. The show has been organised by the Irish Design Shop, displaying a super array of local Irish craft and furniture design. The exhibition runs till Sunday the 7th at Moxie Studios in Dublin! Please if anyone is in the area, pop in to have a lookie!

The launch was a success with tons of people in last night to support!!! I am honoured to be in the group exhibiting, last night was my 1st time taking part in something like this. I loved it and here is hoping it the first of many! A big thanks goes to Laura and Clare from the Irish Design Shop and to all those who came out to share the launch! Here just a few photos from the night…

Also click and check out Brian Masterson’s amazing pics from the opening night!!!

Blackened silver and onyx earrings

Resin and silver ring

Seed pearl and silver neckpiece

Design Tree

Design Tree

My work displayed

Family and friends!

Design Tree cupcakes!

Me!

Design Week Dublin

Design week 2010 Dublin starts the 1st – the 7th November. The Irish Design Shop has set up an exhibition of local established and up and coming designers, called Design Tree! Check out their site for more info on who is partaking and some sneak peaks of the works that will be on show! 30 designer makers will be on show, including me!

Design Tree 3rd - 7th Nov

The opening will be held at Moxie Studios, off Boggot street on the 3rd Nov from 6pm – 9pm…pop in to view some awesome talents, the show will run till the 7th!

Design Tree

My work has been featured in the Sept/Oct 2010 Token online Art magazine!

Token Sept/Oct 2010

Popped down to Kilkenny this morning to go have a look at the Mah Rana exhibition. (I have adored her work ever since my degree thesis.) Was great, really delighted to see her work plus her ongoing work on ‘Meanings & Attachments’.

Out of the Dark

I apologise for the poor quality photos as I only had my phone with me. Her work will run until October 20th.

Before the Mirror

Pink Pearl Cameo

Meanings and Attachments

Meanings and Attachments

Meanings and Attachments

Culture Night Dublin

” This is the fifth year of Culture Night and 2010 sees the event expanding to 20 towns, cities, counties and islands across Ireland reaching as far as the islands of Tory and Inis Meáin marking the first time the Gaeltacht regions will host a Culture Night. ”

The Irish Design Store is gearing up for Culture Night on the 24th September, with plenty of locally sourced design items it is well worth a visit! All forms of culture can be explored, from museums, galleries, studios and shops, all free and open till 11pm.  Click for more info and maps of the city.

Irish design Store

My work is on display at the Irish Design Store, along with many other talented designers and crafts people. Anyone that is in the area on the 24th please pop in to get a taste of all the fantastic handmade wares!!

Yesterday was a pretty cool day, got featured on 2 blogs…The first was Kim Gray’s blog – A super local blog featuring great finds from her life as a decor and lifestyle stylist! Along with fashion trends, new designers and just general inspiring stuff!

Africa Rich on Kim Gray

The 2nd is a London based blogger – Fah-Schyonysta – she features African fashion designers!

Africa Rich on Fah-Schyon

I planned a photo day with 2 of my closest friends and asked one of them to model my work for me…this was going to be  a very interesting process as none of us has any experience. All complete amateurs but we found a fantastic location outside of Gordons Bay. A valley full of local fynbos and gorgeous mountains in the distance – was just what I wanted!

The wind howled later in the day but we pulled through and got some super shots!!

Elsa and Kate

Kate

Elsa and Kate

Final pieces coming together, just got a couple of bangles to finish sanding and then its all done!

These oval wooden earrings were featured on Craftzine Blog this week, yay! Click to see…

Camphor wood and resin earrings

Wool and Oak necklace with silver chain

Wool and wood with silver chain

African Black wood and glass beads

Curly maple and glass beads

detail

I have less than 4 weeks left till I set sail (set flight in my case) across to Dublin. In the last 5 months I kept myself busy by manufacturing a collection of jewellery I named ‘Africa Rich’. With my time drawing to an end here in Cape Town, I am having to wrap up production and pack up my workshop for it to be shipped over to my new residence – exciting times…

These were the last of my resin and wood work, I have a handful of other pieces that need to be finished but otherwise I am almost done. I wish I could have done more but my resin supplies have been low so I will have to wait till I’m all set up on the other side :) I will be doing a pretty ‘photo shoot’ of my new work soon and the images will be up before I leave!

Resin and Oak Earrings

White resin rings with brass wire

Resin Rings

Some web features for my Night city scape rings, thank you!

Victoria Pater design blog.

Here is a link to Victoria’s Blog

svpply.com

Svpply.com – awesome site, one can stumble across from super finds there!

Craftzine Blog

Craftzine blog for all things crafty!

Some designs I have been working on, along with different options between silver, resin and wood. Am planning on doing more, hopefully. I am starting to realise that I don’t have enough hands to be doing all the designs I really would like too. I will try anyway ;) I am heading towards a busy time, I have 2 months left in South Africa and only a month left till I pack up my workshop. Time to prioritise!

City night scape # 1

I am delighted with receiving my first feature in an international magazine - The Jewelry : A beautiful publication that covers everything from watches, jewellery, artists and trends. Its a magazine based in Korea and for their June issue they did a feature on South Africa 2010 and included my work!

I must admit I am feeling rather honoured to be representing South Africa creatively in the jewellery department, along with Jenna Clifford, De Beers Shining Light awards and PlatAfrica were also featured.

The Jewelry Cover June 2010

Special Report: Theresa Burger

I have just finished the earrings I have been busy with these last few days. My new power tools are coming in super handy and am having fun with my new designs, more to follow, hopefully some new rings will be in store!

Africa Rich - Oak & Resin Earrings

Africa Rich - Oak & Resin Earrings

Africa Rich - Oak & Resin Earring

Africa Rich - Animal bone earrings

Africa Rich - Oak and bone

I have been wanting to create a range of jewellery that leans more to commercial, that is simple, fun and quirky! Over the last month or so, I have been scribbling and doodling some designs down and finally got to start some manufacture over the last 2 weeks. With a possible move to another continent on the cards for me, my inspiration for this range is simple – AFRICA!

Blackened Silver Earrings

I think it’s essential the collection keeps things uncomplicated and practical and still able to function as strikingly bold objects. I hope to have a lot of fun with this project, exploring new materials and the variations in aesthetic they each bring.

Some of these new materials include various different types of wood as well as old animal teeth and bone. Expect to see more ‘Africa Rich’ soon…

Teak wood & silver necklace

Warthog tooth & silver necklace

Updated and I have added some more photos of the collection, with this two neck pieces, I have incorporated wood with silver. Also adding white glass beads for a great contrast.

Teak wood pendant

Teak wood, silver & glass bead neckpiece

Detail:Teak wood, silver & glass bead neck piece

Thorny wood and silver earrings

Silver, 18ct gold & Animal bone Ring

Silver, 18ct gold & Animal bone Ring Detail

Africa Rich - Teak, silver, 9ct rose gold & ivory

Africa Rich - Teak, silver & 9ct rose gold

Africa Rich - Teak & Resin earring

Africa Rich - Pepper wood, resin & brass wire

A look at my design process over the last 3 years … Includes scans of design sketches and images. Click to view larger image.

My degree work for CPUT, BTech 2009.

A couple newish pieces I managed to take quick photos of…

Silver Resin and gold leaf ring.

Silver Resin and gold leaf ring.

Quartz pierced out silver earrings

Cultured Pearl Brooch

Finally its begun and my 1st piece is some what done… for now, I am deciding on possible changes but for now it remains like this. What it is is a pendant, the frame hollow constructed out of sterling silver and then set clear resin inside holding gold leaf.

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While doing research for my Btech, I have stumbled upon more amazingly cool jewellers and wanted to share some of my finds…

Here we go …

Cristian Dorigatti

Cristian Dorigatti

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When starting to design my collection to accompany my BTech research report, it seemed the only logical step was to do it on my family. Basically at the end of every year we put together an exhibition of our years work and display our manufactured pieces, generally students work to theme … i guess it makes things easier, some students even base their Btech on the pieces they made. It paints   picture if everything is coherent and connected…so I am designing my pieces around my family tree you could say.

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My final year of 4th begun this week, part of the course is to document all our process…designing and writing of our research report. My report centers around jewellery objects, specifically the ‘jewellery heirloom’

Are heirloom jewels important to us, if they are,what makes them so important…

Its this importance that sparked my interest in this subject, I decided that it would be a good start to my research report for my Btech. (more…)

Shocked that 2008 is almost over and the rush has begun as Christmas gets closer, working at a jewellers in a popular mall in Cape Town equals the definite Xmas madness that accompanies retail!

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Wanted to add a little background visually to my PlatAfrica ring manufacture, I only woke up a little too late into the manufacture to start taking photo’s.

The photographs are from the filing onto final polishing only. The final photographs can be found here.

Drawing - Watercolour

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