Our next project is exploring colour and tone in design, I just had to share with you my favourite paint set (that I brought in a flea market for the equivelent of R50) Its an old set, never used. I found the company who made the kit to be over 25 years old, I was told that this set was brought for a present and never got used. Its all bashed in and dented, but I love it. Its got the most fantasic range of colours, including a set of beautiful metalics....

Lets hope that I can find as much colour....

Shape, Form & SpaceView more presentations from NaomiSmart.

Lines in design.

Was I "Infected in the city?".... Unfortunately not!

Infecting the City: Was I infected?
Unfortunately Not!

Unfortunatly I must start on a negative note for my experience when visiting the "Infecting the city" Festival. I think this may be that we only managed to be there for a small time and what we saw didn't really excite me!


I applaud the people who organised the festival, and there mission, to be able to bring Art to everyone, people who wouldn't normally visit a gallery, but for me this didn't shown in this years festival. 


I truly believe that the festival could have been better, We saw piles of rubbish, bricks, bottles, Shacks (the shack was meant to have a 360 video of Khayelitsha with upbeat music, but this wasn't running when we visited) but because of the way it had been laid out, it truly felt like just "rubbish". I would have liked it more if the rubbish could have been made into sculptures, or something more visual than what we saw.


The Infecting the city festival is held by the Africa Center, which when founded in 2005 (a non profit organisation) they began a platform to which they could share a cultural voice for Africa, for Africans. Most African art, underappreciated is exhibited abroad, but the infecting the city festival brings African Art home. 


In the words of the Infecting the City Website:
Its objectives are to: celebrate both the visual and performance heritages of Africa; formulate innovative models for presenting, debating and encouraging the production of art; provide broad access to the creative work and ideas of historical and contemporary African artists; and re-examine the role, identity, transience and creation of art.


Click here to visit the Infecting the City Website:


One of the artists who we met on the day, and briefly spoke to was Heath Nash, A South African born artist, who studied at UCT. Heath Nash is very involved with the Infecting the City festival, he is known well for using recycled materials in his work, especially when making lamps. 


He believes that there are no mistakes in Art, that things happen as a way to understand things better. 


Below are some examples of his work. 

Heath Nash, with some examples of his work

Heath Nash, Circles of plastic, cut and arranged into room divider

Heath Nash, one of my favorite examples of his works. Internationally known for his lamps made of recycled plastic, this has to be one of the most beautiful. 

Click here to read a very interesting interview with Heath Nash. (Well worth a read)

The "art"  this year was too plain, like breeze blocks filled with glass bottles, and tree's filled with rubbish, it didn't really inspire me.


If I was invited to exhibit at the festival, I think I would have done a sculpture or even laying out items into relevant shapes to make a piece more obvious to the general audience. Nash has this idea in his head when creating his beautiful lamps, Only when viewed from a small distance did you realise they're made from recycled plastic. Clever, simple, and to the point. People can relate more to familular objects of everyday life. In the festival display, bags of rubbish were placed in tree's, and under netts on the ground (maybe to grab the attention of people as a startling realisation as to how much rubbish the average person can make) but it didn't captivate the audience this year, and unfortunately I wasn't the only one. I think people struggled to grasp the meaning of the works this year, but looking at previous festivals, they hit the nail on the head. 


 If this years festival included more works like this, sending a more powerful message about recycling, and art as a whole, I think I would have liked the experience more, but I look forward to see what they do next year...

After I had finished, I came across (by Chance) an jewellery artist called Yoav Kotik, who specialises in making jewellery from rubbish and recycable material, this collection is made with bottle tops from beers...

Visit this page to read a little more about him - Click Here

Bottle Cap Earrings

Bottle Cap Brooches



Bottle Cap Bracelet



As a Designer, why is it important to be aware of the gestalt principles?

Gestalt principles are important in any and all area's of design because of the factor in which binds us all together, the tendencies that we ALL do subconsciously one way or another. We see more than meets the eye (actually the other way round) though not correct at times, we almost experience a kind of illusion, although these are "errors!" it gives a fascinating insight into how our eyes communicate with our brain. Whether we are young or old, our minds always try to make sense and order out of something to better understand it. Its also a way in which each individual looks upon something and interprets it. Being aware of the gestalt principles allows us to be able to design in a way in which people will understand and almost have a sense of comprehension, even on basic level by looking at shapes, colour, tone. Everyone looks at something different, but the same process occurs.


Something that has no flow will not be interpreted by the mind as easily as something that has a sense of continuity, movement from one aspect of a design to the other. Gestalt also plays a huge part in the practicality of a design, If something is to be used, it must be designed urgonormically (designed to work with or around the human body) Without these basic Gestalt design principles, to narrow our focus in design we would be lost. This is now all the more apparent now that we are learning to become Jewellery Designers.....

I can't WAIT!!!

Click here for a really interesting read on Gestalt Theory and Illusions!

Our Visit to the Michael Stevenson Art Gallery

Yesterday, we visited the Michael Stevenson Gallery in Cape town to see the installations and artworks by two South Africa Artists Daniel Naude and Wim Botha.

Both artists works were fascinating and beautiful! They were so simple in idea, but made you think about the deeper meaning of each piece, and how much time it took to produce them. I truly enjoyed looking at the works, they were very interesting and meaning full. It was an honor to be able to be able to draw and sketch in the gallery surrounded by such stunning inspirational installations!

The photographs taken by Daniel Naude captivated the relationship between South African farmers and there animals. On his journey around Africa's farmlands he spoke to the people he met, and started to appreciate the bond between man and animal which I truly think he emphasises in his photos.

He photographs the animals in a way that makes them stand out from the background, making them the main feature of the photo makes you really look, not just glance.

In this image "Xhosa cattle on the shore" is a beautifully calm and tranquil photo. With the gentle mist in the background its easy on the eye, and the cattle looked relaxed.

In this image "David Tieties with his 3 day old donkey" for me evokes a wonderful sense of bond and love for his animal. The gentle shadows compliment the figure without making him fade into the background.

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The next artist who was displaying was Wim Botha. His exhibition consisted of multi-media sculpture using books, wood and polystyrene.

In this work "untitled" he uses books bolted together as a base, and then sculpts his work like clay! They are fascinating to look at, they give such an eerie feeling about them. They almost have a very dream like sense about them, a combination of the human form together with wings makes you think. Theres also this amazing sense of movement even though there still installations, maybe because of the lines through the books and the way the wings have been layered but it puzzles me, and it makes me like this piece even more!

My experience at the gallery was brilliant, and one I would love to experience again.

Gestalt Theory In Jewellery Design:

Gestalt (translated as Unifed Whole) is a theory in which a group German scientists believed that the mind has self organising tendencies, especially when it comes to visual stimuli, meaning our mind automatically fills in the gaps, or brings lines together into something we comprehend or can make sense out of. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied.

They are broken down into 6 principles:

• Symmetry
• Closure
• Figure & Ground
• Proximity
• Similarity
• Continuity

Each of these principles breaks down how the human mind comprehends items through looking at something. It seems almost to be something done in the subconscious as we as human beings look upon everything in the same way. We don't look at something in a pattern and describe it huge amounts of detail, we look upon an item and if something is grouped together we would try and give it shape (without even thinking about it)

Gestalt principes are the biggest tool in the designing world, they can be used for all aspects of design, be it jewellery, advertising, signage, etc. Each principle can be used in unison with each other to create a better layout!


You'll see in my examples that sometimes, an image/example can display more than one Gestalt theory. This can be overwhelming to try and figure out sometimes, but the more and more I look at items of inspiration, it now comes to me...how bigger part these elements are in design....Its brilliant!!!

Below is examples of the Gestalt principles in both general design and jewellery design, and how its been used and can still be used in design today.