Before the Christmas holidays, I designed a jewellery range based on those unforgotten memories of the much loved playground games we all played when we were children.
Of course, the idea didn't come to me straight away. The concept of designing something based on distant or treasurable memories has been done before, plenty of times! But for a piece of jewellery to symbolise a physical game, I thought I was onto something and I believe I still am.
After researching, designing, experimenting and producing mock ups for many many many weeks, my idea's unfolded and the playground games became wearable objects as well as pieces to play and fidget with when you were bored!
There was a huge variety of games to pick from so I chose my favourite games to make. These include:
- Hide and Seek
- Line Tig (played only on the lines of a netball court)
- Polo
- Tig
- Piggy in the middle (pictured below)
'Piggy in the Middle' ring
My 'Piggy in the Middle' ring may look simple but is very enjoyable to play with and can be quite addictive I found. Your finger being the 'Piggy', is unable to catch the 'ball', being the bead on the arch of wire.
It was obvious to me, the 'Tig' bangle with the additional 'Butcher' bead was my favourite design. This piece immediately stood out to me and to top it all off, my fellow classmates understood the concept of the overall design!
And here it is, my final bangle which I have named 'Can't tig your Butcher'
The idea of the bangle is not only to represent a game but that of a child's toy. The colours, textures, finishes and sounds all represent the stimulations for the development of any child.
The small silver bead ‘It’ is unable to reach the ‘Players’ (base metal coloured beads each with a matt grainy finish; are all seen as the same targeted.). Using silver for this individual bead separates it from the rest; this is how the person who is ‘It’ is viewed in the real game.
The ‘Butcher’, noticeable for its size, polished finish and material, can go anywhere on the bangle. Being the previous person to be ‘It’, the ‘Butcher’ cannot be caught by the current ‘It’ and is therefore safe until the next ‘Player’ is caught.
I wanted all my piece to bring back those fond childhood memories and to also reflect that of a child's toy but also remain as an elegant piece of jewellery. The bangle as seen above, could be seen as a child's bunch of plastic keys, my piggy in the middle designs inspired by a rattle and the game of line tig, very much reminds me of one of these snazzy toys...
However, I have managed to maintain elegance throughout my designs, especially with my bangle. The wearable jewellery
consisting of precious metals represents the growth in prosperity during
adulthood, whilst the overall appearance reflects that of a child’s toy as well as the chosen playground game.
