Punched out disks with melted beads

Figure 1- Nkabinde, M,. (2018). Silver with glass beads disks.

These are silver punched disks with melted glass beads. Inspired by Hombisa's milky way technique. I wanted to add colour in my jewellery then I thought of how I could use the concept of the milky way technique in my own style, that is when I discovered the beads melting technique. I used a very thin plate, with patterns punched out using a pattern template I drew in rhino. Then the hard part comes where I have to place each bead in the punched out holes, making sure they are in the right place before I heat it up. It takes some time before the beads melt completely and they show a nice colour transformation when the metal is hot and when it has cooled down.

The reason why I had done this experiment because I wanted to find another way of adding colour in my work other than stringing beads on. I really liked the outcome these disks and I didn't want to make any jewellery piece out of it because I wouldn't be able to hold it up against the light to see the beautiful effect it has with the different colour coordination.