ferns brian adam eyewear, eyeglasses and other jewellery cad

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eyewear/glasses

I'm a jeweller who happens to make spectacles. Turns out they are one of the most interesting areas of body adornment, the most humorous, and probably one of the most exacting ...
bespoke eyeglasses



Leather job


Here's a vintage frame that needed the leather sides replaced. It's a fairly simple 48mm disc sunglass frame but there were these inserts that held the leather sides in place.
Silver tube rivets attach the leather to specially made sterling holders.



flashback to 1981

Here's a historical survey of my earliest eyewear pieces. They go wa-a-y back to 1981 ...
no 1
'Paua Sunglasses' frame no 1

coconut roughs
'Coconut Roughs' frame no 178

ferns
'Ferns' frame no 281


Frame no 422 April 2008

eyeglasses
Custom frames
Commissioned by a local Auckland er, guitarist.

frame no 420

eyeglasses
'Looking Glasses'
Number two silver eyeglasses for the customer who has no 418.
[endorsement ...]

frame no 419

419
Custom frame, 9k gold
Fabricated from 9k gold eyeglass frames to your specifications. The design will conform to your stated specifications ...

418

eyeglasses
'Looking Glasses'
Sterling silver eyeglass frames, as discussed. Final design to conform to your stated specifications and follow advice from your optometrist with regard to frame PD ... [more ...]

415

eyeglasses
... The design will need to work in serious global corporate environments and on a mussel farm in the Sounds .....

414

eyeglasses
2.5mm mokume gane (layers of silver, shakudo, shibuichi) of at least 207mm x 47mm [material supplied by customer].

412 and 413


kinky series

411

aviators
aviator replica (methodology)


custom made spectacles, sunglasses and other eyewear from precious metal. standard silver alloy is sterling (925) silver, in gold 14 karat. the age-old malleable and workability qualities of gold and silver make it a useful spectacle material in that it allows for frame adjustments over the long term. the metal will withstand a greater amount of bending and other distortion than any other metal used in making spectacle frames ...

prescription eyeglasses made to your specifications
[more ...]
eyewear owner: James, Missouri, USA.
Buying on the internet is always a worry for me. With you, however, I was very comfortable for many reasons ... overall I think it went very well considering that we are half a world apart!
custom frame:
no 402 sterling silver

'Schubert'
sterling silver sunglasses or eyeglasses for prescription lenses. This actual frame (no 398) has an eyeshape of 32.5mm x 40mm ovals...
[ more]
Eyewear history tells us that utility and frivolity in eyeglasses has always existed together. I'm no exception. I make plain eyeglasses plus I've a fondness for depicting an enjoyment of myopia and its attendant foibles.
[ more]
endorsements
The spectacles that brian made for me are surprisingly comfortable, in spite of being quite solidly built. I think balance has a lot to do with that. I love the way they look on me ... It feels good to wear something that is beautiful and beautifully crafted. When i took the frames to my optometrist to have lenses put in, he commented over and over about how well the frames were made. I'm very happy with their quality and proud to wear a design that is unique and elegant...
[ more]
eyewear care
i recommend you treat your silver spectacles like you treat other finely crafted jewellery. perhaps think of your them as functioning works of custom-designed art rather than as another utilitarian personal appliance... [ more]
'Piano Nobile'
14 karat gold eyeglasses for prescription lenses. Frame no 400, oval eye shapes, 44mm x 37mm...
[ more]
'eye strainers'
hand made eyewear artworks, stainless steel auto parts...
[ more]
How important is the optical lens in all this_ The historian of optics might prove that frames are the servant of the glass lenses, an invention that some say occurred around 1280. They might say that without a lenses, the frame is pointless. I see things differently. I look at what came from china where they had another type of eyewear which had no optical qualities at all - with stone lenses. true vision blockers - sight restrictors for meditation. Worn to encourage introspection...
[ more]

new jewellery

NZ nephrite jade (pounamu)


Ring: 'Raining in Rarotonga', 20mm dia, New Zealand jade pure and sterling silver.



Cufflinks

#1 Turret shell - Maoricolpus roseus

Nice weight but not too much, a loose-ish fit on the cuffs. I specially like the little pointy shell on the inside, the way the chain tucks in well to allow easy threading through the buttonholes. VARIATION: standard swivel cufflink fitting (stg sil).
[more...]



pearlshell ring


Mother-of-pearl shell set in a pure silver bezel.


Beach pebble necklace


Multi-stone necklace, made from pebbles found at a beach in Southland, New Zealand. Threaded onto a cable of pure silver.


Beach rings -
jade:

jadering.jpg
5jaderings.jpg

natural and hand-cut beach pebbles :




jewellery

Princess rings

This is a series of rings that required a sense of touch more than sight to make.
[more]
Friendship rings


Pillow rings

(methodology)


The 'Sputnik' earring design features the concave inside of New Zealand paua shell (haliotis iris). Plus...
[ more]
'Paper Tiger' earrings are anodised niobium discs that have been textured by roller-printing paper onto the metal...
[ more]
Tree Trunk Rings are my unique wood-fired silver rings. I melt up the metal and pour molten silver into a prepared hole in a tree trunk. don't try this at home...

[ more]
Ear Moana earrings are textured silver, copper and brass cut into a variety of different ovals and discs, the textures are cotton sheets and towels, paper towel, metal mesh and nylon cord. Ear Moana are spontaneously arranged in unmatched pairs... [ more]

Flying Saucers are New Zealand jade disc pendants. Sterling silver lines the centre hole...

[ more]

tuition/workshops

Bush Jewellery studio is a small private teaching workshop set in the Titirangi bush. It is reasonably equipped for a variety of standard and alternative processes that are practical, simple, lateral, and effective. You'll get to learn ancient low-tech jewellery techniques plus some modern soft-tech tricks.



Custom Tuition

Custom tuition allows you to make the things that interest you, to learn the processes that will be useful to you, at a timetable that suits your pace.


Wedding Ring Experience

A young couple who plan to wed came here to make their own wedding bands. We started with pure gold granules. They each made one-piece rings from jewellers wax, weighed and alloyed 22k, melted cast the gold into a Delft sand mold. They then worked on their gold rings, getting them just the way they wanted them!


'Thank you very much for the great experience that you shared with us. You are an artist in every way.'


RECENT WORKSHOP

Saturday Jewellery
April 2010

a group wkshop of 6 keen people.



RECENT WORKSHOP

Hen Party Pendant
Sat 6th Feb 2010

Several young women arrived here and made a silver pendant for the bride-to-be.



RECENT WORKSHOP

Methven Summer School
Wed Jan 13 - Fri Jan 15 2010

3-day wkshop
'Make unique jewellery from rings to necklaces. Simple ways to make shapes will be demonstrated. You will be encouraged to experiment with your ideas and enjoy the surprises. You'll have the opportunity to make up to three items with the materials provided.'


RECENT WORKSHOP

Hokitika Weekend Jewellery

January 16/17 Sat/Sun

Jewellery for Boys (ring, mini-knife, shield) and Jewellery for Girls (ring, pendant, etc)...

Ring-making mini-workshops. If you're shacked up with someone special, come along both of you and work on similar (or different) ring designs.

Lo-tech Silver Casting. Sand casting in pewter or bronze or silver.


Mr Gwaliasi



RECENT WORKSHOPS

Boys jewellery




Dangerous jewellery for boys ... in fact they also made pea-shooters, slingshots, a wooden box with a sloping entrance (huh?) ...
They just wanted to use the tools in the workshop, and I encouraged them.



RECENT WORKSHOP

Autumn Intensive Corban Estate Arts Centre
Jewellery from rings to necklaces. Simple ways to make shapes and low-tech casting methods will be demonstrated. We also cover advanced and creative soldering, ring making, and interesting textures and finishes.
Weekend 16/17 May 09



Turning Points, Aug 08

Ring-making was a feature of day 2
Turning Point Trust in Tauranga is a mental health recovery centre offering a range of positive activities and vocational services for people living with mental illness. I was very pleased to be asked to help set up a working jewellery facility in their existing creative areas.
[... more]



ERUPT Lake Taupo Festival
May 2008

a family and their doctor were some of the 50-plus people who made jewellery at the Taupo Museum.
Brian brought jewellery to the people with short sharp 'Street Jewellery' workshops at ERUPT. The emphasis was on spontaneity and people made a silver ring in an hour. All ages.


some recent scholars

Isabella's ring (age 10)



Carolina's earrings (age 11)



Felicity's ring



Wild Creations - Children's Jewellery Workshop

... tricks with thin copper sheet like hammering textures, punching designs, folding it up, cutting it [... more]


Weekend Jewellery Workshop

Sat/Sun July 7/8 2007
Thanks to all of you who came on this energetic class! [... more piccies]


18th April 2007
ceac
Silver ring and a pendant in a day ...


15-19 January 2007
ceac
Recent photos:
Corbans 2007 Summer School


ruth
Wanaka Autumn Art School April '06


1 HOUR SILVER RING!
Street Jewellery sessions
last held: Sat April 29 2006

Gallery 33, Wanaka

Ring-making Jewellery Workshop
ages 8 to 108!


Recent photos:
Lost Wax Casting

Whakatane Jan'06
modelling wax and things

Recent photos:
STREET JEWELLERY

Whakatane Jan'06
1hr rings

Corbans Arts Centre
'the Ring' 12 Nov'05
Silver ring and a pendant in a day ...
[... more]
soft technology

'soft-tech' in this context is about hand making processes that are small scale, relatively inexpensive, and localized.
More kids jewellery.
Make a silver ring in a day -
pictures from this 1-day workshop ...

[ Spring: Sept 05 ...]



[ Winter: July 05 ...]


Jewellery for kids 2005
Make a silver ring in a day
and some fold-formed earrings.
1-day workshops for ages 9 - 16

[ Summer: Jan 05 ...]


Corbans Arts Centre
”... jewellery-making workshop at Bush studio ...”

[... more]
Christchurch ArtsCentre
”A fun and informative silver jewellery-making workshop...”
[... more]
'Bush Jewellery' classes The studio workshop is equipped for a variety of alternative and standard processes. You'll get practical tuition and learn to use tools in simple, effective and lateral-thinking ways ...
[... more]
'Jewellery for Schools' Seemingly, high school students love the idea of making a silver ring in class and will often co-operate and work hard as a group to do so. The classes will also be fascinating for many as it manages to demystify the jewellery process which is often presented and perceived as being complicated, expensive and quite inaccessible ...
elim
Elim Christian School, Auckland
[... more]

Royal Jewellery Gallery ... Nov 2003
[ more ... ]
I teach here in New Zealand ... according to demand, and I have in the past regularly travelled overseas in June, July or August to take part in teaching programs at universities and jewellery/metals guilds in Australia, USA, or Canada.
[ more]
'Street Jewellery' A lot of people want to have a go at making jewellery, but they don't manage to get along to the classes. Well this is a session where in 1 hour! you can make a silver ring...
[ more]
'Bush Jewellery'
As a teacher i believe in practical simplicity, lateral thinking, creative tool use, and learning with fun. I will aim to deliver lessons at your level so that i can add to your current understanding and skills and you more successfully move up levels. I teach intensive workshops (generally on a subject), private tuition series on a custom timetable, jewellery undergraduates on workshop experience, and a nightclass. For the custom series we can plan a timetable based on what will suit your needs...Contact me and ask when the workshops are planned, or talk about a private tuition series to suit you...

[ more]

info

We're in a rainy foresty area of west Auckland, New Zealand. I work here alongside Ruth Baird in a studio workshop we built ourselves behind our house... The jewellery studio is in a beautiful part of Titirangi 20 minutes from Auckland city, and surrounded by kowhai, kanuka bush, mamaku tree ferns, cabbage trees, and mixed border Waitakere City reserve land. Hence 'Bush Jewellery' workshops...

Time now in Auckland:

brian
Brian ...
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one view from the studio [more...]

Bush Jewellery Studio on LinkedIn


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Benchtalk with Brian Adam, interview by Jay Whaley.
Whaley Studios interview Archives.


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curriculum vitæ/resumé
collections/publications:
1998: '100 New Zealand Craft
Artists', Helen Schamroth.
1996: 'Spectacles', Samuele Mazza.
1995: Auckland Museum, New Zealand
1994: I. Isad-Pana, The Optician, USA
1989-93: G. Gherardi, l.a. eyeworks, USA
1984: D. O'Neill, Auckland, New Zealand
1982: Dowse Art Museum, New Zealand
[ more ...]
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a history
Records of my earliest eyewear date
back to a jewellery exhibition when
i first thought of applying my
then-young jewellery ideas to
making interesting spectacles. I
found a vintage brass spectacle
frame and messed around with it ...
digials
'Digitalis', frame no 55, 1983 [ more ...]
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endorsement
As a student of Brian Adam's
workshop, I am pleased to endorse
Brian Adam and his spectacle maklng
course. Brian brings jewellery
expertise, experience. knowledge,
and enthusiasm to his students.
Brian's method of teaching is
effective and equally constructive
the novice, amateur or
professional, regardless of
previous training. The mechanics of
eyewear is explained and
demonstrated using basic jewellery
tools and practises. The age old
problem of securing lenses to a
frame is solved in his classroom
studio.

Anyone interested in the creative
challenge of using eyewear for
their own personal expression will
benefit from Brian's instruction.
Mel Rapp B-Sc. Optician ...
[ more] -

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endorsement
Brian, the glasses have been a
great success - they have proved to
be a sort of litmus test - the
cogniscenti respond with
enthusiasm, the grey suits look
troubled - couldn't ask for more!
Custom frame no 365 sterling
silver, Nov 1997...
[ more]
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endorsement from Wales
I've been wearing 'sputniks' for a couple of years now, absolutely love them ! Any other earings seem to stay in the box ...
[ more]
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Middle earth: it's so New Zealand.

Travel down new zealand's skinny
antipodean islands and it is the
way the farm hills undulate along
the long backdrop of sky that is so
striking. that crisp line between
green and blue helps visitors and
kiwis alike slough off memories of
grimier climes... [ more ]
[ lotr ... ]
[ NZ info]
[ NZ map]
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links

Deb Stoner Abrasha ... Alternatives, Rome ... Alternet: Alan Pittman, Eugene Weekly. in 'America's new war' the first U.S. casualty may be the first amendment... Andrew Goss ... Artmetal ... Dazzle ... emanuela aureli: I make jewelry to recollect the physical, to claim the body as self-reference. I like bare surfaces, simple lines that give space shape, bold touches of color that outline the simplest detail. objects to touch, feel, hold, to wear on the body as intimate play objects. ... Fingers Contemporary Jewellery is a co-operative retail outlet for New Zealand contemporary jewellery [est. 1974] ... Metalwerx is a unique gallery and studio founded by Karen Christians ... New Zealand Skeptics ... Nga Taonga a Hine-te-iwa-iwa. a treasury of New Zealand Craft resources ... the Orchid's jewelry creations gallery ... Peter Rowe ... Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts, San Francisco ... Ruth Baird - jeweller ... Tips from the jeweler's bench a collection of articles, publications, tips and data relating to various aspects of the gem and jewelry businesses ... [ more ... ]


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