My work focusses on the fascinating ways in which people construct the narrative of their life through memory, bias, and idealistic perspectives. I’m interested in how our lives and relationships to others are bound by fiction.
Following the embroidery piece I made that was based on a photo of my grandmother, I used another photo as the starting point for a similar piece.
She’s just sitting on the horse with no movement or action in the shot, but I liked the image of her with the animal so I added a bit of movement.
The image of a woman riding a horse with purpose and confidence more accurately represents how I remember my grandmother. The wild flowers represent the uncontrollable elements of nature and life.
A friend of mine asked that I make her a paper plane pendant after seeing the origami unicorn I had made. I’ll admit it took a bit more effort to make than I thought it would, but it turned out okay in the end.
Here are all the origami themed pendants I have made so far.
Two years ago, when I started making jewelry, I made a brass unicorn pendant meant to be a reference to the origami unicorn in Blade Runner. I wasn’t until later that I started working with silver.
I was then able to make it in the metal that more accurately resembles the metallic paper used in the movie.
While I was making the flat silver unicorn pendant, I considered that I could make it three-dimensional – like the origami crane. And so this silver unicorn was born.
The two origami themed pendants:
My grandmother, Susan (Susie) Prinsloo, finds her way into my art from time to time. Before my brother and I went to school, we would stay with her while my parents were at work – she basically lived next door. Let me add that our family has up until recently, never lived within the urban boundary of the town/city we lived in. Before we moved to the Western Cape, we lived and played in the hills of the Uitkyk Pass near Nelspruit, Mpumalanga.
I remember her teaching us how to knit and to make brooches using igneous rocks and safety pins. She also made the best rooibos kombucha tea. This time spent in nature, being creative and not being influenced by peers, undoubtedly influenced who I am today. It is not surprising that I often use imagery of Susan in or as reference in my art.
She passed away in 1993, but she lives on in the hearts of our family and in my art.
This is one of my favourite rings to wear. It’s modest and plain, but it invites closer inspection once it catches the light. It also makes for a great stacking ring. I made it with a silver ball that I picked up in studio.
The idea for this work came from the fact that I have no knowledge of who my neighbours are, apart from what I can infer from their early morning arguments. My ineptitude when it comes to speaking Korean, further amplifies this inability to fully understand by surroundings completely. I’m isolated in my apartment by my lack of knowledge. And even when I try to imagine who the people are that I share my walls with, I am limited by my own experience, imagination and understanding of life. My understanding of the world limits me. How we judge other people, or situations, speak more about us than it does about them. These limits extend to my own identity and relationships with other people, as these things are bound by my own perspective. We all are.
The viewer was encouraged to write down dialogue or clues as to what was happening in the scene. Some photos of the installation at the exhibition.
A friend of mine commissioned a ring based on the pinch ring. She requested however that the setting be square instead of round or oval, so this was my first attempt at making a setting with squared corners.
This is a simple little pendant I made a little while back. I really like how simple it is. I was going to have it hang symmetrically, having the ring either on the tip of the wing or the crane’s chest, but after testing it out with a friend in studio, we came to the conclusion that it would accentuate the geometry of the design if the pendant was hanging a little off centre.
The flower power ring (no shame for giving it that name) was a practice run for the silver flower crown I wanted to attempt. A friend of mine left her soul crushing job to pursue her passion for photography, and one of her client’s wore a silver crown that inspired me to make one myself – with flowers. Mine is a civic crown – coming together at the back and worn like this. This was my first attempt so I learned quite a bit – like the entire thing became a heat sink which made soldering frustrating at times. It’s obviously not perfect, but I really like how it turned out.
Back of the crown.
Side view.
Detail.
Suné Horn 
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