Summary
gold fish - lotus earring：I designed two sets of earring which will be given to my friends who love designing Han cloth. I think these sets of earring might be useful for her in someday when she wears Han cloth. The design of the earrings combines with paper cutting and laser cutting. The two elements that I use are gold fish and lotus which means fortune, happiness in China.
Gold fish - lotus pendant：Same for the design of the pendant, it symbolizes fortune, happiness as well. I designed this pendant because I am the person really superstitious.I carry the protective talisman which my grandmother gave me every year when I went back to China. Therefore, I am thinking about to design one for myself.
Inspiration
My work is inspired from Chinese traditional paper cutting which people use paper cuttings to wish hope. Paper cutting was appeared during the Northern Dynasty (386 A.D. - 581 A .D.) which has more than 1,500 years history. Before paper was being created, people did this hollow-out art in cloth, leather, gold foil and other materials.
In my memory, paper cutting was around me very often when I was young. For example when I went to my uncle’s home on the wedding ceremony day, red paper cuttings were decorated on the tea set, the dressing table glass, and on other furniture. And on their car or door, a big red paper character 'Xi' (happiness) is being sticked. Another example would be upon a senior’s birthday party, the character 'Shou' represents longevity will be decorated.
In addition, one of my friend loves to design Han Cloth. The cloth in the picture on the right side is designed by my friend. Even though I don't know how to design a cloth, I think I can some decorates somethings that fit for her cloth. Therefore, I think about doing the paper cutting earring in digital fabrication.
Research
Since I decide to use laser cutting device, I researched some similar stuffs that could be used into my idea. During research I found there are many wood handicrafts especially for jewelry. Baroque style wood craft would be really close to my design because they are hollow out and can be done with laser cutting.
Koi fish is really popular in recent year among the world and everyone think it is from Japan. However, in China, fish symbolize good luck as well and the ancestor of koi fish is from China. So I decide to use Chinese fish and it signifies good luck and good fortune.
In addition, fish should combine with lotus. Therefore, I choose to combine those two in my design.
This is the one designer draw the picture about gold fish swim in the pond and lotus floating around them.
Process
I designed all those three in the illustrator. My friend suggested me to use iPad to draw those three products first and then use illustrator will save time. However, I am not good at drawing. Sometimes, using computer to draw seems better for me.
Those three design are all contains two elements, which are gold fish and lotus. The differences between them are that the first one is gold fishes in the lotus. I used the lotus as the contour since polygon outline is really common for designing earrings. The second one is gold fishes swim under the lotus. The contour's idea is came from the gate of traditional Chinese courtyard. Many years ago, when you walk into to a courtyard, you can see a pond and there were a lot of gold fishes and some lotus above the water. So this is the story that behind this design.
Chinese courtyard. The third one is a gold fish hold a lotus jump out of the water. It seems like a gold fish give you a lotus which means bring you fortune.
After I designed the images for the products, I used the trace function in the illustrator. Actually, I don't know this function until I drew the outline by myself and I found this was silly to drew the outline. Then I checked online, the illustrator has this function.
The biggest problem for me to print my design is to choose a appropriate material. I first chose the wood one and planned to paint with color after. However, someone suggested me that it will look very cheap if I do that and suggested me to use the plastic material. The color of the plastic material is also what I want. After testing several times, I decided to use the plastic material.
In addition, I bought some silk strings and beads to decorate my products to make it more traditional in Chinese pattern.
Project
