{"id":16137,"date":"2019-03-10T03:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T10:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/?p=16137"},"modified":"2019-03-16T19:03:42","modified_gmt":"2019-03-17T02:03:42","slug":"hole-y-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/hole-y-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Hole-y Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Here is a relatively odd question but give me a moment and I will explain\u2026 Do you think of a hole as an empty space or an object unto itself? Or do you just find the idea of a hole being a thing of its own strange? I mean, it\u2019s empty space, isn\u2019t it? Well, it is empty space but when it comes to design a hole can be a focal point, added as accents or used to create patterns, so it is a thing of its own \u2013 it\u2019s a design element.<\/p>\n

I myself love having holes in things. Holes can lighten up the visual as well as the physical weight of a piece. They also leave space for seeing through to what is behind it which can be symbolic or help integrate the piece into its surroundings. This can be especially useful when it comes to jewelry as you can see the skin, hair, or clothing of the wearer through those holes and so the wearer becomes more inclusively part of the design and what the viewer is observing.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at some examples of how holes are used as integral parts of design in jewelry.<\/p>\n

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Hole-y Jewelry<\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, holes will always be, on some level, a focal point. It will draw our eye almost immediately, both because we note the missing material and also because we have an inclination to peek through wherever a hole has been made. Holes are a narrowed point of empty space and we can\u2019t help but look through to whatever it might be framing.<\/p>\n

Here, Eva Haskova uses rolled up strips of clay to create holes that become strong focal points in the pendant and brooch shown at the start of this post. They are balanced by the tall, dimensional elements breaking out of the frame of the background which calls attention to them, and yet the eye continues to go back to the holes, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Eva seems quite enamored of holes and negative space in her work. Just take a look at her Flickr photostream<\/a> or her Facebook page<\/a> to find more examples and inspiration of how she uses holes.<\/p>\n

Even though our eyes will tend to focus on holes, they can be balanced out fairly equally. This necklace by Cecilia Button<\/a> is a great example. She uses a lot of pattern and movement throughout the necklace to create a balance between her various design elements so that the holes don\u2019t overly dominate.<\/p>\n

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Holes can also be functional while being integral to the design as seen here in Janet Pitcher\u2019s lariat style \u201cPetal Pusher\u201d necklace. This is also an example of how holes can be constructed \u2013 by an arrangement of canes slices here \u2013 not just punched through the clay. Janet has been making these for years in a myriad of colors and arrangements. You can see more of them on her website<\/a> and her Facebook page here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Holes are also excellent for creating texture and pattern. When the holes are many and placed close together they visually mesh as they do in this pendant by \u0415nkhtsetseg Tserenbadam, who first created the pendant based on instructions in Helen Breil’s book, Shapes: 25 Inspirational Jewellery Designs in Polymer Clay<\/a>. Her random pattern of holes become a texture surrounding an elongated hole formed by the folded clay. So, it is holes around a hole, making for a particularly open and airy pendant.<\/p>\n

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Here is an example of using holes for nearly all of the above purposes. One hole is a focal point, another is the functional connection point for the cording while the many others \u2013 some complete holes and some not quite all the way through but acting the same visually \u2013 are placed over the pendant as accents but ones that create a pattern that adds energy through their rhythmic placement. The accent type holes are also end points for the strong energy of the lines radiating from the center, giving that energy anchor points to contain it. The artist, Sandra Plav\u0161i\u0107<\/a>\u00a0, also includes layers of color that show themselves in the sides of the holes, taking full advantage of this type of revealing element.<\/p>\n

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Punching Your Own Holes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are you feeling the itch to put some of your own holes into clay? It wouldn\u2019t be hard to get started on a little hole-centric project today. You really could just roll out some clay and pull out some round cutters and start playing.<\/p>\n