Why the nonchalant face…?
Ever wondered why the RockCakes family have a somewhat blank expression? Well it all started with a little punch in the mouth….
I like to make work that people can connect to – including me – I love having a little buddy on my hand, a placebo mate that travels with me through the day. Adding a precious face gives character to an otherwise inanimate object – this in turn adds another layer of value to the jewellery and removes the throwaway disregard that is all too common in our culture.
The first ever RockCakes face was a super simple circle the 2D pieces needed a little mouth and it took a little bit of trial and error to get it right. I didn’t want anything too sweet, grumpy things can be cute too!
So to the alphabetical punches, they are a common tool in a jewellery workshop and a great way of adding lettering and symbols to jewellery. I love the physical and direct effect these give so we played about with them to find the perfect mouth… We tried the U – it was way too happy, then we tried the close bracket ) too wide and a little too smug, then the I and we had a winner, not too happy, not too sad. It goes to prove how a little bit of restricted play lead to this simple decision and now this face runs through much of my work.
There’s something super cute about the lack of expression that a blank line bought to the pieces, it was instant love for me! There is a natural element of realness that runs through my work, things are cute but necessarily happy cute. I think that this also gives the wearer scope to project emotion onto their little buddy themselves – nobody is happy all the time right?!
The face has progressed to the Slug, Cloud, Moon and more. The Slug is one of my most popular designs so Sluggy now features as an affordable enamel pin so having a nonchalant friend more accessible to all. (The slug is a personal favourite – obvs!)
And so it was that simple, the boundaries of the alphabet meant that the RockCakes face was born and has stuck ever since.
15/09/2022
Posted in: Jewellery Edit