Hwyl (pronounced like oil with H at the start), was the second word I chose to make into a piece of jewellery, and the most definite shape of all to come into my head. When I hear 'Hwyl' (meaning 'bye', 'fun' or 'mood'), I instantly see a sharp, bright shape going to a point, it makes me want to sweep my hand from right to left. This will be the simplest to translate into jewellery for me, because of its clarity. Instantly I knew it needed to be a pin or brooch, because I don't want anything visible around the shape itself. I initially thought of it 18ct gold, because it is such a shiny word. Budegetry issues will need to be consulted!
I am currently debating the fastening mechanism having tried a new fastening on a test piece below. I usually use stainless steel for pins, but wanted to see what happened using burnished sterling. Whilst the pin is certainly strong enough, I don't like the lack of spring, so will probably go back to one of my tried and trusted methods. The text piece was made by hammering 2mm sterling wire to give it a slight curve and to flatten it. I've set a 2.5mm orange sapphire to the point of this. The final design will use a 2mm white diamond as I wanted it to emphasise the point of it.
Whilst initially I immediately thought of making the piece in gold, I considered a silver version with a corona of gold wire around the diamond. Whilst I like the look of it, and think it would be pleasing, I feel it takes away from the initial, super-clear image I got from the word, so will stick to that!
Eagle-eyed folks may note that the test piece is in reverse to my notes. I get left/right confused quite a lot, and which way to turn things for on/off or open/closed. When I was small I wrote/drew with both hands. I ended up being left-handed. Apparently this is all very common in autistic folks. Kids with ASD have a tendency to take longer to settle on hand-dominance, and there is a higher incidence of left-handedness in austic people. Something to do with poor brain lateralisation (go, go Google it). Point being, I was concentrating on the shape, and not the 'sidedness' and slipped up. You can bet the final piece will be in the correct direction!
What shape do you see 'Hwyl' as? You can reach me at lydia@niziblian.com as ever. Thanks for reading, Lydia.