Iron Jewelry · 2022
Butterfly Brooch
by Sayoko Kitai
- A' Design Award 2022 in Jewelry
- CLIENT: Sayoko Kitai
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 27,844
- Verification code C0B6309E16 · Verify this award
Colors
About Butterfly Brooch
This hand-crafted wearable art piece can be worn as an accessory or even displayed at home. Using a novel double-sided 3D embroidery technique, the same pattern was simultaneously stitched on both sides of the piece. Its thin, powdery, and shiny wings could be reproduced with single strands and wires, resulting in a lifelike 3D butterfly with form-changeable wings. The wings were attached firmly to pedestals so they will not easily come off. The genuine gold and platinum threads used are so hard that until now, they have never been used in Japan’s embroidery industry.
About the A' Design Award
Butterfly Brooch is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. Butterfly Brooch is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. Butterfly Brooch is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- This hand-crafted jewelry item is a wearable art that may be worn as an accessory or even displayed at home. Using the double-sided 3D embroidery technique with single strand, Sayoko could reproduce its thin and shiny wings, resulting in a lifelike 3D butterfly with form-changeable wings. The genuine gold and platinum threads used for this piece are produced and used in making traditional Japanese sashes, or Obi. They are so hard that until now, they have never been used in the embroidery industry.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Product
Width 80mm x Depth 70mm x Height 40mm, Weight: 7g. The piece comes in a box.
Package
Width 217mm x Depth 219mm x Height 40mm, Total Weight (product with box): 420g. - Tags
- embroidery, double-sided 3D embroidery, art jewelry, Japanese design, butterfly, brooch
- Production Technology
- Technique used: Double-Sided 3D Embroidery technique, which is the original technique of the artist. Materials: 24K gold thread, 99.9 percent platinum thread, melee diamonds, platinum collets and prongs, lame yarn, wires, and 18K gold brooch pin.
- Design Challenge
- First, controlling force was a key to produce this work. The platinum and gold threads used are so hard that they require more force to stitch than conventional ones. Yet, they are likely to break when too much force is applied. Second, stitching the patterns of wings symmetrically by hand was strenuous and required intensely focused and meticulous work. Lastly, intense efforts were made to invent a unique wiring technology to make them firmly attached to the outfit when going out.
- Research
- Fluttering butterfly wings captivate the eye; their shape and pattern are truly art in motion. Replicating the look and movement of their wings was essential to the success of this project. To do this, Sayoko analyzed a large number of butterflies on the Internet to ensure natural appearance of the work, including the forms, movement, and texture of the wings. After selecting suitable materials and experimenting with stitching methods, she created a new approach that resulted in a lifelike 3D appearance.
- Inspiration
- This piece was inspired by Morpho Rhetenor Helena Butterflies dancing in the air. Through her encounter with the threads for making Obi, Sayoko was motivated to create lifelike, fully 3D butterflies, using threads that have never been used in the embroidery industry before.
- Project Duration
- This project started in June 2021 and finished in December 2021 in Chiba, Japan.
- Operation Flow
- After placing it on your outfit or ring, by slightly pulling it toward its bottom, its body works as a stopper. Then change its form of wings as you like.
- Patents
- Rittai-Shishyuu Sayoko (1999) Sayoko Kitai
