Divo tie pin

Figure 1

The client that I’m designing for its Somizi Mhlongo who is most known as South African television personality, radio personality, choreographer, actor, singer and celebrity chef. Mr Mhlongo also has Somahali foundation that helps some community during the lockdown.  As am exploring the beauty of nail art, my theme is suitable for women’s. As we required to make jewellery for men’s the biggest challenge for me was to choose someone that is suitable for my theme and I’m not used to make man jewellery.  

Figure 2

I was inspired by a flying beetle bug. As was busy going through Instagram I came across Somizi Mhlongo profile and he is one of the most knowledgeable and dramatic men. He is like a flying bug judging by his character and he grabs any business opportunity that comes to his way.

My client is more fashionable and he is also gay. I decided to make a tie pin with the creativity of different shapes, colour and texture. I decided to name the tie pin as Divo which is Somizi nickname. In this tie pin, I created a beetle skeleton by using the marquis as big main shape which looks like a Zulu shield. I used coffin nail shape to create inner wings and outer wings, I rivet the wings so that they can easily move. As I was going through my research I noticed that Somizi like Tanzanite stone then I decided to full fill my client dream by adding his favourite stone.

The more special thing about my jewellery piece it that you can change colours on the marquis shape. I used acrylic gel because Somizi likes to put gel polish on his nails, so I made it easy for him to add whatever colour he likes in that time so that he can match with his nails. I used holographic nail pigment to cool the colour of the tie pin my aim was no to show the brightness of the colour.

What I like about my jewellery piece it refers to an LGBT flag colour. The rainbow flag symbols lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. Red symbolizes life, Orange symbolises healing, Yellow symbolises the sun and Green symbolises nature. Any men can wear this tie pin that why I added a holographic pigment to cool down the colour. The beauty about my tie pin, you can change colour by socking off the acrylic gel in acetone, then add another colour any time you like.

Figure 3