Jacomien Minnaar

I am a designer at heart and I enjoy experimenting in a playful way. I am passionate about education and empowering others whilst remaining teachable. My professional experience is threefold:

1. CONTEMPORARY JEWELLERY I throughly enjoy making contemporary jewellery (incoprating alternative materials with traditional metal techniques). I did a Masters in Visual Arts (Jewellery design- 2010-2014) with the title "Playful Plastics: contemporary Jewellery as Bricolage" where I baked plastic bags and gemstones in the oven and hosted various jewellery workshops to promote the power of play through different plastics as medium. I have exhibited in many local and international exhibitions and my contemporary jewellery work has been on display in Germany, Japan, America etc.

2. TEACHING JEWELLERY & GEMMOLOGY  I thoroughly enjoyed lecturing in Gemmology (the study of Gemstones) and Jewellery design and Metal techniques at Stellenbosch University (2012-2014) and took pleasure in the challenge of setting up a jewellery department at PJ Olivier Art school in Stellenbosch (2016-2018). I taught various jewellery design projects by incorporating a conceptual aspect (take inspiration from other sources such as origmani,  packaging design, underwater creatures or fungi) and combine it with learning different metal techniques (eg. Cold joints: attaching metal pieces to each other through weaving, drilling, platting, riveting etc) to make a final design project. As an outreach arm of my own jewellery design business - Miinella Jewellery design (2018- current) I've hosted basic jewellery workshops to the public in a fun and interactive way eg. Gin & Jewellery /  Pendants & Pinotage workshops where anyone can make letter-stamped metal pendants.

3. PROFESSIONAL JEWELLERY DESIGNER. I gained tremendous insight, knowledge and experience in the jewellery trade by building my own jewellery business: Miinella Jewellery Design. Miinella Jewellery is a company devoted to designing luxury, customised jewellery where the story of the individual is at the heart of every design. I participated in various styled photoshoots for bridal magazines where photographers, florists, decor, stationary, models, fashion designers were involved. I also enjoy educating my staff and clients in design, gemstones, technical aspects of jewellery etc. to make informed choices. I've also done corporate talks comparing gemstones with people and using that as inspiration to help people with jewellery image styling.
I am a designer at heart and I enjoy experimenting in a playful way. I am passionate about education and empowering others whilst remaining teachable. My professional experience is threefold:

1. CONTEMPORARY JEWELLERY I throughly enjoy making contemporary jewellery (incoprating alternative materials with traditional metal techniques). I did a Masters in Visual Arts (Jewellery design- 2010-2014) with the title "Playful Plastics: contemporary Jewellery as Bricolage" where I baked plastic bags and gemstones in the oven. jewellery workshops to promote the power of play through different plastics as medium. I really enjoy displayong I have exhibited in many local and international exhibitions and my contemporary jewellery work has been on display in Germany, Japan, America etc.

2. TEACHING JEWELLERY & GEMMOLOGY  I thoroughly enjoyed lecturing in Gemmology (the study of Gemstones) and Jewellery design and Metal techniques at Stellenbosch University (2012-2014) and took pleasure in the challenge of setting up a jewellery department at PJ Olivier Art school in Stellenbosch (2016-2018). I taught various jewellery design projects by incorporating a conceptual aspect (take inspiration from other sources such as origmani,  packaging design, underwater creatures or fungi) and combine it with learning different metal techniques (eg. Cold joints: attaching metal pieces to each other through weaving, drilling, platting, riveting etc) to make a final design project. As an outreach arm of my own jewellery design business - Miinella Jewellery design (2018- current) I've hosted basic jewellery workshops to the public in a fun and interactive way eg. Gin & Jewellery /  Pendants & Pinotage workshops where anyone can make letter-stamped metal pendants.

3. PROFESSIONAL JEWELLERY DESIGNER. I gained tremendous insight, knowledge and experience in the jewellery trade by building my own jewellery business: Miinella Jewellery Design. Miinella Jewellery is a company devoted to designing luxury, customised jewellery where the story of the individual is at the heart of every design. I participated in various styled photoshoots for bridal magazines where photographers, florists, decor, stationary, models, fashion designers were involved. I also enjoy educating my staff and clients in design, gemstones, technical aspects of jewellery etc. to make informed choices. I've also done corporate talks comparing gemstones with people and using that as inspiration to help people with jewellery image styling.
As an outreach arm of my own jewellery design business - Miinella Jewellery design (2018- current) I've hosted basic jewellery workshops to the public in a fun and interactive way eg. Gin & Jewellery /  Pendants & Pinotage workshops where anyone can make letter-stamped metal pendants.