DGZphotos.com and other developments in my photographic career.

DGZphotos.com is now fully up and running!

I am current in some initial stages of building a network of fine art galleries to represent me and my photographs. I am quite excited about all the things that is happening in my photography career. I had the honor to talked to some of Winnipeg's finnest art galleries and the great response they had on my work was just mind blowing. I was busy digging, sorting and compiling my print portfolio for the last few weeks and I am glad that some very promising development are on it's way.

I wouldn't want to disclose all the details yet until everything is finalized, I am preparing some large exhibition pieces and framing them for display and also preparing catalogues of my images custom tailored to certain galleries.

Stay tuned in all future developments!

Exquisite Hematite!

People have pre-defined opinions about certain gems, that some are just not worth investing money in to create a custom piece. This ring would sure shatter all these pre-conceived ideas regarding such inexpensive gems same as a hematite. Hematites are not exactly a very precious material but with the right design it can look stunning! The hematite used for this piece is stretching near 30mm long and in most cases long gems like these would not be suitable for a ring. It would be a very select few that can wear these extremely long gems and thankfully it suit my client's finger perfectly.

This ring is such a simple yet stunning design, the choice of materials were a bit different as well. Hematite was choosen to be the center piece to the simple fact that the client want to create something truly special using her hematite. Most people would be quite reluctant to spend a good amount of money creating a piece with such an inexpensive gem but it is not always about the cost of the center stone that makes a ring a "stunner". It is on how the designer use it to its' full potential to create a piece that's elegant and exquisite, my designs are just that they are a fine artform and not simply a pretty ring with an expensive stone. I thank my client for trusting me on this concept and together we created a ring that highlights the hematite and made it as majestic as any other precious gems. The diamond accents on the wide swirl shoulder gives it a very elegant detailing contrasted with the opposite shoulder with a cut-out to keep it quite feminine despite it's very wide structure.

This ring was created for one of my best clients, we've worked on a lot of different pieces before...mostly alteration and restoration work. She came in for a design consult one day and talked about creating something that I can put my artistic flare on. She decided to have a ring created and I know that it has to unique but also a bit conservative.

The design of this ring is to highlight her main stone with all the other stones to compliment it, we went with the swirl pattern channel setting to have a sublte yet very exquisite fine detailing. The cut out on the shoulders is another fine detail that give it a more feminine touch despite the heavy look of the ring. This piece is a very conservative yet extremely elegant just as how my client loves it.

Gent's Wearable Fine Art

90% of my pieces are created for women, either a treat for themselves or the boyfriends', fiancee's or husband's treat for them. Very seldom do I get to make a piece for a man...these piece are also some of my most memorable creations, since I don't make many I tend to know these "guys" quite well.

I had quite a fun time developing a gents ring for one of my client, he had some old gold and he wanted to treat himself for a piece truly unique. We bounced ideas around and he can't decide between a ring or a pendant, I suggested a ring since it would be more exposed. I prefer to create something that would show and get people asking "where did you get that piece?"...something that they can enjoy to wear everyday.

This ring is such a gorgeous piece,very well built with 29grams of gold and very precise"bark" detailing and split shank design. The rhodium plated dip to create that mirror finish accent to highlight the diamond and all the sublte details just makes this ring quite an artwork to behold. Wearable artwork at it's best with no compromise in both fit and finish same as with all of my pieces. A piece I can truly be proud to put up in any competition.

Opal Magic

It's always fun to create new pieces, explore new concepts. I have regular clients that just let me explore my creative side and just push the limits of my designs. Most of the time design concepts have some input from the client since after all they are the one wearing it. My clients are always very open to my ideas but there's also clients that leaves you on your own. This particular project the client's request was just to make use of all her opals and create 3 very different pieces. In her words "just go crazy and surprise me" and it was quite a very difficult task since she's one very contemporary lady...hard to surprise someone that "has seen it all". She's one of the very select clients that would have private viewing when one of my new pieces are created prior to displaying it in my showcase. She certainly didn't give me much to work on...and I have a tough month ahead to try and create a truly amazing set for her.

Opals are tricky gems to work with, trying to use pieces that would complement each other. She had 10 opals but only 9 were useable and they are in few different sizes and 1 opal has a very unique shape. During the sketching stage trying to develop the initial artworks it was by far the most challenging project. Lots of very unique ideas but I was never happy with them... I gathered up my thoughts and just rest on it for a few days until I tried to put another idea on paper. And that few days rest did pay off, I came up with an artwork that I was just so excited to create. I presented the concept to my client and she was just so excited to proceed with it.

A custom piece is always very special to me, I get to let my creative side show but sometimes when a concept get too unique the transistion from sketch to the wax model can prove very difficult. I cut waxes myslf if there's no possible way for me to put it down on paper and that's the fool proof way of achieving exactly what I want. Since trying to orchestrate 5-7 projects in March-April I had to stick to my pencils and let my goldsmith carve the wax. We explored about 3 variations of the wax model before actually deciding on the actual casting model for the pendant. The earrings were perfect and the ring was quite straight forward, the pendant was certainly the difficult one. The bale configuration was quite unique to fit a 10mm Omega or Herringbone necklace. The rib detail was just exquisite! it gave the piece a design consistency that both simple yet very elegant. The attention to detail on this piece is second to none, the fabrication quality showed impecable skills of my goldsmith, even the click back closure on the earring was hand made.

This project is one that would always be truly special to me not only because of the gorgeous pieces created. But also the reaction of my client when they finally get to try on the finished pieces. I always get compliments from my clients but not in the way that they described how truly "blown away" they were... "you certainly blew my expectations away...". That made all the confusions and mind blowing conceptualizing stages all worth it... the few wax re-cuttings and other behind the scene HARD WORK that made this project a success.