Thinking Out Loud

Brilliant, my first project after returning from maternity leave is now complete!  I am very pleased how these have turned out. They have gone off now to be part of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery’s Diamond Jubilee Exhibition.  The exhibition starts in March at the School of Jewellery in Birmingham then going to the new Goldsmiths Centre in London, then on up to Edinburgh and finally August in Glasgow. Full details are on the ACJ website.  The pink ones are off to travel the UK but the blue and purple versions will be available in my Etsy Shop very soon.

Diamond Earrings for ACJ Diamond Jubilee Exhibition

Diamond Earrings Anodised With Inlay Being Fitted

Diamond Earrings - Card Model with model of diamond atom structure in background

Sketch for Diamond Earrings on Aluminium - sort of reminds me of the Voyager Golden Disc

I am working on an earring design at the moment which has been chosen for inclusion in the Association for Contemporary Jewellery’s Diamond Jubilee Exhibition. The exhibition will open in Birmingham on 14th March at the School of Jewellery and will travel to London to be the first in the Goldsmith’s Centre in Clarkenwell for London Jewellery Week 11th -13th June.

The shape is based on the atomic structure of diamond, the tetrahedrally bonded atom structure which makes the gem famously hard. This seemed a fitting motif for a the Diamond Jubilee as atomic motifs were so popular in the 1950’s, the Atomic Age.  It is also a visual pun as there are no actual gems involved in the earrings whatsoever, just titanium, photograph, resin, silver leaf and electro-etched silver

They are also designed to be a pair of freestanding miniature sculptures that would not require wearing for all their effect and look just as good displayed in an exhibition.  I am making three pairs, one of which I will send to the exhibition the other two will form the basis of a new collection which is currently in the pipeline.

Work in progress

The F1 season came to an end last week with the Brazilian Grand Prix and to mark its end I would like to propose the F1 car as the Ultimate Handmade Object.  That does make it sound as if there is a prize involved, perhaps there should be.  Life seems to be continually clotted up with poor quality mass produced goods perhaps a celebration of the exquisitely handmade is needed.

An F1 car might seems like an odd choice for my Ultimate Handmade Object particularly as they are so high tech and the very embodiment of the modernist ideal of form following function whereas the word handmade has connotations of being rather warm and fuzzy.  Ok, so they are not totally handmade in the sense that a potter throws a pot with his or her hands but some of the car is made by hand in that way, for example the carbon fibre for the chassis is laid up by hand and the assembly seems to take something akin to a surgical team to complete.

However, much in the way that so much of contemporary craft no longer always carries the thumbprint of the maker the F1 car is an amalgam of hand and machine made and computer designed.  The hand is on the keyboard and mouse and the eye on the screen rather than the drawing board.  Although I have heard that Adrian Newey, the man responsible for the design of Red Bull’s back to back championship cars, still uses a drawing board and wouldn’t I love to see some of his drawings (oh to have those kind of drawing skills!).

The complexity of the F1 car was brought home to me when I visited Mercedes Benz World to see their F1 Exhibit “A View Suspended II” an F1 car deconstructed and hung from the ceiling by a multitude of steel cables. Fascinating to see and wonder whether they included every immaculate beautiful little shiny bit.

What’s your Ultimate Handmade Object?

View Suspended II close up

More shiny things

Engine shiny bit

Today was a big day as my Etsy Shop is open again, I have been reassessing how I sell my work and for now, with a young family, the best thing for me to do is to focus my attention into selling on-line.  It was good to see my images up there again working hard to make my jewellery look good.  I can take time out in the evenings to do a bit of promotion, write blog posts, list items and hopefully pack up sold items to send out!

Chunky Charm Bracelet

First drawing in a while

Having been on maternity leave pretty much since my last blog post it was nice to get the creative juices flowing again by finding time out to do a sketch of one of my pieces of  “titanium porn”. These are pieces of interesting machined titanium I found in a scrap yard a couple of years ago, the scrap yard owner was convinced they had come from McLaren up in Woking so I like to think they are little discarded bits that never made it to an F1 car.  Whether they are or they aren’t does not detract from what interesting forms they are, I have no idea what they are for and that is part of their charm.  They are mysterious to me and I rather like the way the sketches retain some of that mystery as I add, duplicate or just plain make up bits as I draw the object in front of me.

I am not yet back to making jewellery but I will be adding pieces I always have in stock to my Etsy Shop in time for Christmas this year so do take a look in late October, November & December.

Don’t forget that my jewellery is always available for those local to Surrey, UK through Shop Maltings in Farnham and the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen’s Gallery in Milford, Surrey.

Last week I was treated to three days of inspiration courtesy of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery. I joined the ACJ at the beginning of the year and decided to attend the conference to get to know some members and learn new things.

The conference took place in the gorgeous surroundings of the West Dean College and was a full three days of talks and workshops.  One of the talks gave delegates a little more insight in to the history of West Dean which, to my surprise, had been founded as a college dedicated to the arts and crafts by Edward James a renowned collaborator with Surrealists such as Dali and Magritte.  The college also provided us with fabulous food.

For me there were several stand out workshops and talks over the three days.  I participated in three workshops; first a Mixed Media jewellery making session with Professor Robert Ebendorf, specialist in mixed media jewellery, which allowed free thinking and a playful approach to sketching out ideas using anything to hand to help develop ideas or create something interesting in its own right; second a workshop on use of line in a three dimensional, textiles context with artist Michael Brennand-Wood participants explored layering and creating of patterns using 2D lines to create 3D forms in a variety of ways during their idea generation and finally a workshop learning electrolytic etching techniques with Dauvit Alexander.  Electrolytic etching uses the same equipment as anodising titanium so it was a real eye opener that I can use equipment I already have for a very different technique.

The program of talks was extensive and included an international array of speakers.  Sophia Bjorkman spoke on the subject of “what is jewellery?” and the approach to that question her Stockholm gallery Platina takes, the question was of course was intended as a thought provoking idea and she presented many answers. She asked for emails about our own thoughts on “what is jewellery?” - my incomplete and ongoing answer was this:  Jewellery is: personal, public, displayed, gorgeous, luminescent, wants to be held and work and has a story.

Delegates were given the engaging perspectives of American delegates Courtney Starrett and Phillip Renato on remote collaboration.  They covered the myriad new technologies available to the contemporary jeweller including mass customisation and collaboration across distance using digital techniques.  Despite being real advocates for this style of working their conclusion was that while digital technology is a hugely useful tool there really was no substitute for meeting with your collaborators face to face.

Wendy Ramshaw and David Watkins gave a conversational overview of their lives at the forefront of contemporary jewellery, the variety of their interests and curiosity over the years were wide ranging and they showed how that had influenced their work.

There were several more technical talks by Jessica Turrell covering her innovative work in enamels, Trish Woods on her extensive research in to colouring pewter and Coilin O’Dubhghaill on Irogane, Japanese alloys and traditional patination techniques

The evening pin swap and social was fun as everyone tried to work out who had their pin and whose pin they had picked from the lucky dip.  I have a striking tomato-apple pin by Kathie Murphy which was attached to a news item about an apple that was red all the way through that described the pin perfectly.

All in all I was so glad I went along to the conference, it reminded me of what and who is out there in the world of contemporary jewellery and also what amazing techniques people are investigating, pushing the boundaries of the traditional to create new jewellery.

My pearly Suzuka Chrysanthemum Flower Rings are featured on the Platform Showcase website, along with a beautiful selection of jewellery by other makers.  If you are passing Hatton Garden way go and take a look, Platform is easy to find on Greville Street just opposite the Bleeding Heart Tavern.

Suzuka Chrysanthemum Flower Rings

I have been having a few ideas about new work at the moment and I have had some fun playing with my mini-mill lately.  Once I had got hold of the right milling bit all went smoothly, although I need lots of practice to be able to do what I really want to do.  I’ll post some pictures when I have something worth showing you.

I am hoping to get a series of pieces together on a theme of the objects we leave behind us both the trash and the treasure.  I hope to incorporate both inspirations from upcycled materials and themes from archaeology.  I want to make a trip to the British Museum soon to take a look at some of the treasures of jewellery they have there.

In a really very slack state of affairs I have neglected to care for my poor blog since April!  In my defence I have been out there doing plenty of jewellery related fun and games plus being on holiday.  Well ok that was only one week.  My work is now distributed to galleries all over the UK which is great showcasing from London to Lancashire - humm that is only England isn’t it?  None the less I hope my work is well received.  There is a full list on my website here.

You can also see my work locally in the Surrey Guild of Craftsmen’s outlets, the Gallery in Milford, Surrey and the newly opened Shop Maltings in Farnham, Surrey.

I am very excited this morning as my new business cards from Moo.com have arrived.  It is still a little like a birthday when you get a parcel I find. My graphic design is definitely getting better plus I had some lovely new images of my work to play with.  They took a while to design as there was lots of mucking about in Illustrator and Photoshop to get my new logo right and the images the right size.  I went for a dramatic close up crop in portrait format on the images which I think works really well.  I used the four flower shapes and two fan shapes being the central motif of my new collection.  I also got a few mini cards done as they are useful for all sorts of things such as labels, tent cards and packaging.

My lovely new business cards