Hastings Seafood and Wine Festival

The annual gorging of delightful seafood and wine takes place this weekend in Hastings. Locally caught fish, organic breads and local wine to mention just a few of the wonderful foods on offer.

The necklace below is inspired by Razor fish which have a habit of swimming vertically downwards. It is made from upcycled copper with enamels and silver leaf.

Upcycled from a Copper Hot Water Tank into an enamelled necklace

Also on this weekend is Coastal Currents a celebration of Hastings Artists and Crafts men and women who open their homes, studios and beach huts to fill them with their creations for you to view and buy.

Pirate Day Hastings

As May went by in the flash of an eye, I am going to look forward to Hastings Pirate Day on July 22nd because the organising commity is planning on the biggest and best celebration ever.
A real Pirate Wedding is going to take place in the Town Hall with the procession travelling to the Old Town, the Red Arrows will give one of their exemplorary displays and the Guiness Book of records will be counting the number of pirates to smash the record which was lost to Penzance last year. These are just a few of the days highlights and to experience all this fun and mayhem dress up and join us to return the record to Hastings.

Skull and crossbones necklace for Pirate Day in Hastings

The enamelled copper skull and crossbones with silver leaf above was my last years jewellery effort and I might make some more of these but at the moment I am searching for a little inspiration for something new this year.

Costume Jewellery Revisited

The freedom experienced with costume jewellery design has no boundaries except the designer’s imagination because the materials used are generally inexpensive. When I started out designing jewellery the innovation for me as I had little money was the minimal cost of the materials teamed with flamboyant design. Big was beautiful in the mid to late eighties, so a powerful consideration was the weight of an ear-ring and the example below had colour, fun and was one of the lightest I manufactured. 

Sourcing exactly the same material in different colours was a challenge and has taken me a year but making these really special ear-rings has been a delightful experience of a past life revisited. I just had to add the really beautiful Streptocarpus flowers too.

Jerwood Gallery Official Opening

I feel very privileged to have been invited to the official opening of the new Jerwood Gallery in Hastings East Sussex yesterday evening, 15th March 2012. I was very surprised not to recognise at least one familiar face apart from local dignitaries.

 

As a member of the local vibrant arts and crafts community, I understand the regeneration initiative behind the gallery which now hosts the Jerwood Collection of 20th/21st Century British Art. The outside of the building places itself comfortably amongst its surroundings and the inside is an interesting use of space that perfectly enhances the paintings within.

I would not profess to be an expert on British Art as I am a jewellery designer and metalworker, so from a purely personal point of view, the collection is a wonderful and varied mix of artistic endeavour which I found interesting enough to certainly visit again when there is more time to appreciate the works on show. I think what impressed me most in the little time available was the naivety of many of the paintings, a simplicity which is becoming lost with the complexities of computer aided design.

The evening for me was thought provoking on many different levels especially Sir John Tusa's speech about artistic philanthropy, a true generosity of spirit for the benefit of others, so sadly lacking in the me culture. Many of us are passionate about our creativity, others wish they had the ability and without Charitable Foundations a diverse collection of truly British art taken from a moment in time would not exist for everyone to view and enjoy.

Even though I am not a painter I would hope that a collection of local artists work would gradually be purchased by the Foundation as a record of the depth of brilliance and diversity in our town of Hastings. For information on the gallery visit jerwoodgallery.org/

Change and Challenge

Change, as of February 19th 2012 I will no longer be a member of The Jewellery Line Up, it has been a wonderful experience meeting and working with such lovely young ladies but it is time to move on.

Challenge is for new jewellery designs for my shop and porcelain sliver lamp shades.

One such light is already in my shop window and i am presently making another also for the shop window.

Fugacious Petals Porcelain Lampshade

Valentines Day

With Valentines day coming on February 14th most of my work is concentrated on all sorts of hearts, silver,copper and enamels in many different colours but mostly red as it is always the most popular.

The enamel necklace in recyled copper above is on a silver chain.

Rooms for Ideas

I am presently exhibiting at Hastings Museum with 'The Jewellery Line Up', we are a group of eight jewellers and our exhibition is called 'Rooms for Ideas'. The brief for this Arts Council funded exhibition saw each jeweller draw at random a room in the museum from which to take inspiration. The Sussex Pottery room was my allocation and as I had always had a love of ceramics, porcelain was my choice of material for the project. After much faffing around with moulds, slip casting and more solid and controlled components for the jewellery, I eventually settled on a more spontaneous process which suits my way of working.

Porcelain Necklace

 Paddy Boyle took this amazing picture of my work for the catalogue which accompanies the exhibition.

The slivers are very delicate but porcelain has strength and once fired I was then able to experiment with Raku glazes. The nature of this special process meant I could only fire three at a time in an enamelling kiln but after 5 or so test glazes, two were chosen. This photo really does not show the true colours and lustres and

Raku Necklace

as it is in the museum until mid February I cant take any more for the moment. For the true Raku experience and all the other wonderful jewellery exhibits, visit Hastings Museum until February 12th.