Saturday, January 30, 2010

Miss Haversham's Jewels

I work in both silver and acrylic - I often play around with different materials to see which suits each piece and design.  For example, the geese migration necklace, which I was keen to make since I found a beautiful photograph of canada geese, silhouetted against the sky, can only be made from white acrylic.  I thought about producing a silver version, but it just wasn't the same.  It's one of my favourite necklaces, and can't really be appreciated until it's on!


I then found some amazing sheets of recycled materials and really wanted to use them in my designs.  And, yes, I tried it out with the geese, but I had to stick with the super whiteness of the acrylic.  But when I started on my Miss Haversham's Jewels collection, I knew the yoghurt pot and refrigerator sheet was perfect.


This design is part of the pearl necklace collection, which also features the pearl necklace brooch - both hand cut from recycled yoghurt pots and refrigerator seals sheet.



More recycled designs will be coming soon - look out for my recycled coffee cups!

Jo Askey

I loved Jo's artwork as soon as I first spotted her shop on etsy.  It wasn't long after that I approached her to design the banner for my shop - her work has an individual style which I really like.






Jo's work is 'inspired by the quirky and the poignant and by the beauty in every day objects and situations. She loves to focus on the little details that can sometimes go unnoticed'.


You can check out her website here.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Lindsey Mann

I wanted to publish some of the beautiful work by amazing jeweller Lindsey Mann.  I went on a course in silversmithing and anodised aluminium with Lindsey and found her work so inspiring - she mainly works in hand printed anodised aluminium, and mixes this with silver work, semi-precious beads and found objects.  Her work is exquisite and is shown in galleries all around the country.  The Tate Modern have recently purchased some of her designs - here are just some of the designs from her past collections.
















Love her cut-out badge postcards too


You can check out her website hereLindsey teaches silversmithing and anodised aluminium workshops at her studio in Hampshire all year round, you can get in touch with her through the website.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Road Trip

So, I start with looking at someone's blog, usually an artist or designer's.  Today it was nosideup, I had just purchased this print 'Jo' as a birthday present




Her shop is full of beautiful artwork, some of my other favourites are

'Katherina'



and 'Buns and Combs'
   

From the Nosideup blog I followed a link to Keri Smith's blog - which, by the way, is my current favourite blog - it is full of lovely inspiration, ideas and creativity.  If you've got some winter afternoons by the fire, check out Keri's website and her 100 things to do - here are the first 5......

100 ideas - a work in progress.








1. Go for a walk. Draw or list things you find on the the sidewalk. 2. Write a letter to yourself in the future. 3. Buy something inexpensive as a symbol for your need to create, (new pen, a tea cup, journal). Use it everyday. 4. Draw your dinner. 5. Find a piece of poetry you respond to. Rewrite it and glue it into your journal.........



Check out this page for the rest!  And here for even more fun stuff.  Keri has some great looking books out 








I will certainly be spending a bit of christmas money on at least one of her collection....will post about it soon!

Back on the road......I took a detour from Keri's blog to the learning to love you more website

Learning to Love You More is a web site and a series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. 





The website is no longer taking submissions of work - but has an amazing archive of projects and ideas to inspire you!  They have produced the book above, which is available here

Assignment #62
Make an educational public plaque.



Assignment #66
Make a field guide to your yard





Check out all the assignments, and the public's response to them here