Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Back in the swing of the workshop again, making things.
I came back from Italy bursting with ideas, materials and a commission, which I managed to finish today. Something for a client who told me only "I like anchors"!
Here it is:





This is quite unusual for me in that it is a bit literal. The anchor is the catch which closes the bracelet. The chain is made from rusty old spring washers which I cleaned up, and the anchor is variously made from a piece of an old stove, an antique broacher, a file handle and two ball bearings from inside a broken projector. The little stone hanging from the chain is a natural garnet crystal.

The piece is for a colleague who used to be a steelworker in the docks in Genova. He now makes furniture and jewellery from steel. His website is here.

In between working on this, I managed to make a pair of cufflinks too:





Which came about because I noticed that the steel washers were exactly the right size to hold some aquamarine discs which I bought ages ago and had never found a use for. The stone in the centre is an orange sapphire. The steel helps protect the stone, which is fairly fragile.

I've been asked to send some pieces off to an exhibition in Malaga, which is exciting.

Not much else to report. Largely still catching up from the holiday.