Monday, November 29, 2010

snag...

Look who made the front page of the SNAG website!

I am so pleased about this.

Friday, November 26, 2010

seated at the pianoforte...

Fans of Radio 4's long-running comedy of obscurity, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue might be interested to know that a whole load of the old episodes are available on archive.org.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

nightmare event!

One of my students asked me to set a very large - 6ct - ruby for her as she was nervous about doing it. She had made the setting and it fitted very nicely, so I had no fear about doing it. Just as I was gently levelling the stone in the setting...


Polysynthetic Twinning Catastrophe Part 2

A very fine example of polysynthetic twinning and bad lapidary work: the stone was cut right across a growth plane. She was very, very upset, which is understandable. And you can imagine how I felt! We've replaced this stone with a synthetic ruby, which is brighter but less "interesting" (in so many ways). 



Just back from Wales, where I was visiting the opening of the show Re:Collect at Llantarnam Grange in Cwmbran, which featured some of my work:


Dauvit Alexander

Llantarnam Grange is a lovely little arts-centre/gallery outside of Cardiff. Well worth a visit.

More photographs of what we got up to in Cardiff on my Flickr pages.


Great Western Railway (Interrupted)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

strange day

I'm working backwards on the "Cold Genius" piece. As I have to wait for Lisa to finish and send the actual "Cold Genius" himself, I can't actually make the box or any of the elements of it as the size is critical (as he's going to be made from porcelain, which shrinks on firing, exact sizes are not possible in advance), thus I've been making other parts of the piece. Today I got to work on the settings:


Cold Genius (WIP) 13


"Reading" top to bottom, left to right: iolite, blue topaz, peruvian blue opal; natural pale blue sapphire; two blue topaz "bullets"; aquamarines and green quartz (in bags); blue topaz, green quartz; and slightly chatoyant colourless quartz.



Intensely annoying: I am being bullied by television licensing again. Despite have had no television for 20 years and having repeatedly told them that fact, reinforcing that I have no intention of getting one, every few years I am bullied for being different. Singled out and sent threatening, aggressive letters which imply that I am a lying cheat and that I am going to be fined £1000.

Today I was warned that someone would be out to inspect my house. Let the fuckers try...

They came once before at 8am and were so embarrassed when I answered the door, wearing only my boxer shorts that they tried to back off: needless to say, I forced them to inspect the house, making sure that they looked under the bed, on top of the wardrobe, behind the sofa, etc. By the time they had finished, I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be bothered again.

Next time, I will be less hospitable.

The morons who control television licensing seem to think it is incomprehensible that anyone would NOT have a television and that anyone who doesn't have one MUST be a criminal. They are so fucking blind to this possibility that their website doesn't even allow you to tell them that you don't have a license, only to pay for one in some form. If you want to complain about their intimidating, accusatory letters and approaches, you have to write a letter at your own expense.

In short, I am being threatened, intimidated, accused and am expected to waste my time and money in order to prove to a government department that I am NOT GUILTY of something of which they have repeatedly accused me.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Bracelet Commission Finished



Bracelet Commission 14
Originally uploaded by the justified sinner

Not posted for a while because I've been really busy but here is a bracelet which is just finished to a customer order. Made from an old chisel, silver, various types of steel, labradorite and citrine.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

snow and clay

I finished the snowflakes I started cutting yesterday (the students were fiercely busy and marvellously fired-up today, so I didn't get much bench-time of my own):

Cold Genius (WIP) 7

I'm working with Lisa Stevens again for this piece and she has the figure of the "Cold Genius" well underway:


commission 2

I'm really pleased with the way he is looking.
I've posted my (ongoing) workbooks for this piece on Flickr

Monday, November 01, 2010

Meet Thy Maker

A frightening book presented by a creepy man who makes lots of make-up companies very happy...

As Dingo said, "Let's make lots of SICK!"
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