Clerkenwell - Pittsburgh

Although it is almost a week since the event - I've been travelling and am now in Pittsburgh - I really should write up an exciting event I attended on Monday last week in London, "Cut In Clerkenwell" which is an exhibition at Craft Central by the Hand Engravers' Association in the UK, a most worthy body who have a highly talented and esteemed membership - including Alan Craxford and Malcolm Appleby - and who have decided to step into the public eye with an inventive and thought-provoking event which combines hands-on workshops and demonstrations with an exhibition of 41 specially-commissioned pieces by some of the top engravers in the UK.
The launch event was opened by Chris Rowley, who made some appropriately scathing comments about government attitudes to craftspeople and heritage crafts (Hooray! About time craftspeople became more political) and was then addressed by Sir George White who is supporting the project through his Clockmaker's Museum, clockmaking being one of the main reasons hand-engraving is still alive and well in the Clerkenwell area.
If you are in London over the next week, the exhibition runs until Saturday 14th and is well worth seeing.

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Pittsburgh at last!
So far, I've danced to Chic with a TSA Officer, walked too far, eaten endless Southeast Asian food, met up with my friend Elizabeth and her family, met up with our own Queen of Crafthaus Brigitte, had the pleasure of discovering that Robert would be my Studio Assistant over the weekend and have taught a class of young people the basics of metalsmithing. I'll be writing more about that tomorrow. Meanwhile, here are some of the remarkable works they produced from scrap materials over two days: