Submarine!

Lots going on in the workshop in the last few weeks but I'll start off with the completed pictures of Fashion:Vitcim by the incredible Andrew Neilson at Neilson Photography, whom I use for all my portfolio images of key pieces:

I had each sphere photographed separately:

I've also asked him to photograph the other project which was completed this week, (It's The Time) Of April Snows, the Post-Apocalyptic Cocktail Ring set with a giant amethyst:

I am particularly pleased with this as is marks a bit of a departure from my more usual mediaeval themes and more of a move into 1960s themes drawn from Brutalism - especially the work of William Mitchell - and jewellers like Andrew Grima and John Donald. I'm not sure how this strand of work might develop in the future.

The sets of cufflinks for Susannah Hall were finished and posted off and anyone in London looking for a great suit and an interesting set of cufflinks should pop in and see her!

The main thrust of the workshop this week has been working on 20000 Leagues Under The Seas, another of those pieces which I started and then abandoned when something else came up. This time I have to complete it as it is my exhibition piece for the exciting "Handmade By Machines" at The Lighthouse in Glasgow, showcasing the way in which jewellers use technology in their work. I am also presenting a talk at the associated symposium on the theme of "Integrating Digital and Traditional Technologies".

I've always loved Jules Verne's novels and "20000 Leagues" is definitely one of my favourites. I even like the 1954 film starring James Mason despite the somewhat politically-incorrect episodes inserted into it for comic effect. (Anyone interested in reading it can download an E-book version of it legally and free here.)

The idea of starting to make this piece came a while back, when I bought some ghastly carved pink opals from my stone-dealer, Marcia Lanyon. I have no idea what possessed me to buy them as they are truly hideous:

Amongst the students, they became known as the "Patrick Starfish Opals" and this inspired Dingo to elucidate!

These sat about for almost a year and a half - not, by any means, the longest a stone has sat unused in my stone boxes - until it struck me that the most staring-you-in-the-face obvious use for these was the only one: a sea-themed piece. I happened to be reading a collection of Verne's short stories at the time ("A Winter Amid The Ice and Other Thrilling Stories") and so the idea of a piece on "20000 Leagues" was born.

This was about the same time as I was making the "bomb" pendants from old CO2 cylinders:

And it was immediately apparent that these cylinders would make an excellent submarine, which I made and then other things came along...

Carol Docherty, who carved the snake for Fashion:Victim, carved a wax squid for me which is going to be set with an opalised fossil squid:

The top section was digitally-milled from a scan of the original fossil to ensure a good fit.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the collar is based on the Hohenlohe Collar, an intriguing piece referenced in Marian Campbell's "Medieval Jewellery" book for the V&A and about which I can find no other information.

I was particularly taken with the enamelled organic forms between the stone-set elements and wanted to use digital technology - with a view to the exhibition and the theme of the talk - to create a comparable form so turned to barnacle encrustations as a source, designing these links:

The links were drawn up using scripted Voronoi fills in Inkscape and then transferred to Rhino, where they were given dimensional form, again using scripts to create randomness. They were then "printed" in bronze-infused stainless steel by Shapeways.

The stone-set elements were also designed in a combination of Inkscape and Rhino and are a combination of digital milling and hand-piercing:

The steel links - brutally hard and can only be drilled with a carbide drill, which is one to remember for next time - are to be set with pearls and the opal starfish:

I also managed the basic construction of the squid/submarine element:

More to come this week!

Spring At Last

Since my last post, spring can definitely be said to have arrived and the Easter break saw sunshine all day and every day except the last. It is great to be seeing the sky still slightly light at 9pm and to feel the warmth in the sun.

I visited the city of York for the first time over Easter, an amazing place still retaining a lot of mediaeval features such as a largely-intact city wall with defensive gates:

The city is probably most famous for the York Minster Cathedral which, like most originally-mediaeval buildings in the UK, is a mash-up of styles and elements. We spent a fair amount of time in the cathedral - which is just as well as I hadn't quite realised how tiny York is!

One of the curious features of the stained glass in York Minster is the hotch-potch repairs which have been done to the stained-glass windows over the years, random and unrelated pieces of glass used to patch up as required, resulting in an exciting and fascinating narrative of the history of the window and although these repairs can make reading the window confusing, there is something compelling about them:

To my absolute horror, the church authorities have taken it upon themselves with an unparalleled arrogance to "restore" these windows, removing the errant pieces of glass and returning them to the way that they believe that they might have looked. I have to confess to having been pretty upset when I discovered this - the famous east window by Thornton from the 15th Century is currently not visible due to this restoration being done.  My problem with this is that it is replacing something that "is" with something which people are theorising might have been, attempting to return the window to the way was when it was created, erasing the history of the work. This cannot be done. At worst, it is misguided to think that it can but this project smacks of a smug arrogance. I really don't care if they have done all the research, have re-created matching glass through historic processes, have fired it in a wood kiln or whatever else they claim to have done, they are not being true to the window or the history of the window. The ONLY acceptable course of action would be to preserve these windows exactly as they are.

Some might argue that the historic repairs are "mistakes" or "misguided" or something like that, but at least they are completely honest. Some craftsperson has done their very best to keep the window there, to preserve at least an element of the window and in so doing has added to the historic narrative of the window. What is happening today is the dreaded "airbrushing of history": a lie, plain and simple.

York is so small that we exhausted it in two days and decided on the third to visit the delightfully run-down seaside town of Scarborough on the East Coast. We had visited Scarborough once before when we spent a week in Whitby some years ago, but went to the wrong part, couldn't find anything and wondered why anyone went there at all!

Like so many Victorian seaside towns in the UK, Scarborough has lost it's previous glory but has recently been undergoing something of a renaissance and it was good to see that it was busy and that we could find a place to have a decent lunch that wasn't fish and chips!

Of course, I could indulge in my love of decaying signs:

On returning to Brighton, it was a relaxing weekend before heading off to London to meet with Susannah Hall, a tailor in Clerkenwell who is proving to London that you don't need to go to Savile Row to get a great suit made:

I spent a couple of hours talking to her and had a brilliant time. It is great to meet people with whom one just naturally feels a bond:

I've started making a few sets of cufflinks to try out in the shop and should have them arriving there by the end of the week.

I love being in Clerkenwell as it is the heart of the jewellery trade in London - though in recent years it has diversified into something of a cultural and media hub - and I spent some time wandering around, resisting the temptation to buy gemstones from Woods or Holts!

Later in the afternoon, I had the pleasure of meeting Francesca and Jojo Grima in their flat for a social chat over coffee.

Our next trip was off to Kent to meet with high-tech jeweller, Chris Parry, from whom I was buying a second-hand PUK welder for my soon-to-be Brighton workshop:

Before I returned home, I had the utter joy of getting to see "The Space Lady" perform live. I've been fascinated by her since I discovered her on a compilation disc of "outsider music" from the mid 1990s and never imagined for one moment that I would get to hear her perform and I was not disappointed! She was incredible.

Her performance exuded warmth and charm and her stage-presence is phenomenal. We loved her and I even gave her a little piece that I had made for her at the end of the gig:

If you are interested in why I am so entranced with her, you can have a look at her YouTube channel.

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Back to the workshop this last week and I've been incredibly busy with the commission for a Post-Apocalyptic Cocktail Ring made around an enormous amethyst, to which I managed to set all bar four of the stones:

I should have this finished early this week.

The cufflinks are underway too:

And, last but not least, work has re-started on last year's "20000 Leagues Under The Seas" collar:

Fashion:Victim

I have finally finished my Alexander McQueen tribute piece, "Fashion:Victim" which comprises of the two spherical 'handbags' made from steel spheres which I found in a burnt-out factory in Kent some years ago. The first sphere, I've shown already, "The Illusion of Freedom Buys The Power of Destruction" and is based on his life and his love of falconry and features a porcelain falcon-head by Lisa Stevens:

The second sphere, "Before The Fall", is about the time immediately before his untimely death and is a collaboration between me, wax-carver, Carol Docherty and stone-setter, Inness Thomson:

I love the way that these look when hung together:

They have been away for photography and will be sent off to the ACJ ICONS exhibition tomorrow.

For those of you who are interested, the burnt-out factory from whence the original spheres came looked like this:

And the spheres looked like this:

I have absolutely no idea what these would have been used for.

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Today, I set about using up some of the spare elements from this piece.  I got my orders of gemstone flowers just about right but had enough to make a pendant and earring trio:

There will be more pieces to follow as I have a small bag of spare silver "raptor claws" from the first sphere.

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The last couple of weeks have been badly-managed by me in some ways, in that I have had three different stone-dealers through the workshops in very rapid succession, which always leads to me spending money, albeit money to be recouped at a later date. Due to a commission, I had a very specific shopping list in mind, but I also bought a few other things for my own interest:

Some Brazilian gemstones in unusual cuts.

Sapphire cabochons.

Aquamarine Cabochon

Cambodian spinels

Natural Zircon crystals

A very unusually-cut flat and clear citrine (which may end up paired with the zircon crystals).

If you are wondering why I have bought so many blue stones, it is because of me starting work on a commission for another of my cocktail rings, "(It's The Time) Of April Snows":

Made from corroded iron gas-pipe, steel box-girder and silver and to fit an enormous amethyst:

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Off on holiday on Friday. Can't wait!

One final note... I think I have discovered the ugliest public "artwork" in the world:

This is outside the BT headquarters in Glasgow.