My end of residency show

Just a quick note - details about my end of Residency show over at South Hill Park are on the website - http://www.southhillpark.org.uk/3842/shows/fundamental-modernist-forms.html

More details to follow soon....with photos!

close-up

I've been busy, busy, busy getting ready for my End of Residency show. More details will follow, but for your calendar - the opening reception is 4-6pm on Saturday December 3rd at South Hill Park in Bracknell.
In the meantime, a close-up of a commission I did several months ago (aquamarine stone in 14ct gold with pearls necklace):

just some nice pics of cornwall

silver thimble

I made this silver thimble for my gran, who is 92 today! Oma is the Dutch word for grandmother. Happy Birthday Oma!!!!

Finished ring

White gold with sapphires.

Exhibition and news

There is an exhibition on in Didcot in which you can see the lovely work of one of the Caversham Artists, Julie Simmonds. Details below on the flyer, just click on the image to get a larger, legible version.

Also, the Jelly has acquired a new home - today (10am - 6pm) is the last day to help paint and fix up the new location. If you're free, it's at the Coopers Arms in Reading town centre, across the street from the main post office and NatWest.

And lastly, it's a hard time for arts centres, and several are struggling to hang on in the face of "cost cutting", reduced funding, or relocation. If you are interested in keeping The Fire Station in Henley as an exhibition centre, then move fast - attend the meeting at the Council Chamber of the Town Hall, Henley at 7.30 this Tuesday, 5th July.

South Hill Park in Bracknell has also lost a lot of funding - this is a thriving arts centre that hosts numerous exhibitions of painting, drawing, conceptual art, ceramics, jewellery, to name but a few. Many people attend and enjoy the courses in all manner of artistic fields. Hopefully it will still manage to do all these things, but of course a big chunk of funding gone means cuts have to be made somewhere! To support South Hill Park, please sign the petition here (we have 681 signatures, we need at least 1000): http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save_our_south_hill_park/

thimble

Here's a picture of my copper thimble. It's a small project I demonstrated for my classes. I wanted to do something a bit different. If the thimble was silver, of course the solder joins wouldn't show up as here - since I used copper with silver solder. If you'd like to make a thimble, this project and many other interesting projects are in this book: http://tiny.cc/o17r9

cufflinks

These are 2 of 5 pairs of different custom cufflinks I made last week. Each had a logo from a different company. They are to be presented at a congress today which a representative of each company is attending. I liked the idea behind it a lot - it is showing the links between the companies, between people and cufflinks link the cuffs :-)

just a nice picture of Wales

copper sculpture

A good friend asked me to make a copper sculpture...I came up with this:

phew

So, the Caversham Arts Trail is over for another year. Thanks to everyone who made it out and for all the lovely comments. You can see some lovely pics from the weekends over on Lauren's blog: www.laurenceramics.blogspot.com

I have work over at the Runnymede Gallery until the end of this month.

Unrelated to all that, on Saturday I went to the Dollhouse Show in Kensington to go look at loads of miniature things. It was amazing, everything you could imagine in miniature! I have two tiny bears and I thought they needed a chair and now they have their very own park bench. Oh and I saw another mini bear who was just too amazing to be left behind, so now I have three tiny bears. Here's a pic of my grumpy little bears on their little park benches. With a pound coin in front to give an idea of size...

Plenty to do

So, if you're at loose ends about what to do this weekend, there's plenty to choose from:

Runnymede Gallery Exhibition - modern jewellery by me, Jane Tadrist, Dana Kidson and Jo King. The opening reception is on Saturday from 12 - 4pm. Follow the link for the address...

Caversham Arts Trail - open 7 & 8 May and 13 - 15 May. Opening reception at Albert Road Day Centre in Caversham from 10.30 a.m. You can download and print a map of the Arts Trail here: http://tiny.cc/z980n


There is also another fantastic Third Thursday event coming up on May 19th. Please click here for more information.

It's been a busy week already, getting ready for all the shows. I also have a couple of new items added in my case in the foyer at South Hill Park if you happen to be going there.
Classes have started again, so it's all go!
Hope everyone is enjoying the fabulous weather, long may it continue!! :-)

Caversham Arts Trail

Caversham Arts Trail coming soon - 7 & 8 May and 13, 14 & 15 May
Here's our lovely spread in Craft & Design Magazine! Click for a bigger view...

Runnymede Gallery show 7 -30 May

I'm exhibiting at the Runnymede Gallery in May from the 7th to the 30th. We are having a opening view on the 7th of May from 12 - 4pm. We are: Jane Tadrist, Dana Kidson, Jo King and me. Details to follow...
In the meantime, my hinges course was last week and seemed to go down quite well. Everyone did really well and made at least a couple of hinges. Here is a photo of some of the samples I made, mostly made from bit of copper. I didn't clean them up, so these are just to demonstrate the mechanics of making various types of hinges.

Caversham Arts Trail

Will be 7 & 8 and 13-15 May... here's the flyer!! Click for a larger view....

Craft & Design awards

It's the last week to vote over at the Craft & Design selected awards - http://www.craftmaker.co.uk/machidewaard/

It's busy as usual here - been working on an interesting bit of fashion for a fashion retailer...will post more about that after I see if they're happy with the first piece I did, which is in the post now!
Also this week is the last week of term over at South Hill Park. However, I still have a packed week next week as I'm teaching a three-day course on hinges there. Hinges and tube, here we come!
Today the plan is to finish a pile of polishing. After this polishing, I think I'm actually nearly ready to start on some new designs! Well, after the hinges preparation, that is. Nearly there...
Hope everyone enjoyed the measily couple of warm days we had. It's back to chilly now, but there are still people walking around in shorts and t-shirts as if it's tropical weather out now. I guess it is officially spring because of the time change, but I still need a scarf!

custom pendant

Photos of a custom pendant made to match my silver bud collection...

finished pendant

This is the pendant I was discussing in my last post, now finished:

the ides of march have passed

I've been making tube and it's a bit addictive. I keep wanting to see how much smaller I can get it. Here's a photo of two of my attempts - both made from sheet. (I had to colour over my nail in photoshop because being a jeweller is not a good thing for the state of my nails!!)

The tube on the left is copper and just over 2mm outside diameter. The one on the right is silver and 1.3mm outside diameter. I'm thinking this will be useful for making hinges, possibly for odd shaped hinges. Also a wee bit cheaper than buying tube ready made.
So yeah, that's been the excitement this week! I've also been working on a custom pendant for my soon-to-be-ex-boss (she's leaving to pursue her own art). It's a silver rectangle, with edges, so it's sort of a shallow open box. We're going to fill it with the internal components of her father's watch - all the teeny tiny cogs and springs and things. Then we're going to fill it with clear resin. It's the ultimate personal piece of jewellery - made by someone my boss knows, filled with material from her father's watch, and she'll pour the resin herself. Hopefully I'll get a good photo of it when it's done...
Also working on some wedding rings, birthday presents, and making more gold ball stud earrings and rings. Photos coming soon...

time flies

It has been incredibly busy again and I find it hard to believe that tomorrow is March! It was just Christmas! This past weekend was eventful. Saturday I helped out in the morning with our Caversham Artists show in Kings Walk in Reading town centre. It was a lovely show and the opening especially, as one of the Third Thursday events, was very well attended. My next show will be the CAT (Caversham Artists Trail) in May.
Then yesterday I taught a one day ring course over at South Hill Park. The idea was for beginners to make their very own ring, which indeed they did, and some even managed to walk away with an impressive four rings at the end of the day! It went well but I was pretty knackered by the time I got home. But today it's back into the fray and I have loads to do as usual.
The weather has been so dreary and the garden is all dark so I also bought a bunch of lovely mini daffodils over the weekend. From one day to the next they flowered like mad, they look super cute. I'm not a great gardener, but hopefully I'll plant them soon to get some colour into the garden.
Anyway, I leave you with a photo of a stack ring I completed recently...