Fitting my entire display into twenty three kilos of checked baggage to fly to Amsterdam was more liberating than frustrating as I shed unnecessary items and went with the bare essentials to run my stand. On the other hand the choice of bag I packed it all in will require revisiting next time. “The Elephant Bag” (as it is known) saw me through two, year long stays in the USA. Now I remember why I…
I first became aware of David Poston’s work was when I was still at art college, I took a trip to the Craft’s Council’s flagship show, Collect. His sculptural bracelets made from recycled treacle and golden syrup tins really caught my eye. I still remember them in the glass case now a colourful, positive image of what jewellery could be. This memory along with memories of seeing Peter Chang and Adam Paxon’s works for the…
I expected to love my visit to these two exhibitions, to see gorgeous things and return inspired. Instead I have been left with a sense of ambivalence and uncertainty. The Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is all a blockbuster exhibition should be. Big, bold and slightly overwhelming in it’s presentation. It was truly an experience and particularly in the case of the Cabinet of Curiosities section awe inspiring. I…
As Editor of Findings (the bi-annual magazine from the Association for Contemporary Jewellery) I was pleased to be invited up to the opening night of the new contemporary jewellery gallery at The Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA). Contemporary jeweller Frances Julie-Whitelaw got in touch to invite me and see if I wanted a piece written on the opening for Findings. She and MIMA artist in residence Jan Hinchliffe-McCutcheon are both ACJ members and Middlesborough based…
They like their fountains in Sheffield. The first thing that greets you on leaving the railway station is a wonderful cascade of water. I walked across the city centre to my hotel, and the peace gardens had fabulous fountains and children leaping around them, it seemed every courtyard was running water for the newly warming Springtime. This watery theme was appropriate as the reason I was in Sheffield was to attend the opening of The…
An exciting email came through this week, I’ve made it through the rigorous selection panel, and they selected me as an exhibitor for The Association for Contemporary Jewellery’s 2013 exhibition. The theme this year is Stain-less. It will be held in Sheffield later in the year as part of the City’s Galvanize festival and part of the centenary of the invention of stainless steel. I submitted two proposals interpreting the theme of Stain-less, sister pieces based…
Is this the right room? Oh yes, I think so – a bit hard to tell. On entering Unexpected Pleasures, I was confronted with an array of beautifully designed and clearly very expensive but otherwise blank table cabinets. They are black and round with three massive domed bolts holding the glass down (they are real I couldn’t resist a tiny unscrew of one!). Inside sorted into collections of about six pieces per cabinet is the…
