On the bench today …

 … some last minute prep for the RHS Spring Gardening Show which I’ll be setting up tomorrow.

Facebook Finds #2: Colour me bright …

It’s a little dreary and grey today so here are a few of my brighter Facebook finds to cheer things up:

Thea Clark goes to town exploring mixed media and modern technology to produce pieces that are at once soft and structural, they’re a neat play of very organic surfaces against harsher prints:

Thea Clark. Cyan Chain, mixed media brooch, paper, plastic, nickel , pearls, wood, tinted plastic, 2010

Thea Clark. Cyan Square, mixed media brooch with cyanotype on silk, wood, plexiglass, tinted plastic, nickel, 2010.

Jacqueline Ryan is much more traditional in her approach to getting colour onto metal  – she uses enameling – but the way she makes up her pieces, from tiny units inspired by the natural world is just breathtaking:

Jacqueline Ryan

Jacqueline Ryan

Jacqueline Ryan - Sketchbook Image

And then there’s Stephanie Tomczak who combines enamel and natural materials to superb effect, bringing out the wonderful qualities of each:

Stephanie Tomczak, Oceanic Gems Collection

Stephanie Tomczak, Oceanic Gems Collection

Press Form Practice #4

So, where was I with my press forming?

Ah, yes – earrings:

I’ve played around with the balance and hang of the larger piece a little more and I think I’m finally settled. I much prefer slightly asymmetric shapes to the precise structure of symmetrical ones – these look a little more like the fish/boats and sea of the coast that inspired them. I’ve got some new etching patterns in mind to decorate them too.

So far the range is shaping up like this:

though there’s at least another large brooch form already cut and waiting to be sampled on my bench …

Beside the Scottish seaside …

It’s odd to think that a week ago I was in Scotland … now I’m back in England and it’s muggy, rainy and generally not looking like summer at all. Still, I went to a beautiful wedding yesterday which has made up for the weather (a little) – though I won’t feel like I’m home until I’ve been through the stack of emails that piled up while I was away.

I got to go to the beach while I was up north, Mr Williams and I took a day trip to St Andrews – which turns out to be a town with more than just golf going for it. There’s the gorgeous Alchemia Gallery on one of the main streets and some most delicious ice cream sellers too – I recommend the chocolate at the place on Market Street!

From a distance the town is dominated by the ruins of a castle and a cathedral. The graveyards around the cathedral are a fascinating mix of old and new tombstones from the 1500′s to the modern day.

As you can see it was a gorgeous day – I had a few preconceptions about Scottish weather overridden last week and I actually managed to get sunburnt too!  The beach there is gorgeous, I live in the Midlands so I seize upon any chance to get out to the sea that I can. I wasn’t disappointed:

There’s a huge stretch of sand peppered with these tiny little pebbles:

I always end up bringing handfulls of pebbles back form the seaside – they’re just so darn pretty and, unlike traditional facetted stones, they have such wonderfully organic shapes that I could just gaze at forever. This time I looked for truly tiny pebbles to put into my Flotsam range … so keep an eye out for these turning up in a piece some time soon.