Autumn

I have spent quite a long time today sorting out glass beaded jewellery ready to send off for an exhibition. I have also been thinking about a new website, although difficult to decided whether to just stick with the very simple thing I have and keep on with the blog alongside it.

I have also been sorting out new images ready to have a batch of business cards and some postcards printed. Re-sizing the images for print always seems to take twice as long as I expect it to, so the day is nearly over and I have been sitting at the computer screen for too much of it.

I have put some of my new images in as a slide show called Autumn 2009 so that you can see what I have been up to.

Beadwork

Today I have been in to the museum and had a lovely discussion with one of the volunteers on the curatorial team about this beautiful beaded purse. Inside was a small handwritten label saying that is is North American Indian Eastern Woodlands Culture. It is made of what seems to be a felt like black fabric with a sort of polished cotton lining and what may be silk binding around the edges (not that I know very much about textiles!). The beads are absolutely tiny and the triangular flap clearly folded over to close the purse - as there is an un-embroidered space on the other side.

One of the things I really love about Whitby Museum is that there are artefacts from many distant places which must have their own, often hidden, stories to tell about their respective journeys to Whitby.

Inspired by heritage

I have finished off one of my pieces for my Inspired by heritage residency project today. This bracelet is inspired by a number of objects from the museum collection of Whitby Museum. The patterns on both sides of the pieces are made using photo polymer plates. I have made the plates from photographs of objects in the museum collections.

On the underlying surface the patterns are created from photographs of spears made from wood and shark teeth. On the top or outer curve the patters are from pressed flowers preserved in the herbaria and not usually on display. The design of the form used to make the shapes is inspired by this beautiful shell necklace from the Pacific which is part of the ethnographic collections and currently on display in the Cook and Scoresby room of the museum. The very textured inner curve also has gold applied using the tradition technique of keum boo.

The piece has been oxidised and then highlights polished back up.

Holiday time

I have just had a brilliant holiday in Rome which has to be one of my favourite places. My partner and I worked out that it was the sixth time we had visited Rome and it is really great to be able to find your way around. One of the things I love is that it is fairly compact and usually we walk everywhere. This time we used the buses more as we had our Roma Passes, which get you a discount entry into some of the museums and all inclusive travel on the buses and trams within the city. Looking through my photographs they seem to be mainly buildings and food. Back to work now though, inspired again! The photo is part of an Egyptian statue and I loved the intricately carved marble collar.

Men and Whales

The current exhibition at Whitby Museum is called Men and Whales and is on the history of whaling. It is an interesting and thought provoking exhibition and, as usual has a huge number of stunning artefacts from the museum collection. It also has a number of artefacts borrowed from Hull's Maritime Museum.

There are historic logs and journals of ships involved in whaling; strips of baleen and artefacts demonstrating the many uses of whale products. There are also stunning photographs and quotations from Inuit people whose lives and communities still maintain their relationships with whales. One of the quotations to create an impression upon me dated from 1994. Nikolai Gal,gaugye of Sireniki said 'As they (the whales) pass by your skin boat, great and quiet, you immediately come to understand your place on the Earth, and you become warm inside'.

The exhibition includes a display of several large old bones and, even as an incomplete skeleton, these help to give the visitor some sense of the scale of these great creatures. I have visited the exhibition a number of times and each time am drawn to the wonderful shapes of the bones themselves. I am now in the process of using some of the shapes as inspiration for one of my bracelets in my 'Inspired by Heritage' project. The exhibition only has a few weeks left to run so I would encourage a visit if you are in the area.

Paper textures

At the recent Art Clay Conference I ran a very relaxed workshop showing how I use thick watercolour paper to create re-usable textures for rolling out clay. I will post more details when I get a bit of free time but in the meantime here are the three pieces of work made by my students.

I love the simplicity of this low-tech technique and although when I took these pictures the pieces were not fully burnished and finished hope you can see the fine detailed unique patterns that are possible.

More work from the Art Clay conference

Aida Corporation launched a new copper clay at the Art Clay Conference in Jersey. It can be fired directly in the kiln (without the need for an additional firing box and charcoal).

Here is my first piece,

a combination of the copper with art clay silver.

This flower pendant was created under the direction of one of the craftsmen from the Aida Corporation -

Mr Ryota Mituhashi with

Mr Daisuke Minagawa translating for us all.

As usual, this was an amazing experience.

I can see the potential for the use of the copper within

my work, although think I will need to do a lot of

testing first.