More lovely vivid work

These pieces are by my good friend Margaret Hopley. They are currently being exhibited at the North York Moors National Park Office, Moors Centre, Danby, North Yorkshire. The exhibition runs until 5th October. As you can see she works in a wide variety of media. These images are a leaded glass and a mosaic panel, part of a large framed felt panel and a panel in enamel on copper. What beautiful vivid colours they are.

Introduction to art clay silver

On Saturday I ran a class for eleven friends over in a really pretty village near Thirsk. This was their first introduction to art clay silver and a very creative bunch of people they were. I gave them a short talk about the possibilities and showed them a few examples then they were straight into the making process. I love the way in which everyone is able to make something which reflects their own personality and their enthusiasm throughout the day was wonderful. We had a fantastic lunch and then they finished off their pieces of jewellery. Everyone had made two or three wearable items and were delighted with the things they had produced. Here are a couple of pictures showing some of them finishing off their work and a few of the things they made.

Exhibition at the North Yorkshire Moors Centre, Danby

My friend Margaret Hopley and I are exhibiting (and hopefully selling) work at the North Yorkshire Moors Centre, Danby until the 4th October. Today was our first day and it took us until around 2pm just to set up.

It does look lovely now it is all set up though, I hope you agree?

I am showing some enamel panels and a selection of pieces of jewellery and Margaret has enamel panels, felt, stained glass and mosaics. The pictures below are some of Margaret's and you can see just how much she loves colour.

More Museum

I have spent another interesting day at the museum. It is always a bit of a luxury being able to spend time just looking at objects and I tell myself it is an essential part of my research and development for my Inspired by Heritage project. Out of the many thousands of objects I could look at today I have had another look at some of the things in the current exhibition 'Men and Whales' including some fantastic large whale bones; beautiful carvings and drawings by Captain Scoresby Junior.

The most exciting bit of news is that I was recently confirmed as Deputy Keeper of the Museum. At the moment it feels like a huge responsibility but I am enjoying the idea of continuing the link I have with all the enthusiastic members of the team of mainly volunteers who keep the museum running, helping the established members of that teams and hopefully even encouraging a few new volunteers to get involved.

Work in progress

The week has flown by in a bit of a blur. I have been concentrating on finishing work ready for Christmas exhibitions and also working on a series of charms. Some of the charms relate to my residency at Whitby Museum and others are for the themed exhibition at the Art Clay Conference over on Jersey. The theme for the art clay conference is travel. As it is a competition where members can vote for their favourite piece I can't show you any pictures yet.

Another lovely day

It has been mild and sunny and a lovely day here. I began by working in the studio but was soon tempted out into the garden for my morning coffee break. The sun is in our back garden in the morning and doesn't get around to the front of the studio until afternoon.

I have been doing more work in dyed anodised aluminium ready for Christmas exhibitions (yes, Christmas!). The work has to be delivered within the next few weeks. I haven't done much work in aluminium recently but am really enjoying it at the moment.

This afternoon I sat outside to work for a while, setting myself up at my little blue garden table. You can see the shadow line in this picture but the sun gradually moved around through the afternoon.

Here are the new batch of bangles, similar to yesterday's work really!

Back to work

After a lovely weekend meeting up with old friends; making new ones and looking, talking, thinking enamelling, it is back to work. It seems like ages since I did any new work in aluminium so I have enjoyed playing around with the colours. It is totally the opposite of enamelling. I am splashing colour around and here is the result.

Home is

I have just finished off this, my first bangle using Robert Dancik's Faux Bone. I have been working on it, on and off for the past week but wanted to be able to wear it this weekend as I am going away for a few days. I have always got homesick when I travel away but have a little version of 'home' down in Warwick (a narrow boat).

This weekend I will going on a visit to see some historic examples of enamelling in Bath on Friday and then to a regional workshop of the Guild of Enamellers in Shrewsbury on Saturday, learning something about using transfers on enamel with Jane Moore.