North Yorkshire Open Studios '10

 I am now trying to sort the studio out and make it possible for visitors to have a 'safe' look around while still seeing what really does go on.  I am taking part in North Yorkshire Open Studios 2010 over the next two weekends.  There will be a huge range of artists taking part and a really interesting variety of venues.  Part of me wishes I could actually get out and visit a few of the other artists but I always enjoy welcoming visitors and trying to give them an insight into some of the techniques and materials used in my work.

As well as having work on display and for sale in my own studio I also have a number of pieces included in the exhibition Jewellery: Materials and Making at Whitby Museum.  The exhibition was due to close on 20th June but has been extended now and will remain open daily, Tuesday to Sunday, until July 11th.

There will also be a number of pieces in the Inspired by Heritage exhibition at the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate.  The exhibition is open from 11th June until 18th July, Tuesday to Saturday 10am until 5pm and Sundays 2pm until 5pm.  The Mercer Art Gallery is on Swan Road, Harrogate, HG1 2SA.

Equivalent

e·quiv·a·lent  (-kwv-lnt)

adj.

1.

a. Equal, as in value, force, or meaning.

b. Having similar or identical effects.

Just thinking about a new piece of work for my 'Inspired by Heritage' project, 

Direction of travel, Ring 1

This is one of my Inspired by Heritage pieces.  It is a ring and is called 'Direction of Travel' and based on ideas about Captain Scoresby Junior.  He was captain of a whaling ship and did many experiments relating to magnetism with the aim of improving ships compasses.  This is the same Captain Scoresby who did the beautiful drawings of snowflakes that I used for inspiration for earlier work.

This ring is also trying to capture ideas about essentials of life and finding the way home again.  It has a tiny working compass embedded in resin together with bits of red thread.  The compass did originally say 'water proof' but I sanded the 'proof' bit away just leaving the words water and compass before I embedded it.  The compass actually shows up more clearly in this photograph than it does really.

Today's ring

I was planning to go into the museum today but put it off as the weather forecast was so bad - actually turned out not to be as bad as expected, anyway, I did spend the day in the studio working on a few ideas.  Here is my Ring a day contribution for today.  This is made using a scrap of silver left in the bottom of my workbench after I had cut out the shapes making the 'Necklace for the Plant Collector's wife'.  It is made using a technique called fold forming.  This is something I was introduced to by Jill Leventon when I spent a fantastic day in her studio in Shrewsbury early  last year.  Jill will be one of the tutors at the Guild of Enamellers annual conference at Nottingham in April running a workshop on press and fold forming.

Remember me, ring or pendant

A reference to memory in the circle, flame and the ruby set into the faux bone and the shape inspired by pieces of whale bone from Whitby Museum.  The circle is also supposed to reference stitching (although I think I maybe should have drilled and stitched it with red thread).  It can be worn either as a ring or as a pendant, shown here on a ribbon hand dyed to match.  It is surprisingly comfortable for such a large piece but is also comforting to play with inside the hand.

It is made using Robert Dancik's Faux Bone sawn, filed, sanded and carved then dyed using with alcohol inks and re-sanded.  The ruby is a cabochon and is set by drilling a hole slightly smaller than the diameter of the stone, heating up the faux bone so that it becomes slightly soft and pushing the ruby in, then cooling the piece.

Misty Mawn's blog

I have following the blog of Misty Mawn for a short time and she has just posted a January Art Journal join in kind of thing.  From the comments of some of the followers it has obviously happened previously and her pages are so beautiful I have decided to attempt to join in.  Beginning next week she has chosen an artist to be inspired by each day.  I have given this quite a bit of thought while I was working in the studio and decided on Monet, Hokusai, Ansel Adams, Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt, Patrick Heron and Craigie Aitchison.  The Monet choice was partly as it linked it with the Art Bead Scene monthly theme and also with my current preoccupation with snow and birds.

This is my first attempt at making a felt bird.  I think it has somehow become a cross between a mallard and a swallow.  I only had some odd bits of wool a friend had given me a few years ago and very rarely make or wear anything in wool as I have an allergy to it.  I am still trying to work out ideas for a piece relating to all the birds in the museum - and really it should be a charm bracelet but I am fairly confident that will develop eventually.

Snow, ice and precious bones

Here is my bracelet inspired by the Scoresby collection in Whitby Museum.  The bracelet is call Snow, Ice and Precious Bones.  The glass beads are inspired by Captain Scoresby Junior's detailed drawings of snowflakes and the silver beads are based upon a number of pieces of whale bone that were on display in the recent exhibition on whaling.

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.

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.

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.

Flora and photo polymer plates

I have been experimenting with some of the photographs I have taken at Whitby Museum recently and trying to make them into photo polymer plates for using to texture art clay silver. This is all preparatory work for the jewellery I will be making as part of my Inspired by Heritage residency at the museum. I have used a variety of different types and thicknesses of plates but eventually decided that I like the thin plates with a steel backing. These seem to produce the delicate and still crisp image I am looking for. It has taken me quite a few days work though and lots of pieces that are not quite what I was looking for. Here are some of my photos converted to black and white together with some of the finished plates. There are quite a few steps to the process including printing high density images on ohp film so that they can be used as negatives when exposing the sensitive plates.

Design ideas

I am starting to sort out more ideas for my 'Inspired by Heritage' residency at Whitby Museum.  I have been looking at pictures I have taken and sketched a few things out.  I have also made a couple of test beads attempting to capture the essence of old maps made during the travels of Whitby's sea Captains.  I love the way in which they charted the depths and sometimes show the edges of land with the equivalent of contour lines as shadow lines around them.  

First 'Inspired by Heritage' set

Well here it is, not quite finished but at least I feel as though I am now making some progress with my residency at Whitby Museum. My project is to research through all aspects of the museum and produce a new collection of jewellery inspired by and reflecting the diversity.   I have spent some time looking at the information about the Captains Scoresby.They were father and son and each captained whaling ships. The younger William Scoresby was particularly remarkable for his scientific studies of arctic flora and fauna and of magnetism.  He surveyed and mapped the East Coast of Greenland and Jan Meyene Island north of Greenland and also studied the detailed forms of snowflakes, producing a remarkable series of drawings of them. More information can be found at http://www.whitbymuseum.org.uk/d12/scor/index.htm

Anyway, this is the beginning of my first real piece inspired by the museum collection.  I hope when it is finished it will reflect both the drama portrayed in prints of ships amongst the icebergs and the delicacy of Soresby's drawings of snowflakes.

Inspired by heritage

I have been reflecting on the progress of my residency at Whitby Museum and in particular the making of badges with visitors.  I have really enjoyed this but was not sure how it fitted in with my own work or with my plan for the residency.  I have spent quite a few days sketching in different areas of the museum but was still feeling quite confused by the variety and quantity of inspiring artefacts, but enjoying all the shapes and patterns.  At the same time I have had other work to focus on.  In April it will be the 30th annual conference of the Guild of Enamellers and the theme for the members exhibition this year is texture.  In May I am going up to Edinburgh one weekend to help Dorothy Cockrell run an enamelling workshop.  This is being organised for the Art Clay World UK Guild by Emma Baird (of The Little Beadshop - see link) and she needs a photograph for her publicity.  Then in October I will be a tutor at the Art Clay World UK Guild Conference in Jersey and, in my usual way, am already preparing examples for that.  Yesterday I spent the day working on some beads constructed in art clay silver with the aim of using them for all three events.  This morning I realised that, with all the badge making at the museum I am now happily designing within circles without even thinking about the constraints.  Now I need to dash back to the museum and sketch some more and will be on my way as soon as I have printed out a few more circles - definately Inspired by Heritage