INFLUENCES AND PROCESSES

influences

light and shadow

I've always loved the warm sunrays that seep through the leaves of tall trees in the forest, casting beautiful intricate shadows on the forest floor. There's something so enchanting about the interplay of light and shade in the natural world that never ceases to captivate me.

colour

As an artist, I love vibrant colors and strive to incorporate them into my work wherever possible. I feel the bolder the better as they energise and add a pop of cheer to your day.

I enjoy contrasting and clashing colours (and patterns) which I put down to being a child of the 70’s where I was surrounded by them.

patterns and m.c. escher

I can remember as a child I’d gently press my hands onto my closed eyes until I saw patterns forming, triggering my lifelong love of them and opening my mind up to the nature of the universe.

later i discovered the Dutch printmaker M.C.Escher and his magical art. i find his mathematical approach, using sacred geometry, fascinating. allowing for beautiful patterns to be made from seemingly anything..

I’m inspired to make my own patterns by doubling and trebling them together to create new ones and mixing them up for endless possibilities.

icons

growing up there were two photos of my mum that i adored and claimed as mine. she was only about 16 years old in them and i thought she looked so beautiful, like the old movie stars. the first image of her was my inspiration to do the stencilled faces and you can see some of my earliest college work where I used it.

The 2nd photo of my mum reminded me so much of andy warhol’s liz taylor and my stencil changed to looking more like that. i was then inspired to do more iconic looking women.

Sadly my beautiful wee mum passed away in 2022. Her name was Shirley.

processes

How i make your jewellery

Handmade jewellery takes time and there are multiple processes involved in making even a simple ring. as the piece gets more complicated more processes are added.

I make all of the elements of the jewellery by hand except for chains which i buy either loose then add my own parts to, or finished.

I use metal sheet, wire, glass, and enamel powders as raw materials.

Design

I usually design digitally and use photography to help me visualise my ideas. I also tend to improvise on the bench, especially when creating something new.

Disc-cutting

Disc cutters are tools I use to hammer out shapes in metal. I have several different shapes and I punch the metal out using a brass hammer.

sawpiercing

My favourite thing to do is sawpierce. I drill holes in my metal (pierce) to enable me to get my blade through it to then saw the metal out.

metal forming

I use mandrels and hammer my metal around them to take their shape. I also use many types of pliers and metal benders to shape my metal.

soldering

Soldering. is how i connect my metal parts together and I do this by using a flame to melt solder at the points where they join.

glass casting

I place glass (frit) into moulds I've made then melt it at very high temperatures so that it takes the form of the mould.

enamelling

Enamel is powdered glass added to silver or copper then fired in a kiln or with a torch on the bench giving the work beautiful colours.

polishing

Polishing is time consuming and is done after filing and sanding for both silver and glass. Enamel comes out of kiln highly polished so doesn't need to be done.

Is there anything you'd like to know?

Please do ask me anything about my work and i will happily tell you