Colour and Texture Collaboration

As an admirer of the work of many others I thought it would be a good idea to show you that of an artist I particularly like and whose work I feel has a synergy with my own and I really hope to make this a regular feature of my blog.

I recently did a mini interview with Mhairi Wild, designer of utterly beautiful knitted and felted accessories. I asked her the following and would like to thank her for taking part:-

Where do you get the inspiration for your designs?
The Scottish coastal communities that I have visited and researched form the basis for much of my inspiration.  The colour, texture and narrative all play a part.  A constant companion on these trips is the work of poet Thomas A Clark, more specifically, ‘Distance and Proximity’.  The visual patterning and imagery of the written word throws up inspiration in equal measure, and is a core part of my work.  So far the Island communities of Easdale, Seil, Mull, Iona, Harris and Lewis, are among the list of inspirational settings and more recently, Cromarty, Auchmithie, and Crovie on the East coast of the Scottish mainland.

Is there a craft medium that you've always had a hankering to try?
I’ve always fancied trying my hand at ceramics.  I’ve dabbled a bit in the past, but would like to develop my skills to perhaps incorporate ceramics and textiles in some way.

If you could see one famous person wearing your designs, who would it be?
Without hesitation, I’d say Tilda Swinton.  I’m a great admirer of her cinematic and community work.  She is well known for supporting the Arts, across the board.  I think she would like the flexibility of my ‘gather’ scarves as they work well as a statement piece and are just as happy worn with a big jacket and wellies.

Where can fans buy your work?
My work is available online from Papa Stour, and baffie.  My biggest retailer is Concrete Wardrobe, Broughton Street, Edinburgh, where I am launching a new extended range with homewares, and new gathers on 1^st August.  Sheila Fleet Gallery in Kirkwall is my Orkney retailer, with The Tayberry Gallery holding my work, a bit closer to home.  I’m diversifying into luxury handpainted yarns, inspired by the islands, and am working on a new woven textiles collection for Winter 2012-13.

These stunning designs from Mhairi caught my eye for the rich colour and texture and three dimensional quality she manages to achieve.  They are statement pieces.  The skinny scarf is part of her very latest collection. Please do make sure that you visit her website and either treat your self or make sure that everyone around you knows what's on your Christmas list!  You can find Mhairi
 Wild at www.mhairiwild.co.uk

The View From The Tate

Colour and texture have long been my inspiration and my anodised aluminium jewellery lets me fully explore that and you will see from the images below that I was naturally drawn to Mhairi's work as it similar in concept to my own whilst being in a completely different medium. It would be wonderful to think that some day both of our designs will be worn together.

Sandstorm In The Desert

As you can see, we have often used similar colours in our work and I particularly love to introduce a texture which I achieve by using layers of powdered pigments, alcohol inks, aluminium inks and aluminium dyes.

For further information see www.slicksilverjewellery.co.uk

Inspirations

This week, whilst still exploring and learning about online marketing, I have been thinking about the sorts of things that inspire me.  Really I'm yearning to start making again, but physically my shoulder hasn't recovered enough for that yet - so let's take a look at my inspiration board.  It sits obediently at the side of my workbench and I glance at it periodically, but I'm not entirely sure that I'm using it as I should.  It's covered in pictures I really like, postcards, odd ideas that I've tried (some of them really odd!!), love notes, business cards, application forms, a couple of little paintings by my husband etc, but does all that just make it a noticeboard??? When does a noticeboard become an inspiration board anyway? I feel like it needs to fulfill it's potential by being draped with beautiful swatches, colour charts and the like and perhaps I'm letting it down a little - holding it back as it were.



Reticulated Sterling Silver Pendant
 with Blue Seaglass



So here's the thing. I like having somewhere to keep the bits I don't want to throw away. If I'm really honest, my inspiration comes from what I see outside the house.  I can go into raptures over the colour and texture of an old stone wall, rusty metal, lichen (don't get me started!), the bark of a tree and whilst I don't always try to recreate those textures, I do believe that they show in my work, particularly in my reticulated silver. 

Recently on honeymoon in St Ives we spent a great deal of time in galleries, in fact, there were few we missed in the area.  There are a couple of places that I particularly love that we visited again and previous visits had led me to some designs.  The first is Barbara Hepworth's studio and garden.  Her amazing scultpures immediately make me wish I was at my bench. My other favourite place is the Tate overlooking the beach, particularly out on the rooftop coffee shop on a gorgeous sunny day.  I don't think there's a more stunning view.  Recently I was colouring a sheet of aluminium, and as I've said previously, I'm never quite sure what the final result will be, but as soon as this particular sheet came out of the dye bath I knew what it would be called.  This collection is called The View From The Tate and if you've ever visited the area and seen the amazing light you'll know what I meant.

The View From The Tate Cuff and Pendant (there's also earrings available) and indeed the silver pendant above are all available from me should anyone be interested in buying them by contacting me at info@slicksilverjewellery.co.uk

or through my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/SlickSilver-Jewellery/241037522592328 or you can contact me on Twitter at SlickSilverJ

One final shoutout this week to my lovely Twitter friend S L Jewellery and Accessories.  She wrote a great blog about me but she also makes beautiful wedding jewellery and button bouquets which deserve a look so check out her site at http://www.sljewelleryandaccessories.co.uk/

What A Week That Was!

Well folks, last week I promised to be a more regular blogger and here I am and what a week it's been! If you recall I wrote that I planned to get to grips with my online presence and I have since realised just how little I know. I started off by emailing my good Twitter friend http://www.sljewelleryandaccessories.co.uk/ to ask her what I should do.  She, bless her, sent two very detailed emails about increasing this and that and I didn't understand much of it at all so I realised 'Huston - we have a problem'!!! Now I know when I'm defeated and whilst we didn't have slates and chalk when I was at school, we didn't have computers either so I've acquired my skills through work and play (my greatest skill being shopping!!) so time for some more formal learning.  This came in the form of an ebook from Pete Mosley called Make Your Creativity Pay which I duly read and which was very good.  It explained the whys and wherefores of having a good web presence from a creative perspective. So far, so good. Another Twitter friend http://www.shellybobbins.blogspot.com/ asked me if I would like to be involved in a feature on her 20,000 visitor celebratory blog and of course I said yes and donated a couple of pieces of jewellery for her to give away as a prize.  This kind of took the brakes off!!! As a result my Twitter account was getting a lot of action and it was pointed out to me that I only had a Facebook group and not a page where people could like my work.  Oh dear I confess that I got into a bit of a kerfuffle and made things a lot more complicated than they needed to be which resulted in a telephone call from Shelly and her daughter who talked me through putting it all right - they shall be sainted! Anyway as a result I have a bright shiny spanking new Facebook page where you can 'like' me! http://www.facebook.com/pages/SlickSilver-Jewellery/241037522592328  Poppies Wide Cuff http://slicksilverjewellery.co.uk/A200.htm  I am now drowning in a weighty tome about online marketing which should keep me out of mischief whilst my shoulder continues to mend. Onwards and upwards with my jewellery though and I've been asked if I make aluminium rings and I didn't before but I shall in the future so look out for those and one of my cuffs was featured on http://www.guildedgems.co.uk/ so all in all an exciting but exhausting week!



The Frustrations Of A Recovering Designer/Maker

Hello world, 

A lot has happened since I last blogged and it is my intention to be a more frequent blogger from now on! The most major change since last time is that I got married and anyone who wants to see a picture, scroll down to the bottom of the page for a sneaky look!  As you can probably tell, it was for the second time but it really was the most fantastic sunny day to get married by the sea to a wonderful man with our families and friends around us.  Following the wedding we had a honeymoon in a former artists' studio in St Ives and spent all of our time wandering around galleries, partly getting inspiration for new work, partly meeting inspiring people and just occasionally thinking that our work was ok after all!! An hour or two peace and quiet in Barbara Hepworth's garden led to some new ideas for jewellery being sketched out for trial at a later date.

The second major thing to happen to me recently, just two weeks ago, was planned surgery on my right shoulder and yes I am right-handed!  I sadly oiled my tools, tidied my bench and shut the door on my studio for a while.  I know that it will be some time yet before I have enough movement and little enough pain to be able to venture in there again.  Because I knew that I would be having surgery I worked hard beforehand to build up a store of new designs.  Part of my plan for my recovery time has been to work on my online presence and to convince myself that marketing is fun.  Like most creative people I would much rather make jewellery than try to sell my work, however, my bank balance does not approve.  As I've now got to the stage where I can move my arm from the elbow down ok, it's time to get on with some laptop based work and to resist the urge to buy things!

At the bottom of my blog you will see where you can buy my work from and whilst I do hope that you will take the time to have a look, it caused me to ponder whether people like buying jewellery online.  I'm always open to ideas about how to best present my work so please let me know if you have any suggestions. 

So, for the rest of this week I shall continue to rest and be waited upon whilst my reluctant mind absorbs computery stuff and I pick the brains of my long-suffering other half and Twitter friends.

See you here next week!

Pulling In Different Directions

I have a minor problem - I want to make lots of different things.  Great, you might think - but no, because you see I get most of my ideas when I'm driving to and from my day job and as it's an hour each way, I've often forgotten part of the idea by the time I could do something about it!  I find myself thinking through a process to try or part of a design or a technique but when I get into my studio - pouffff - gone!! I don't know if I've always been that way, or whether too many ideas are crashing around inside my brain or whether, in fact, it's an age thing (hopefully not, I prefer the scatty idea!).
On a slightly larger scale my pull comes from wanting to spend all my time working in anodised aluminium because I love the painterly aspect of the way I use it and the feeling that I owe it to my roots to continue to work in silver and other metals in a more traditional way. Hmmmmm, a thinker, because I still love creating a beautiful piece of silver jewellery, but I feel excited by the unpredictable nature of dyeing aluminium.  There's something about creating a design, whether it's freehand painting, digital images or a mixture, dyeing it and then watching it take on a luminosity when it's cut and shaped.  I sometimes end up with a bit of an uninspiring dyed sheet which suddenly comes to life when made up into jewellery.  It never fails to surprise me.  The only time I get the same buzz from working with silver is when I reticulate it, because again, I can achieve some really beautiful textures that are seemingly out of my control.  Scientifically I suppose I am in charge of the processes which result in these happy surprises, but I have learned to recognise that I work best when faced with material I've created.  I've tried having a formal design and then working to it, but I've generally been much happier cutting up my material, silver or anodised aluminium, to make the most of the process I've used on it.
Well, onwards and upwards, maybe I'll go and reticulate some silver or perhaps dye some aluminium - you never know what I might come up with............