East Neuk Open Studios 2019

2019’s open studios has been and gone. The weather was lovely and lots of people visited; and several people bought pieces or commissioned new work.

Commissions included a charm bracelet as a gift for a niece in Canada, which included a dolphin from the Firth of Forth; and a neck piece using an piece of carved peat that was a brooch from my childhood. I’ll show progress on this piece in a later post.

A sea water patinated bowl went to a new home as did a sea drift necklace.

It’s always good to show people my work and studio and I particularly like new commissions.

Packing list NEOS 2

I’m trying out this copper/silver alloy bowl on a patinated mokume gane disc. I’ve tried other stands, but the bowl ‘stands’ well on its own, so I’m going for something simple that highlights the blue patina.

There will be some of my charm jewellery going to Art in the Buchat, Glenbuchat as well. I gave it a little polish and its tucked up in its boxes now waiting to charm visitors from Friday, 7th September.

 

Stone to Bowl model making

 I make my models using beeswax from a beekeeper who lives near St Andrews. She and her bees make lovely wax that smells delicious and is just right for making models.

I  started small but wanted to make fine models to challenge the techniques. I made finger tip rings by dipping my fingers in the melted wax. These then need to have pouring stalks added (sprues). They are then ready to be dipped in the clay mix to build up the mould.

After successfully casting finger tip rings I moved on to small bowls which were made by dipping clay bowls in wax and adding pouring stalks.

 

Stone to bowl – finger tips

A bit of a leap forward in time. These are the first pieces cast in copper from beeswax lost-wax models dipped in clay mix. I’ll explain the process more later.

The finger tips are a simple development of the work that I was doing in Munich and were a good test of the process, being very fine but also small. I like that they are handmade by me for my hands; and exemplify the whole process- having been made using environmentally-friendly, traditional processes.

The surface finish is pitted, but I like this and I plan to make more. It would be fun to do a community finger project.

Takako Selway and I will do some filming of the process for her film about “Hands Making”

Cambo stables exhibition

Still time to drop into the new visitor heritage centre at Cambo and see some artworks. Some local artists, including Keny Drew, Judith Heald and Linda Jackson, have a horse stall each to display their work. This is mine.

It’s a lovely display area and there are interesting displays about the history of the estate and the stables.

Most days you will find the cafe and shop open as well.

also your eyes may focus better than my photos…

They reopen 4th January 2018.

Heart charm bracelet

This one has lots of hearts, a dolphin, a lucky stone with a hole and a moonstone (so it’s super suited for Valentines). Solid silver throughout and several unique charms. Pieces can be added or taken away too….

Charm bracelets

This is a silver charm bracelet that I finished for Christmas. It’s a commission for a friend with a piece from the Thames foreshore, from the beach in Fife, a witch stone from New Zealand for luck, a silver threepence and a part of an old earring. So it’s quite special, includes lucky amulets and each piece has a story. I plan to do more for Valentine’s Day.

Iron cups

The iron pour at the Sculpture Workshop went well. (Steve and I ran the furnace under the eagle eye of George Beasley and Eden Jolly) This is the iron piece that I showed the sand mould for in my last post. The found metal, probably copper, from the beach is now included in the iron.

This cup has a flat piece of beach copper in it:-

And this has some copper nails that featured in a post in January:-

The heat of the iron has melted the copper through to the outside of the cup.

 

Iron Pour prep

This is a teaser photo of preparations for the iron pour that Steve and I ran at the weekend. It is the inside of a sand mould for an iron beaker vessel. I have put a piece of copper alloy from my beach combing into the mould to see what happens.

I now know what happened, but you will have to wait….

The pour was a great success thanks to George Beasley, Steve, Eden and the rest of the team at SSW. Thanks also to Charles Clark for the mould boxes.

Four at Fifty-three