This week kicked off with "…

How could I forget?

In my last post, I completely forgot to note that I'd also taken a trip to the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham for the opening of the ACJ "Choice!" show there on the Friday night. This is the 2016 edition of the annual show of work by members and we were…

This week has been taken up with the tough paperwork exercises of re-writing the whole curriculum at the School of Jewellery to make it more dynamic and flexible. We've taken the opportunity to make the whole thing more craft-based, which is…

I've genuinely been run off my feet for the last couple of weeks, what with the change in modules for the students, my usual commitments as well as getting the new house ready to move into, so this is just going to be a super-fast resume of what happened this week...



First up was the last of the four "speed projects" for the BA Jewellery and Related Products at work. This week they were looking at 'Speculative Futures' and imagining the type of technology they would like to see in…

I would never have imagined in January of this year that I would end up in such a different situation from the one I was in...



January

A busy month, making up work for…

Exhilarating and exhausting.

I'm recovering in Brighton for a long weekend with the howling winds of "Storm Clodagh" driving rain at the windows, a warm sofa and a raft of Hammer Horror films to watch and pizza from our favourite…

The main event this week has been completing my watch and chain for the ACJ exhibition "Sleight of Hand". The last element to be completed was the fitting of a glass to the 1838 silver watch-case which was…

Jan Donaldson

At last I can reveal the "secret project" I have been working on for the last month for "The Contemporary Jewellery Exchange 2015" in which various contemporary jewellers around the world create pieces which they send to each other. I didn't want to…

I've been on holiday! Last thing on my bench were the silver "rabbit in a hat" charms, one of which I managed to set and polish:

This one has 24 x 1.8mm garnets round it and I'm making others with…

What a week! Not only have we been finishing off with the students for the year - and sometimes for ever, really - but I've been doing my best to help Karen Dicken to get the "Handmade By Machines" exhibition and…

I don't know what has happened over the last few months but there seems to be an unstoppable maelstrom of creative energy centred over Scotland. Perhaps it is the fact that I've become more active in the creative culture around me but I feel that there is something amazing brewing here and I am not exactly sure what it is. Everywhere I go, I'm surrounded by people who are not only sparking with ideas but who spark ideas in me. There is a creative synergy which is driving everyone to new…

Further to yesterday's post, I now have the professional photographs of the codpiece, taken by Simon Murphy: 

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My first inkling of the impending festive season... I've been invited to make a precious decoration for the ACJ show at Goldsmiths' Hall! The Goldsmiths' Hall already have their own line of decorations. Mine will be somewhat different, using some of my beloved sewing-machine needles: 

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