Today was the last full day in the workshop before I shut for just over two weeks. I'll be in for the morning tomorrow, the workshop festive breakfast, the "Secret Santa" and then heading off to…

 Another two-week hiatus between posts and it is only because I've been too busy to be able to find a moment to write things down. So much has happened, from being asked if I were "eligible" for inclusion in a list of "eligible bachelors" - my non-bachelor…

I've been in the workshop for two whole days now, finishing up my "sautoir/parure" which imagines the jewellery which Chanel (probably with the help of Fulco Verdura) would have…

Since I last made an entry here - eleven days ago, which is, I know, remiss - so much has been going on, with my birthday right in the middle.



The aftermath of the Scottish Style Awards was one very unstylish bump on the head when I took a box of the top of a cupboard and a roll of steel-reinforced kevlar fell from it. The edge caught me and I ended up scuffed:…

A while back I received an unusual commission from fellow-jeweller, Poppy Porter, to make a piece using some titanium components from an F1 racing car. The pieces are beautifully-engineered and milled from solid blocks of metal.…

I completely forgot that I spent some time during the conference over the weekend speaking to Rachel Skene - a friend and colleague of Patty Niemann's in Caithness - talking about her project "You Love Local". This is a scheme which aims to promote handmade and craft products by not only tracking products from start to finish but also to by giving them a "narrative", something of their back-story. She is also planning a level of managed quality…

What a week! There was a bank-holiday here on Monday, so it has been quick and packed and suddenly I find it is Thursday evening, nearly the weekend already.



Continuing with finishing off projects, I have completed my last "Tank" bracelet, this one more in my usual style and called "The Spoils Of War":…

Many years ago, I realised that Alexander McQueen was not a couturier in the usual sense of the word. It was his commission of the collar from Shaun Leanne for his 2001 catwalk show which drew my attention to his work - the collar is a stunning assembly of lethal silver spikes and grey pearls, seen at 7:40 in the video below - and the show just blew me away. From that moment on, I never thought of McQueen as a clothing designer but as a sculptor, a critic, an historian, someone with a…

I was so excited about the "Tank" bracelet that I made in a minimal style last week that I have started to make three more, two in the ultra-minimal style of the first, using only silver and one large…

Continuing with my determination to finish all the unfinished work in the workshop, today saw me start on one of the pair of knife/pendants made from a pair of broken vintage scissors. I originally got the idea for…

What a few weeks! Ever since Madelyn Smoak reminded me that some years ago - 2009 - I had started to make a set of Chimæric cutlery, I've been working furiously to finish all the work which, over the years, has been started and left incomplete. I am determined that there will be no unfinished work by Christmas!



There were a few projects which I knew about, having put them aside to work on commissions or exhibition work…

Continuing with my resolution to clear the workshop of unfinished projects, I finally completed my piece "Twisted: For Annie Ross" today.

Made from a piece of cast-iron which I found on a bit of derelict…

In case anyone didn't see my little conversation on Twitter, I have decided to complete all the partially-completed projects in my workshop, including…

The new edition of Metalsmith, the annual "Exhibition in Print" is fantastic. Susan Cohn curates "As Seen By Others: Photography As Strategy", an exhibition which I didn't enter as I didn't really think that it would be very interesting, nor did I think that it applied to my work. Now I am kicking myself for being so short-sighted, especially after the day I have just spent in…

One of my students made my day today by giving me a load of old silversmithing hammers which she had bought as part of a job-lot of tools from a workshop which was closing down!

Other than that, I've…

Since returning from Istanbul, it has been non-stop in the workshop, preparing work for orders and making some new pieces too. I've sidelined a number of works-in-progress in order to get on with more pressing issues, so there are no updates on my Chanel-inspired piece or my tribute to Alexander McQueen, though I have progressed apace with my first foray into electronics in jewellery, "14th Century Nightlife" which I hope to finish finally this coming week after it sitting on my bench for…

Waa!

My wonderful, indispensible, reliable, cheerful, friendly, unflappable workshop technician, Fiona, is leaving on Thursday. She's found a better-paid job with more promotional prospects and she'll be superb. The students will all miss her and they arranged a lunch for her today, which was great fun.…

The crazy Easter Holiday is over, back from Istanbul, Brighton and the Bowie exhibition at the V&A - quite wonderful, well worth seeing if you are a Bowie fan, probably best avoided if you are not - and back into the workshop. I've been there for a week now, but it has been so hectic that it feels like I've never been away.



My first morning back, I had agreed to help the Physical Education department to train their new personal trainers, so I was sweating buckets on a…