Regular followers of this blog will be aware of my republican views and that I find the concept of a monarchy not only outdated but offensive to any sense of democracy or egalitarianism. Cake-maker extraordinaire, Claire Price (standing,…

It really seems incredible that this is the end of my first academic year at the School of Jewellery. So much has happened!

Over the last week, we've…

Not much to report this week, so I'll digress on the new garden in Birmingham, for where I have been struggling to find that most proasic of vegetables (fruits, I suppose): rhubarb. I have always thought I hated rhubarb but one day a few months back, my colleague, Claire Price, brought in a jar of jam for us to eat at one of our regular staff breakfasts. I tucked in without giving it much thought and marvelled at the balance of sour and sweet, at the hint of orange, at the amazing scent. It…

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 not posted for a while, for which I apologise. It isn't that there has been nothing happening or that I've been too busy: more that when I've had a spare moment or two, I've not felt like making a post.

SO this will be a bit of a longer post than usual as I've been in Brighton again, visited Farnham, and loads of other things besides. I also completely forgot that there should have been two other things of note in the last post: I gave my talk on New Technology as part of the…

This week kicked off with a visit to the Birmingham Rep theatre to hear the Music Theatre Wales production of a new opera by Scottish composer, Stuart MacRae, with a libretto by popular crime-writer, Louise Welsh,…

No blog post last weekend as I didn't get home from being in the Netherlands until late on Sunday night.

The…

It doesn't feel like three weeks since I last posted and fortunately there has been something of a lull in activities as I move house from the temporary rental into my new permanent location.



As I said a few posts back, the Earl of Bedlam is making me a new suit and the theme this time is "Mr Fox". I get real pleasure out of seeing the urban foxes which have appeared everywhere in the UK over the last 15 years or so (along with urban badgers and even deer) and I commissioned…

This week kicked off with a flying visit by two wonderful jewellers from Chile, Nano Pulgar and Claudia Betencourt of WALKA Studios in Santiago.

I was introduced to them by Anastasia Young and as…

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…

Not much to report this week. I think that everything seems to quieten down for this dark period between new year and spring. I've mostly been working on the house and getting the students through their first…

This week has been dominated by the arrival of David Poston at the School of Jewellery. a man of great intelligence, skill and charm who absolutely…

Back in Birmingham again and I've been doing a lot of work at my new house, including planning to remove this horrible wallpaper...

It seems that it is not possible to buy a house without finding a hideous wallpaper somewhere 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…

Almost.



A short post as I'm on holiday now in Brighton.

Last week was fairly quiet, finishing with a student lunch on Friday before we split up for the winter break. I did get a chance to finish the last commission for Christmas,…

Another bonanza of a week as I returned to work on Tuesday after a long weekend in Brighton to all my students handing in their first assessment, which I then spent the week marking and writing up. (Photographs in next…

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…