This last week has been taken up by exploring a fairly new material with the pleasingly forthright Ronda Coryell, a delightful Amercian woman who is an expert in the use…

While it is absolutely not the case that everyone who voted to leave the EU is a racist - far from it, I would think - the language of the 'campaign' to leave certainly was racist. Who can forget Farage's appalling poster which shows Syrian refugees leaving their country:…

This broach is inspired by a the cover from a wastewater access point that I passed on the road every day in Vienna on…

This detailed bespoke neckpiece was designed and made for the Disney's film Alice Through the Looking Glass. The film’s costume designer Colleen Atwood wanted a 'mayoral chain' style of neckpiece for Sacha Baron…

Regular followers of this blog will be aware of my republican views and that I find the concept of a monarchy not only outdated but offensive to any sense of democracy or egalitarianism.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…

Artists created kinetic brooches from a kit with Halstead components, some of which were featured in an exhibition at Blue Spiral 1 Gallery during SNAG^neXt in May 2016. The brooches were for sale during…

A year has passed since I was invited to show at The Scottish Gallery, a lovely space in New Town, Edinburgh - it was my first exhibition out of the country.  There were many things for me to learn about shipping and pricing for another currency, just the mechanics of it all.  The gallery staff were supportive and…

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…

The Michigan Silversmith Guild is pleased to issue this call for entry for our upcoming Jewelry & Objects exhibition, juried by Billie Theide. The exhibition will be held at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center Birmingham, MI from Sept 9-Oct 15, 2016. For more information and application (see attachment) or go misilversmith.org or contact janice.degen@gmail.com. Deadline: May 13, 2016

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…

Hello friends and colleagues,

Some of you might be aware that this Fall marks the 40th year Harlan will have taught at the University of North Texas. In celebration of this, we are working hard to raise enough funds to permanently endow the student scholarship that Harlan started. Part of this effort is the creation of a Harlan-inspired activity book that is now…