Some readers might remember that in February of this year, I spent an evening in Dundee for the launch of Kate Pickering's fantastic project, Vanilla Ink, a shop, a community, a support network, a workshop. Today was the first day of the workshop project going live, the first intake of real graduates into the year-long mentor-supported world of…

Well, it is all over for another year. The work is done, the results are out and my students are off into the big bad world. Last night (Friday) was the first night of their degree show - which they shared with the BA Visual Arts students - and I have to say that I am very proud of their efforts.

For various reasons, notably the late-arrival of the all-essential bar, I've not had a chance to photograph everyones' work, so I will be posting later next week with updates of photographs…

I wanted to have this piece finished for Hallowe'en but things got in the way, so here is my Spoon Skull Cross, a bit of fun made from iron wire from a building site in Brighton, a rusted bolt, some flat ground tool steel from a derelict workshop, a silver souvenir teaspoon, silver, copper, rubies, sapphire, garnets and carnelian:

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Three degree shows in two days!

First up was the show at Glasgow School of Art, being held for the last time in the Newberry Tower building at GSA after 40 years of being the home of the department. Much as I really like the building, this show showed all-too-clearly why it was time to move: 19 people in one dark space. It didn't really work very well. Not to let that detract from the work. In a way, I am quite sad about the demise of this building as I really rather like it, but…