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.…

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…

Surely some joke?

Well, not really... I have to confess to having created something so minimal it surprised even me when it was finished:…

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…

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…

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…

Time for my teaching session, held in Hraç Arslanyan's "Mahrec Art House" workshops.

Hraç Arslanyan is an amazing jeweller, working with…

People familiar with my work may be surprised to learn that I use CAD (Rhino, primarily) as a design tool and that quite often, elements of my work are made using CAM processes, such as 3D milling of wax which is then cast in precious metals. My own approach to these technologies is not unique and while I don’t use them as a primary method of production, there are many makers who do – Janet Huddie,…

Well, not quite, but I did have to travel on a bus - which is nearly a handcart - the trains being cancelled due to a landslip.

Hull is an odd place. For the place in the UK with the highest rates of unemployment and some of the lowest property prices, it feels like a prosperous city. It is clean, it is busy, there are plenty of galleries and cafés. Adding to the oddness is the fact that it is in Yorkshire but while the buildings are completely as you would expect in that great county…

Just back to a cloudy, damp, icy cold day in Glasgow, having boarded the plane from San Francisco at 18 degrees C and brilliant sun. The air there was clear, here it is fugged with tobacco smoke. Everyone looks miserable. I look miserable. I have to get to work before 4pm for a meeting with the college Prinicpal at which he told us about financial cuts to the education sector. Not a great return from what was an amazing four days on the East Coast of the USA...

I am not really sure…