Some months ago I was contacted by Sia Corrina, the editor of a free, online magazine entitled "Serendipity" and asked if I would contribute to her "Apocalyptic Art" edition, Winter 2011. Of course, I agreed, but somewhere along the line then forgot that the article had been written, that the magazine was published and that I had work in it, along with two other Crafthaus artists, Francesca Gabrielli and…

Well, I was prepared to hate the opening ceremony for the Olympic games which was on last night (sorry that my friends in the US had a somewhat edited version of it) but I loved the crazy Britishness of it all. There were just so many fantastic moments! My two favourites were the pogo-ing creatures during the "Pretty Vacant" section and the bit which is of most interest to metalsmiths, the lighting of the unbelievably beautiful "Cauldron" for the flame.

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Sad to be leaving Pittsburgh.

As you can see, I had another night with Brigitte and we went to the Pittsburgh institution, Sarris, where we had the most gigantic banana splits I've ever seen. Delicious! I'm not…

I'll get to the robots in a moment. First of all, my class at the SCC... There isn't much to say about the class at the SCC as we weren't really making projects, more exploring techniques through making samples and finding ways of problem-solving for processes which the people in the class used. As such, I have no photographs of work to show. What I do have is a photograph of all the people involved:

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Or, as Will - above - would tell you, Yes You Can Wear That!

Last weekend, I spent a brilliant two days with some young peope at the Society for Contemporary Crafts in Pittsburgh running a workshop looking at creativity, oblique ways of looking at every day objects and the creation of jewellery from those objects. The…

Although it is almost a week since the event - I've been travelling and am now in Pittsburgh - I really should write up an exciting event I attended on Monday last week in London, "Cut In Clerkenwell" which is an exhibition at Craft Central by the Hand Engravers' Association in the UK, a most worthy body who have a highly talented and esteemed membership - including…

End of another academic year, I've cleared my bench of everything to allow the summer-school lecturer to use it. As some of you already know, I am off to PITTSBURGH next week and will be at the SCC for a short while. I'm always keen to meet other metalsmiths: feel free to get in touch if you are able to meet…

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…

It is that time of year again... it barely seems like moment since I last shared some of the exciting things going on in the Art Schools in Scotland and the time has come to do it again, kicking off with the Glasgow School of Art show which opened last Friday. (Clicking on any of the images will take you to Flickr, where you can see larger versions.)

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Over the last few months, I have been inspired to make specific pieces in response to several "call for entry" postings on Crafthaus. First up, we have Loren Angulo's "Behind the Brooch", an exhibition and book about the way in which makers embellish the back of their brooches and how it relates to the…

I've been a bit distracted by family matters over the last two weeks and haven't really been doing very much of note, though unfortunately, I have had to cancel the "Scotland the What?" exhibition on Crafthaus, scheduled for the end of this month. Both Jeff Zimmer and myself have independently suffered a personal loss at the same time and have not managed to collate the show at all. The plus side of this, however, is that Brigitte has re-scheduled for October 2013 and this gives us the…

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been really busy with family matters as well as learning to use the new mill and the associated software, so I've not really had a chance to make any of my usual work. I've been forced to make quick projects and have also been using the products of the mill as it is always so much more encouraging and interesting to be teaching oneself something with a real goal at the end.

As a result of this, I've been working largely in more conventional…

My colleague is off on paternity leave just now, leaving me holding the fort with part-time and temporary staff and my excellent technician, Fiona. A fault in the fire-alarm system in the building means that I can't cast anything, and I've not had time to work at the bench. Additionally, I just spent two weeks on holiday, so haven't much to report other than that I sent all my work off to the gallery at Cwmbran in Wales today,…

Over the last few weeks, I've been helping Wing Mun Devenney, writer, industry analyst and practicing jeweller - as well as someone I am proud to count as a friend - with her work for a new book by Quarto Publishing on "Soldering For Jewellers". It has been an interesting process to watch as I hadn't realised quitewhat publishers make writers go through, what with short…

The weather has turned and everything seems to be starting again. Over the last week - another week since my last post - I've completed a few things: some smaller "nut" rings, set with stones:

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After the pleasing and welcome enthusiasm for the unfinished bombs, here are the finished ones!

H-Bomb…

I had to go to Ormskirk yesterday, a lovely little town in rural Lancashire, from where I was buying a new CAD/CAM mill second-hand. The workshop which housed the mill was tiny and appeared to only seat two setters. I particularly enjoyed one of the setter's benches:

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I have no idea what happens to my time. Another two-week hiatus since my last blog post, during which time I've been invited to help with writing the "definitive book on soldering for jewellers", found out that one of my pieces is featured on the cover of a new book on stone-setting, bought a new CAD/CAM mill, sold several of my show-pieces and continued to put together the collection for the show in Wales.

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What a fiendishly busy few days! I've been working hard to make my work for the exhibition in Wales recently but between that, I've been getting quite a lot of odd commissions, largely for repeats of my older work - things like three-skull rings and wolf and bear rings. I've also been working with "humble doodler", Zook again (we worked previously on "Beneath the Skin". He asked me to make some 3d silver versions of his drawing: 

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Another week and this time punctuated by a visit to my favourite Scottish city, Dundee. It is hard to put a finger on exactly what I love about Dundee but one of the essential elements is a truly dynamic and exciting arts (and crafts) scene: there is always something new going on, often encouraged by the Duncan of Jordanstone Art School. I took the train through an icy night on Friday to visit one of the gallery spaces in the art…