Salibury Festival & a studio move

After a busy summer of work I finished the holidays of with the Salisbury Craft & Heritage Festival 4th-6th Sept. It turned out to be a glorious weekend full of visitors. It was a busy few days of sales and chatting to lots of old faces, I bumped into some of my students from my first teaching days at Bournemouth & Poole college - 10 years ago!

The quality of work was great, and even though there were a lot of jewellers all of the work was very different. The grounds are beautiful and it made for a very picturesque venue.

                                                         Part of my display at Salisbury


Over the summer I was finishing some new work and setting some glass and paper pieces for the Festival.

In April we got the news from our landlord that he was wanting to turn our property into residential accommodation. We were initially devastated to have to move, but after spending a couple of months looking at properties we found a lovely property in Millhams street in Christchurch. It is very quirky and has an industrial feel to it, so fits in very well with the work we do.
Unfortunately Anne Marie from Meninafeliz, who was sharing the Church street studio with me decided she wanted to work from home. I am lucky that another friend Connie found the new property and wanted to share the studio space.

We've had the stove looked at, and after a chimney sweep it will be good to go in the winter!
Really pleased with the size and the layout, and after painting the walls and the floor we installed the benches
and equipment.

Classes have started back this week. Trying to find where I've put everything and get used to the new layout, but all going fine.



Early Summer

Early summer kicked off with a visit to the V&A and The Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibition.
I've followed McQueen's career with interest over the years, as we studied at the same college, Central St martins over a similar period of time- and there any connection ends!
I found the exhibition more of a theatrical experience with a series of installations, that were very atmospheric and thought provoking. The quality of the work was mesmerising in the flesh, and was amazing to see up close. Over the years I have seen a lot of McQueens work in magazines and publications, but was pleased to see so many pieces that were undiscovered for me.

The jewellery pieces were a collaboration between McQueen and jeweller Shaun Leane, and featured many works that are very much a part of the body or face. The spinal piece below was one of my favourites.