Tumbling--Current Exhibition

If you follow me on Insta, you might have seen these recently, and I believe that I promised a story……

Introducing Tumbling.

Every year, the Craft Council of BC presents a fundraising Earring Show/Exhibition, which this year opens on May 5th. I first took part in 2020, in a virtual exhibition. I had originally planned to submit these earrings in 2021, but pandemic malaise had seriously set in, and I didn’t manage it. So, this year I was determined to make them and put them in for the show.

I used a mix of casting and fabrication for this project-wax forms in progress

As I’ve mentioned before, alot of my work examines the duality of the human immune system; the positive defense aspect and the darker, self-consuming aspect. I mainly d this by the use of different finishes and colours. These contrasts are a nod at the idea that while these cells primarily defend the body, sometimes they turn against the self and become the destroyers. 

Wax components mounted, ready to be invested for casting

The amorphous and organic forms are representative of the heterogenous and changing dynamics of the cells of the immune system, as well as the responses that they carry out in infection and disease.

Some auditioning for final addition of fabricated elements

All species have some form of immune system, however, the shapes, types and sizes/functions of the cells that participate in these systems are subtly different. The final Tumbling earrings are one-of-a-kind, in sterling silver, with garnets and needled felt.

Since I used omega clips at the back, I had to get a bit creative in stabilising the earring in order to set the garnets!

They are inspired by the shape of chicken red blood cells (which are nucleated, unlike mammalian red blood cells), and mammalian lymphocytes and monocytes. In four sections, each earring is composed of two parts, joined by a hinge. The kinetic movement, and their asymmetric design are meant to give the impression of flow, as cells in the blood are constantly on the move, and can also attach and "tumble" along the inside of blood vessels. (If you’re interested, the British Society of Immunology has some really well done explanations.)

Detailed shot of the fabricated elements.

Check out the full show here.

And…these are pretty big, and although they definitely make a statement, they’re not for everyone! If you’re interested in smaller scale version, get in contact, and let’s start a conversation!

Wandering round the Orkneys

You know that facebook function that keeps reminding you of your memories? Every year around October, I get a reminder that I went on holiday to the Orkneys (quite some time ago now), and every time it does, I remember how much I loved it!

I went with a good friend who plays underwater hockey (yes, that’s a thing), who was going to some kind of championship meet (fun fact, underwater hockey is a bit think in the Orkneys!).

If you don’t know about the Orkneys, they’re a small group of islands about mid way between Scotland and the Shetlands.

Picture from wikipedia

You can fly there, but we drove— six hours from Edinburgh to the ferry, then about an hour, hour and a half on the ferry to get to the islands. We mostly stayed on the main island. I would have loved to visit some of the other islands, but unfortunately, didn’t quite have enough time.

First of all, the weather was amazing! And the people were so friendly! It’s fairly remote, I think they’re largely dependent on tourism, although there is alot of independent art and craft happening as well.

Above left: Maes Howe, right Skara Brae, both neolithic remains on Orkney. The day we went to visit Maes Howe, it rained for exactly 10 minutes—most of which happened as we were waiting at the entrance to go on our tour—we were soaked, and then we went inside, and the sun came out!

So, as I mentioned earlier, there’s a lot of craft happening on the islands. One of the coolest things we visited was the Sheila Fleet factory. I’m not really huge on production jewellery, but Sheila Fleet is a big name on the island. Known for her Scottish inspired enamel jewellery, I love her work , and it was amazing to visit the factory (and the associated showroom, of course!!).

This is a piece of Sheila’s jewellery that I own. I love the subtle colour gradient in the enamels, and sleek lines.

One of the things that was cool was the views into the workshops. On one side, you can watch workers wet-packing enamels in the jewellery adn then firing them in the table top kilns. On the other, you can see the finishing process of the jewellery. I admit, it was a bit of a revalation for me!

This is just a small snapshot of my trip, but I have to say, every time I think about it, I think about how I’d love to go back! In addition to these memories, I have memories of good food, walks along the shoreline, seeing the Italian Chapel and visiting the Hoxa Tapestry Gallery. One day I’d love to own one of Leila’s pieces!

Creativity is hard to do......

It’s been a hard pandemic. And I know that it’s been more difficult for a lot of people than others. I’m very fotunate, I admit it; my parents are retired, most of my friends and the rest of my family and friends are reasonably affluent. I don’t fully have words to tell you how grateful for that I am. That’s not my case, but I’ve been insulated by the fact that I have very supportive friends, who shelter me on very reasonable terms, as I try to build my new career.

BUT……no one is immune to the mental effects of isolation and limited activity. And I’ve come to the conclusion that it is really the enemy of creativity. It’s the height of ……something….that when I had probably the most opportunity to spend time being creative, I was scraping the bottom of the barrel to try and motivate myself to take advantage of it. I don’t mind admitting that that was an epic fail. I did a lot of sketching, and started a lot of things, but follow through has been difficult.

I know I’m not alone in this, so for all my fellow peeps in the same boat—I see you! Here’s to the eternal hope that things will be better in the future, even when, to me, it seems entirely uncertain.

My optimism that spring is actually coming (taken last summer in Garrison Common near Fort York).

keeping up creativity and motivation

I do alot of different activities, and when you work for yourself, even when you’re doing art, it’s still work! I really try hard to make time to do art/craft that is not for work, but more just for myself. One of the ways I do that is to participate in the Modern Quilt Guild miniswap every year (I’m a member of the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild group).

The MQG runs this miniswap every year to coincide with their yearly convention, which occurs somewhere in the States. You can either swap in person during the convention, or you mail it. There are different kinds of miniquilt swaps, but this one is a direct one-to-one swap, so although I finished the quilt a while ago, I haven’t been able to post anything because my partner hadn’t received it yet.

I like to make a 16” square miniquilt, partly because it means that if I want to, I can back it with a fat quarter! I love this project, I love the challenge of coming up with something that I like to make, but that will tailor with my partner’s likes.

This year’s offering is the latest in a series of SciArt quilts that I have been making.

Full view of the final quilt

I used an improv, strip-pieced background in reasonably low volume black and white prints. I love improv piecing, I can do it with a few rules to keep myself in check, but still allow an element of chance and happenstance! Here, I used about 5 fabrics, and restricted the widths I wanted to use. I appliqued some of my improv immune cell shapes in two bright, solid colours.

Close up of some of the quilting-a mixture of hand quilting/embroidery and free motion quilting (I love carooming around the quilt with my thread!).

And some more views of the quilting!

Overall, it’s a bit of tumbling cells in a blood vessel, with echo quilting along the edges (matchstick quilting), and blood cell free-motion quilting. I like the texture of the mix of applique, free motion and embroidery.

You really get large variation in the quilts that are produced, which is pretty exciting and inspiring. See below for the awesome one I received in return. I’ve participated in alot of these miniquilt swaps, and I have to say, I’ve never received a dud yet!!

New Statement ring

If you’ve been following me at all, you may recall that I said that I liek to make new work and try out something new at least once a year. This year I have a few things in process, including a project to try and produce alot of wax carvings. BUT, more about that later!

I have several rings that I cast many years ago when I was first learning. I carved them in such a way that they were meant to be a base for a more complex design. Well, my moons later, and they’re mostly still sitting in my box. However, sometime in the summer, I dug one of them out and started thinking about what I wanted to do with it.

For a long time it was at this stage where I’d constructed the wire crochet/beadcomponent, and pre-finished the base ring:

base ring pre-finished with its crocheted wire and sea bamboo/pearl hat sitting on top (me, looking for inspiration!)

I had decided on the basic design, but I wanted to incorporate some enamel, and I was dithering about how the final form should look. Then I got busier with custom work and other things I needed to do, so it sat again.

When the New Year hit, I decided I better take advantage of my January lull (since all my instructing was put off), and finish up! So, I pulled my enamels out of the reaches of my locker and did some experimenting with torch firing some enamels on some test copper bits.

random bits of copper and enamel testing, and a small wee disk that gives you an idea of my target piece!

That went pretty well, so I progressed onto doing my tiny cups:

In case you were wondering, that’s actually a pretty small paint brush!

Success! I was pretty pleased with how they worked out. I’m a bit organic when it comes to these things, and enameling on silver can be trickier, but I find that I’m liking using the torch, it allows me alot of control over how much and how long I precisely heat the metal and enamel. All that remained was to put it all together!

So…. I’m pleased to present to you: “Spillage”, the idea behind it is the cascade of blood cells from a blood vessel.

side view

side on view- you get a good look at the “cells” spilling out!

I don’t often go for an over-the-top effect, it‘s a very chunky ring, I think I achieved the effect I wanted to with it! What do you think?

New Collaboration-- Handmade, hand-dyed kilt straps

I’m very excited about a new thing to do with my kilts! A while ago, I had a new colleague start at Jewel Envy studio, Aurora (also known as Handmade Revolution). In addition to her stunning jewellery, she does alot of textile and leather work. You can see some of her belts here.

She hand dyes and hand cuts and finishes her own leather goods, which are fab! So, I thought, what better collaboration than to team up and offer customized straps for my kilt enthusiasts! So, now I am able to offer you custom colours and some custom embossing, if you’re so inclined. There’s the usual black and brown options, but there are some more “interesting” colours too! And if you’re interested in a different colour altogether, that can be arranged.

Strap samples/colours.

I’m so pleased to be able to offer even more customization to my kilt customers! Interested in an heirloom kilt? Let’s talk!

Re-stock of earrings and rings

I’ve done a bit of re-stock of my asummetric earrings, and some new topaz stacking rings (I love blue”).

M form asymmetric earrings in the popular oxidised/low volume felt, and brushed silver finish with colours!

sterling silver stacking rings-I love blue topaz, shown here in swiss blue (bright), and London blue (darker)

Like what you see, or feel like something different? Drop me a line, and let’s talk!

The eternity band

Who doesn’t love the never-ending band of stones? Traditionally, the eternity ring has been reserved for couples/anniversaries/wedding bands, symbolizing a life-long committment, and are often set with diamonds. But…..as with many things, this is no longer strictly the case, and it’s become a bit…..trendy…..to wear them regardless of your coupled up state….and why wouldn’t you? We all like a bit of bling!

Eternity bands are generally made with calibrated stones-this means they are all the same size-in order to achieve that completely edgeless stone-to-stone look. They are also pretty difficult to size if your fingers change (as they generally do over time!). However, that;’s getting a bit off topic.

My client wanted to upcycle some stones from other pieces that they weren’t wearing, as a nice gift for one of their young person relatives, and settled on a “faux” eternity band style ring. As the stones were slightly varying sizes, rather than a prong setting, I went for a bead setting, and to accomodate for sizing later, made it a bit thicker, so that metal can be removed later to make it larger.

The band ready to be set with the diamonds and rubies shown— we used a total of about 26 stones!

The finished ring- it looks amazing in sterling silver with the bead set stones. There’s a slight metal bumper on either side to give it a bit more dimension, and to provide some protection to the setting.

So, have you been looking at your jewellery and thinking you never wear it? Let’s start a conversation and do something exciting and fresh with it!

New SciArt Necklace

As I’ve said before, I like to challenge myself to make a new major piece at least once a year. This year’s piece is entitled In the Blood, and it appeared for the first time as part of my offereings for the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair in July. It incorporates some of the elements that I have been using, in a new way, and on a bit of a larger scale. My thoughts were about blood circulation and the movement of cells through the body via the vessel “highway”, particularly red blood cells and the prominent role of macrophages in the landscape of immunology research at the moment.

An early stage of construction

I love green tourmaline, and the colour green in general, and it’s been a while since I used any cabochon gemstones (flat bottom, usually no facets) recently, so when I came across these little beauties, I decided green it was!

The final piece: an off-shiny finish on sterling silver, with the central hand-cut hollow form filled with green needled felt and two green tourmaline cabochons.

I’ve used a bit of artistic licence here, the tourmaline set dishes are meant to represent red bloods cells, but of course, human red blood cells don’t have nuclei (although , fun fact, chicken red blood cells are nucleated!).

some sense of the scale, modeled by my lovely colleague Alexis!

A closer look at the central pendant

I was really pleased with how it turned out. Of course, I’ve already started thinking about my next large piece—I think it’s going to involve a LOT of hammering, and I’m thinking bangle……so, I should get on that!

If you love this piece as much as I do, just pop me a message to find out more. Also, if you have any questions related to immunology, I’m always up for a chat!

Recognition is always nice!

I’m happy to share a nice thing that has happened this quarter—I have a profile in Studio Magazine. The magazine is a quarterly publication, that is produced by Craft Ontario , a non-profit organisation (of which, yes, I am a member!) that celebrates and promotes professional craft.

Each issue is themed, and this one' is “Generation”. The profile about me focuses on the kiltmaking aspect of my craft practice, which is pretty cool! The print version is a short and snappy protrait…..

However, you can read more/see some additional photos here., on the Studio Magazine website. There is a bit more information about how I view the craft, and my journey to kiltmaker, so, if you’re interested, head over and check it out! The website also has an archive of the Studio profles that have featured in the magazine, which you can see here.