I am delighted to post this lovely review from kathryn Partington about the recent set of courses I held at Rajesh Gogna's Jewellery & Silversmithing Academy in Birmingham.
" .....I am investigating new techniques to refresh, produce new work and develop new directions. This creative process has started by indulging and attending a series of enameling classes taught and delivered by the very knowledgeable, experienced and lovely Ruth Ball this weekend at The Jewellery-Silversmithing Design Academy. Located in the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, just a stones through away from my workshop it has been the ideal setting to take part in training that is accessible, highly valuable, practical and in-depth. The workshop is well-organized and well equipped. The natural light is captured beautifully and the design layout of the studio has been well-considered by its founder Rajesh Gogna. It is well worth a visit and investment to take part in a Masterclasses here. I can highly recommend! I feel inspired and motivated to develop techniques learned further and work with the material/process through experimentation, exploration of surface treatment/finishing and textural qualities. The workshops I took part in were; Mark-making, Contemporary Cloisonné, Surface treatment and Finishing...." READ MORE > http://kathrynpartington.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/indulging-in-new-techniques/ Kathryn is an experianced jeweller, designer, maker and artist. She produces one-off wearable items of jewellery and has a background training within the discipline of tableware ceramics & printed textiles. By combining these skills she explores surface pattern & ornamentation in a diverse range of process and material manipulation. This leads to a juxaposition of simple to complex compositions by placement & layering to form pieces that can be considered as not just items of jewellery but pieces of art within their own right. Her works include the combination of natural and hand dyed screen-printed silks, hand engraved, glazed, printed slip cast bone china/porcelain, decorative applications of pattern to metals in unconventional ways. This enables the creation of jewellery pieces that are extremely unique within the arena of contemporary jewellery, craft & fashion. She is currently exhibiting her work with Velvet da Vinci in the Exhibition "Magic City" View her website here. Kathryns work in enamel on the course was stunning, she followed the set excercises and produced some really professional samples. I just cannot wait to see how she translates these surfaces in to her design work ! Image Copyright : Kathryn Partington 2013 Samples of the pieces Kathryn made on "Exploring Enamel Surfaces" One day Workshop Another "must see" exhibition if you can make it into London is the Ultra Vanities Exhibition at the Goldsmiths Hall. I couldn't take photos and didn't have time to soak in all the details of each case but needless to say I was inspired ! There is a report about the show HERE on the Semperey Website - and here at The Jewellery Editor
> get there before the 20th ! Well worth a visit is this summer is the Royal Academy Exhibition in London. I was lucky to be able to nip in yesterday after collecting some work from the Goldsmiths Centre. ( The Rocks exhibition is now closed ) There are so many wonderful exhibits in the show, in particular the print is very strong this year. One of my favourite rooms is hung by RA printmaker/woodengraver Anne Desmet. Her fine selection illustrates the diverse and stunningly complex work being practised today. Its a big treat to be able to see work close up and view the wide range of techniques and stlyes. However, of specific interest for me, even before I acended the stairs, even before I'd entered inside the building, was the brilliant sculpture by El Anatsui which adorns the front facia of the Academy. I've been reading about his work and was so keen to see a piece for real. This is one of his largest pieces, each one he makes is seemingly bigger than the last. It is totally stunning, not just for its scale but for the fact that it is fabricated from thousands of old bottle tops. A wonderful solution to recycling via creating art, but its true that El Anatsui's work goes beyond this point of making and that his work defines the ethereal and the beautiful. His endevours are of the rare type where you look past the material and the method, and you see through into a deeply visual asthetic, which astounds......... The piece is titled : "TSIATSIA" - Searching for Connections. Its been a very busy few weeks.....Haven't done much blog posting this past month, as I haven't been anywhere near the computer, so here is just a flavor of what I've been up to ! I must admit that haven't touched base with the workshop either recently as I've been travelling far and wide - I spent the first week of June in Italy with my family. It was a wonderful time, catching up with each other, sight seeing, and simply pottering about together. It was bliss ! - Italy is the perfect tonic and we stayed on Lake Garder which is so stunning. As usual I took a zillion photographs ! so the sketch book is full of yet more ideas and inspration ! In mid June I had another chance to work alongside my friend and brilliant metal artist Rebecca Gouldson, who is working on a large scale commission at A J Wells on the Isle of White. I took the opportunity to get some self initiated work done at the factory. Its been very interesting trying out new ideas and also taking the time to develop some images for a commercial range that I am hoping to finally resolve and fully develop very soon. This image is a work in progress from my "lightscape" series. I am taking a time to work through the basis of this work, sometimes its a long period of working before I'm settled in a design flow. I worry that I should be quicker but this series is still evloving.....more on this oneday.... The past couple of weekends have been teaching at The Jewellery & Silversmithing Design Academy in Birmingham, which is hosted by the award winning silversmith Rajesh Gogna. Its been a wonderful set of workshops and I've really enjoyed sharing enamel techniques and seeing how each person makes their own unique mark on enamel methods. Each participant made fabulous work and the groups were good fun. Just a few snaps below but you can view more images from the workshops if you CLICK HERE So back to my workshop today and....well a tidy up is due ! but next, I'm hoping for a few months of making !
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Welcome to my posts. Here I add notes about events / interests / developmental work / and various inspiring stuff that catches my attention. Archives
January 2019
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