Sunday 21 April 2013

The Lindisfarne Gospels

The Lindisfarne gospels are returning to the North East, I was asked to take part in an exhibition at the Holy Biscuit curated by Julia Tryon from the Biscuit Factory to celebrate their legacy and continuing relevence. Artists were asked to contribute work that expressed their own interpretation of this work of art.
I confess I was rather ignorant of the content of this great work of art and upon research discovered this book contained the gospels of the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. To work on illuminated manuscripts was a form of meditation for the scribe, to glimpse the Divine.
My locket symbolises this container, the keyhole is the tantalising glimpse, opening the locket displays an open eye surrounded by the sun's rays, to SEE.






Responding to the Book exhibition is open at the Holy Biscuit until April 27th.

Thursday 11 April 2013

A Grand Day Out..

Had a grand if not freeeezing cold day out with my mum on the North Yorkshire coast, after a long 'refreshing' walk on the beach at Saltburn we took a rather civilised option up to the top...



Saturday 6 April 2013

A Personal Farewell Gift...

I had a request from a mother and daughter, Sue and Rachael, they wanted to spend the day together and make a piece of silver jewellery, they chose oval silver bangles. As there was a lot to accomplish in one day we got straight down to business, after a cuppa, chocolate biscuits and a little natter..... about themselves and how they wanted to personalise their bangles, as was the special request of this inspired pair!


After measuring up we cut the 3mm silver wire these will be nice chunky bangles, you can make finer ones if you wish. The girls filed the ends so they fit ever so snugly, there must be a good tight fit for a good soldered joint. Both were eager to solder the bangles themselves, I always give people a choice as not everybody wants this baptism of fire! 



The soldered silver bands were hammered around an oval bangle mandrel, apparently this is a good workout...!


The fully formed bangle, looking lovely on its own, but we had plans.....


The formation of  personalised silver rings to run freely around their bangles. I make personalised silver bangles myself, with birthdays, names, anniversaries, star signs, whatever people want. Rachael has recently returned from Australia, she lived there for a number of years, she is now off to Los Angeles for a few months and she and her mum Sue wanted to personalised their bangles with a meaningful word, there was quite some deliberation here! These words were kept top secret throughout the day long workshop and at the end, when both bangles were absolutely finished they were exchanged......