7 Sep 2010

My work this week

I’m just working on a series of photographs of a dipper we watched in a river for a while last weekend, to post, but as I seemed to spend most of yesterday working on product photographs in order to create listings, I thought I’d do a quick post on my work of the last few days, as it gives me chance to give a little more background about how a design came about or evolved from something different.

I had an enquiry to re-make a pair of earrings in my sold portfolio, but it transpired, through conversation, that the customer didn’t actually have pierced ears, so I sourced some matching screw earwires to allow her to wear them straight out of the parcel, as she normally adapted them herself for wear.

The design featured some gorgeous glossy golden coloured honey opal briolettes which were heavily wrapped in fully oxidised copper, polished to the lovely burnished black of gunmetal, really setting off the colour of the opals.

Please click on any of the photographs to see a larger view.

The original earrings on round hoop earwires. I made another pair while I was working.

I’d forgotten how gorgeous the honey opal briolettes are, so whilst I had them out and had got my eye back in for the wrapping technique, I re-made some of the original design with round loop earwires and also a different style, also with darkly oxidised copper. These featured two chunky hoops of copper, wire-wrapped at the top to form a hanging loop and a more simply wrapped briolette hanging below.

I think that I might make another pair, but selectively polish back the copper on the wrapped sections and leave the plain areas dark, to give a two-tone finish, as I’ve already done on some designs. Alternatively, I could just use different metals for a mixed metal finish.


This necklace features large beads of stabilised chalk turquoise – a composite manufactured bead from the chalks associated with turquoise mining, but formed into a new stone when mixed with a resin and dyed – presumably the matrix is added in much the same way that I would do it making faux turquoise in polymer clay, as I have in the past.

Turquoise always lends itself to being worked with copper, the colours just always work so well together – and of course, the actual colour of turquoise originates from the copper minerals in the source materials where it forms.


The necklace started life as a bracelet – by the time I’d spiral wrapped and connected (with my own hand-sawn jump rings) enough of the chunky beads to get to a bracelet length, it became evident that it wouldn’t work that well as a bracelet, the beads were just too large, making sizing it appropriately for a bracelet to be an impossibiity without compromising the design – 6 beads made it too skimpy for most people, which would then necessitate the addition of several extra rings on the clasp – but then spoling the visual balance of the design. But with 7 beads, it would be rather too generous for most people.

So I left it on my bench for a few days whilst I thought about it, thinking that maybe a different feature clasp would be the answer, but decided that the scale was perhaps more appropriate for a necklace. As soon as I started looking at a chunky chain to add to it, I knew this was a better solution, it works very much better as a necklace than it did as a bracelet. I antiqued the copper and polished the chain back to co-ordinate with the greeny brown colour of the matrix in the ‘turquoise’ to get the finished look.

The last piece I photographed yesterday was a pair of earrings with long feature earwires. A customer had asked me for something along these lines, so I had a tinker with some new shapes for longer earwires that in themselves would be a strong feature of the earring design. I liked this shape and just added a simple but chunky dangle to the bottom.

In this case, they’re black spider web jasper beads hung on a chunkier than usual headpin, hammered into a flat paddle pin which has been shaped and polished and then double wrapped above the stone for a little extra weight and balance, then antiqued to bring out the warm tones of the copper and enhance the wrapped texture. I liked the simplicity of this arrangement, so I plan on adding more to my portfolio with different stones.

Some pieces need time to develop – and then you go back to your first idea anyway!

I finished another piece this week too – one I think I posted some time ago when I made the initial central component. This knotted piece of Sterling silver sat in my WIP box for a long while, so that I could think of how to use it/finish it off best. I was working on the principle that as a design didn’t immediately come to mind, my sub-conscious would sort it out on its own in due course if left to work in peace.

I hate forcing designs, I never feel that they are fully satisfactory if you have to labour them to make them work. Most pieces come together pretty rapidly, but the occasional one just doesn’t fall in place immediately and this was one such element.


In the end, turning it over in my fingers one day while I finished my breakfast coffee, I decided that I was simply trying to over-complicate it. So a simple approach might be better in this instance. So in the end, all I’ve done is attach it to some chain by using two sizes of graduating jump rings, to bridge the gap between the weight and width of the end of the knotted section and the finer chain, even though it’s quite a chunky belcher (rollo) chain.

But that in turn left me with another dilemma – the additional weight of the chain has now made it too heavy to sell without being hallmarked.

Oh dear, it looks like I’ll just have to keep it for myself then!

31 Aug 2010

From hedgerow to plate – a dying trend?

We’ve just been away in the English Lake District for the Bank Holiday weekend and we were a tad alarmed, despite two days of gorgeous and warm late summer weather (and one of more typical for summer 2010; heavy rain), to see how definitely the season was already ticking over towards autumn.

The Lake District has huge swathes of land covered with trees, both cash crops of fast growing coniferous woodland and native deciduous species. There are very many places where you can look out over acre upon acre of trees and it was quite disappointing, in August, to see so many of them already turning to the golden colours of autumn. A season I love of itself, most definitely, but I like to have some summer after spring before I am ready to embrace it fully.

Please click on any of the photographs for a larger view.

Blackberries in late summer sunshine – some just perfect for picking, with more to ripen still.

Summer 2010, rather like that last two or three summers, has been most disappointing weather-wise. We had a lot of warm sunshine in May and June and this lured us into thinking we were about to launch into a pleasant summer – we even had a hosepipe ban, after the driest first 6 months of the year since records began, with reservoirs at record low levels from lack of rain.

Blackberries perched along the walls of Thirlmere reservoir – you can just see in the background that water levels here are still below normal.

But it just wasn’t to be, day after day it rained – and very hard too on many of those days – it topped up the reservoirs a treat it did, but prevented me from enjoying my garden and getting to eat or work outside throughout July and August.

So it has never really felt like we’ve had a proper summer this year – I think we’ve eaten outside maybe three times all year, with only 2 barbecues – and those were all in June. So seeing the trees weighed down with autumnal fruits like apples, plums and cherries, whilst lovely to see in itself, really serves to remind you that summer is more behind you than ahead of you, a feeling that always leaves me a little sad, especially when you’ve feel that you’ve not had chance to enjoy what there was of it more fully.

Spending the time picking the berries gives you the chance to meet some friends you might otherwise miss. A Speckled Wood butterfly that feeds on the nectar of bramble flowers and other woodland flower species.

But the seasonal development does have its own rewards and one of my late summer favourites is to be able to pick blackberries from the hedgerow to bake into puddings. I love the whole idea of picking something in the afternoon sunshine and eating it steaming hot and full of goodness later the same evening.

And it’s not just about the idea of free food just sitting there for the taking – it’s the mental well-being that accompanies it – the initial enjoyment of being in the fresh air (and hopefully sunshine too), with nothing to occupy your mind other than the rhythm of picking and avoiding the nettles and looking for the juiciest morsels.

The Peacock butterflies were especially partial to the lovely mauve coloured thistles growing amongst the brambles.

When you eat the resulting baked goods, I always have the sensation that they somehow have more nutritional value or heath benefits because of the way they were harvested – you know where they grew, know how environmentally sound they are – no air miles to dent your green credentials and the combined effort of enjoying picking them, making them into something yourself just seems to make them all the more delicious.

I tend to team my blackberries with some chopped apple. My preference is to use eating apples as they don’t need sweetening, so I can avoid adding sugar, although I use a spoonful to make the juice into a syrup that doesn’t soak quite as readily into the topping. For years I wondered why my sugar-free crumbles were gloopy underneath and one spoonful of sugar in the fruit cured that.

Someone commented today “why on earth would you bother yourself doing that, you can just get them in the supermarket?” so was somehow missing out this combined pleasurable experience. But I have the sneaky feeling that anyone who feels that way in the first place, simply wouldn’t get what the benefit really is.

We affectionately refer to this topping as a ‘spongle’ – a cross somewhere between a crumble and a sponge – it is as easy to make as a crumble . . . no, actually . . . even easier – goes on and looks like a crumble, but is more sponge-like underneath – and lighter than a crumble. Recipe linked below.

But I doubt very much that they’re alone in this thinking. When we were younger, you’d have to really know some good and secretive spots to get a reliable source of blackberries in any quantity – and would often get there and find brambles plucked barren by someone beating you there. But in the last few years, I’ve seen less and less people gathered in the hedgerows, clutching a container in one hand and picking with the other. It’s seemingly very much a dying practice.

You need the topping just thin and loose enough for the fruit juice to break through in places.

I suspect it has something to do with the current trends for instant gratification and global year-round food availability, coupled with less practical skills being taught in schools, like what we used to call; domestic science. Why learn how to make a fruit crumble, when you can dive into the freezer section of the supermarket and buy one for a modest price – and save yourself all that work.

Just ready for some cream – I had to wait for the steam from it to clear my lens to take the photographs, so it was piping hot, very light and not too sweet. Just perfect – and eaten only a couple of hours after picking the berries.

But for us, it’s an important and enjoyable seasonal treat – and even if I had money to burn, I can’t imagine not driving along country lanes scouring the hedgerows for the perfect combination of plentiful and reachable ripe fruit and a suitable place to park.

‘Spongle’ recipe:

The recipe I use for my favourite fruit topping as shown above is incredibly quick and easy to make and in fact, I make a large batch ready and store it in the fridge in an airtight container, ready to just spoon as much as required over prepared fruit in a heatproof dish and pop in the oven.

As I’m diabetic, I don’t habitually bake or make puddings any longer, but I do make an exception for this dessert a few times a year. So consequently, I don’t like my puddings too sweet, so prefer to make it with eating apples that don’t need additional sugar and have adapted a much reduced sugar version of the recipe for my own use – it took several attempts to get the proportions right. It’s the same basic ingredients as a crumble (flour, butter and sugar), but using melted butter instead of rubbing it in and some baking powder and self raising flour to make it rise a little, hence it’s lightness – the underneath layer adjacent to the fruit is more sponge-like, with a light crumble-style rubble-textured topping. Having found it so deliciously easy to make and so much nicer to eat, I doubt I’ll bother making a classic crumble again – this is vastly superior.

I found the original recipe in this blog which in turn is a re-publication/adaptation of a recipe from Nigella Lawson.

22 Aug 2010

Sunshine after the rain and a trip to the seaside

This weekend we were to make a long overdue quality visit to my mother-in-law’s to spend some time with her and help with a couple of DIY tasks and errands. She’s recently moved to a small flat at South Shore in Blackpool from the centre of the town and this places her a 2 minute car drive from the coastal promenade which has recently been renovated into a very pleasant and safe place to take the sea air. We came from the Blackpool area originally and moved inland when we married almost 28 years ago, but still return to the coast frequently to see family.

The stretch from South Shore towards town passes the Pleasure Beach and has a series of modern sculptures and public art along the walk, with seating at regular intervals and on a brisk summer evening was a very pleasant place to take some exercise in the salty sea air while we worked up a decent appetite for a Saturday chip supper.

Please click of any of the photographs to see a larger view, they look rather dark here on the page.

The Blackpool Illuminations are due to be switched on in a couple of weeks and this Dr.Who tableau at South Shore featured airborne Daleks and Tardises (Tardii?)

Further to my earlier blog about the value of the camera you have with you, the reason for posting this really was to share the photographs I took.

Before we had set off, there had been some discussion about whether or not we needed jackets, it had ended up a very pleasant evening, after a somewhat mixed day and whilst warm enough inland, we suspected it might be quite breezy adjacent to the sea and as the sun set.

But the consensus was to go in shirt sleeves and I therefore made the decision to leave my handbag at home, just putting my phone in my shirt pocket. I picked my small camera out of my bag, decided that it would be too troublesome to carry in my hand as I walked, so left it behind. It was very rare for me to do so and a decision I later regretted.

One of the modern sculptures and pieces of public art along the Promenade. They’re all very different and I like all of them.

By the time we got to the promenade, the evening sun was glorious and after several days of very heavy rain, the sky was clear and a vivid, deep blue and the air was very clean indeed, we could see all the way to Wales and clearly see the turbines turning on the wind farms out at sea. So I was going to have to make do with my phone camera.

The big drop of the Big One roller coaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Whilst the sky was a very intense blue in the golden light of late summer sunshine, the tiny lens in the phone camera has really intensified the colour by underexposing a little. The photographs have not been manipulated – save for compositional cropping and sharpening to counter the reductions in size. The colours, exposure and saturation are as they came off the phone.

One of the trains full of either brave or foolish souls about to drop violently down the roller coaster. It tends to be accompanied by screams and the raising of arms.

I must admit, whilst I would not consider my phone camera as anything more than a social tool for the odd times when a camera isn’t available or appropriate, I’m rather surprised at how well it performed with these images. Especially considering that I had very little to do with it, as the screen on my phone is incredibly hard to view in sunlight, so I couldn’t even see that well to frame the photos decently. I have often wondered if working with such restrictions is actually more likely to lead to improved creativity.

This is half of a two piece circus inspired bronze sculpture by artist Peter Blake. This half is called ‘Equestrian Act’ and is accompanied by the sister sculpture ‘Four Man Up’.
20 Aug 2010

Piggies and other farm animals – what’s not to love

“Pigs are not that dirty. And they’re smart, strange little creatures. They just need love.” Shelley Duvall.

“The pigs stuck out their little feet and snored.” Elizabeth Bishop.

Someone posted an especially adorable photograph of two young pigs asleep today, a day when my frame of mind was not terribly positive, my disposition not terribly agreeable or my prospect of achieving much, all that good. So the pigs were especially appreciated and I set off to look at some of my own favourite pig photographs.

Please click on any of the photographs for a larger view, they look rather dark here on the page.

I was surprised to see how many people expressed a love of piggies and enjoyed the photographs, I’d always felt I was a little unusual in liking them so much. But, let’s face it, what’s not to love.

So whilst I work on more technical and worthy articles for future blogs, I thought a wet Friday was a good day to spread some porcine loveliness. And while I’ve been searching out photographs to post, I found some other favourites of farm animals – which I think make lovely subjects. Because we spend as much time as possible in the English Lake District and on a farm, I do spend time in the company of farm stock and they’re as entertaining and enjoyable as any wildlife or domestic pet.

Herdwick sheep are a regular sight in the Lake District and resident on the moors, where they wander about in their individual territories and don’t bother with you and just go about their business. I love to see them, they’re so photogenic that I’ve taken a massive amount of photos of them.

We once had a conversation with the farmer, whose property we regularly stay on, about different breeds of sheep and Mr Boo made a comment about how Herdwicks were reputed to be very territorial, each animal sticking to a relatively small area of moorland and subsequent generations do too. He seemed perplexed that the very idea should even be noteworthy, commenting; “well, of course they do, you remember where you live don’t you and go home every night?”

This particular photograph has always been informally called ‘Reservoir Sheep’ when I identify it in my mind as the way they walked down the road reminded me of that scene from the film.

In the area where we stay in the Lakes, quite a few of the local farmers keep Highland Cattle, what we affectionately call ‘Muckle Coos’ – which must always be said in a Scottish accent.

I spotted this scene one summer evening when we were returning home from a day out – the cows were spilling across this field as the setting sun filtered through the trees. We’ve driven past this spot many, many times since that day and I have not seen the light as lovely since.

This is Lucy, one of the dairy herd at the farm – they often pop their heads over the wall as we drive past and as the field is higher than the lane, their heads pop over from above you as you pass.


This particular meal held up traffic in both directions for several minutes, but I don’t think anyone minded.

Not really a farm animal – but when I spotted it earlier, I thought it worthy of inclusion as it made me laugh again. Each spring, usually just after Easter, there is a local country fair in celebration of the local delicacy of damsons – called Damson Day – and we try and catch it if we’re in the area, it’s worth a visit to support a community which we consider our second home. One of the attractions a couple of years ago was Ferret Roulette. You paid your 50p stake, someone chose a ferret and you each took a card with a number – which each corresponded to a tube radiating from a central drop point.

The selected ferret, was popped into the central core and if he emerged out of the spoke you had the number of, you won a modest cash prize. I certainly lost more than I won – but it was worth every penny. I was most disappointed that it wasn’t there last year, I’d saved some 50p coins specially.

Don’t you just love the way lambs go mental in an evening. This is from the window of the caravan we stay in – it’s lovely that we have such delightful entertainment laid on – we’ve wasted many an hour just watching them play. The orchard is long and thin and they just hurl themselves from one end to another en-mass in an evening.

This Easter I saw one of the funniest things I’ve seen a non-domestic or trained animal do in a long time. One of the ewes was watching the youngsters collectively run back and forth and she stood there intently following them with her eyes, having totally abandoned her eating, from one end of the field to the other. On about the third or fourth pass, she joined them – running full pelt alongside them – she ran to the far end and back again and as they came to a dip in the field where the land has creased into a mini scar down the hillside, she leapt vertically into the air over the gap. When she landed, panting, she shook herself off and carried on with her supper.

She had clearly watched them and remembered how much fun it was and wanted to join in. I’ve never seen a full grown sheep join in before and I was sorry that it was getting dark and happened very fast and I just didn’t have a camera to record it for posterity. To be honest, I was laughing way too hard to have managed a decent photograph.

We followed this farm vehicle on the road one evening and I managed to get one photograph as it slowed to turn. Unfortunately the third dog on the left just dropped down at that point, but up until then, it had been stood up at the front too. I wonder if the planks hadn’t been there, if the German Shepherd would have been stood up too?

We once followed a similar convoy down a very narrow single track lane, with the addition of about 40 sheep. The sheep were running along the lane, followed by the farmer on his quad, with his 2 trusty sheepdog in his trailer. It was slow going and we tried not to look like we were pressuring them to hurry – after all, they were working and we were just having a nice day out.

The farmer slowed and gave a complex sounding whistled command and the dogs jumped out of the trailer and ahead of the vehicle – they herded the sheep up a side lane to a farm and held them there, a dog at each end of the flock, just off the road and he pulled into the mouth of the lane to let us pass. He then gave another whistle and the dogs returned the sheep to their path along the main lane and jumped back into the trailer.

I have huge, huge admiration and affection for the farming community, they are interesting and hard working people with the most amazing sets of skills and heads full of incredibly valuable knowledge. I always feel it is an honour to witness such a demonstration and can only stand back and applaud. I always enjoy watching the amazing teamwork between man and sheep dog, where the mearest hint of audible command, can make something fabulous happen.