A Walk in the Park

Post Christmas, I was a bit....meh.  I'd bust a gut getting stuff ready for galleries and shops, then more literally bust a gut 'doing' the whole festive bit, and January was a bit of an anticlimax, as it is for most people.  Although some optimistic souls I know were all full of the joys of a new year, new challenges, and a bloodstream devoid of alcohol, none of this was really catching my imagination.

Then I got an email from the Craft & Design Gallery in Leeds, one of my favourite stockists, inviting me to put a collection in to the exhibition they were planning on the subject of A Walk in the Park.  And Lo, for there was a new spring in my step, an opportunity to do something new, explore some new ideas, stress about a new deadline.

As usual I had plenty of ideas - some new, some still unexplored as I write (adventure playgrounds, the lines, the organic woodiness, the possibilities......), and some that had been in the sketchbook for years.  Something that I have learned (and relearned again and again and one day it might sink in) is that I never allow myself enough time to fully develop my designs before starting work, but I'm not sure that I ever will.  My 'design process' usually consists of brainstorming design ideas, having great ideas in the bath, and fiddling around with various pieces of etched metal I pick up in my workshop until I get something I like. (I've talked about my working processes in the Blog hop blog).


So, cue the Tony Hart music, here's what I came up with......

Magpies, an obsession for many people, I know.  I do love a corvid (Arabel's Raven is one of my favourite books ever), and they always remind me of the time I first came to Leeds, 25 years ago, when I was struck by the numbers of them that hung around in Hyde Park.  I'd never seen so many, being an impoverished Londoner.  Nowadays they hang around in my suburban garden and recently spent a long time in competition with a squirrel in trying to acquire a duster which had been hanging on my washing line for quite a long time. I'd always come across a snag when trying to design a big magpie necklace, as although I'm not superstitious you never know, do you, and I couldn't just do one magpie.  Then one of those bath inspiration moments when I realised I could do a reversible pendant, 2 magpies for the price of one (or even 3, if you want to, and boys are your thing).

Taking the colours of the park, the blue skies (?!), the green spaces, I incorporated some enamelled elements into some of the pieces.

Birds in trees watching the proceedings, or just getting on with life and survival, and landscapes, willows, dogwoods, buildings........

 

I'm really pleased with this last one, the only one with figures in it to make it to a finished piece.  Here I was trying to get a bit of that 'Abney & Teal' vibe of the urban park, with the tower blocks in the background.  I've been using one of my makers mark punches to make the square windows in things, which is quite clever of me, don't you think?

And finally, something which just didnt make it into the exhibition, but which I really like.  Here come the practicalities of making jewellery I've spoken about before........I had enough large neckpieces, plus I didnt want to spoil that particular composition by drilling holes in it.  (I did make another piece involving a riveted on back with holes for hanging, and some figures, but wasn't really sure about it).

It really wants to be a brooch for a coat or scarf, as the cutout piece will frame a nice fabric showing through, but a sterling brooch back would make it very expensive for a copper and brass piece, I don't like to confuse things by using base metal findings and anyway they're difficult to stick on reliably.  I attempted to make a copper brooch pin myself, which would have been ok if I had several more weeks to battle with soldering it on properly, but as this was the night before the deadline I didnt really have that option.  Anyway, it looks pretty I think and may make a good card or picture before it finds a role as a piece of jewellery.

A Walk in the Park  is at the Craft & Design Centre in Leeds (under the Art Gallery)