This unique silver and copper ring has been specially treated with a patina giving the central copper section a vibrant turquoise colour. The silver remains shiny and bright. The copper is being consumed by silver granules bubbling around the central piece, each individually soldered into place.
This piece is now sold
Industrial Deco – I’m channelling decaying car factories, overgrown buildings consumed by nature. I’m referencing the 1920’s when that Verdigris green was so popular. What a decadent decade when clean lines and industrial chic was king. This is a great everyday ring, it’s tough and practical and the granulation gives it an organic look.
Earrings in the same style are have a simple hinged post which clips through a hole in the back. The posts are made of 1mm thick wire. These are made from reclaimed Sterling Silver and copper and are both hallmarked.
I’m sorry both earrings and ring are now sold. If you would like a similar piece I can make one to order, please email for details.
Most of the time I instinctively go for quite neutral colours but every now and then I am strongly drawn to bright; kitsch unashamed splashes of bright colour, Pop Stack is one such time.
I love the simplicity of the rectangle ring but it didn’t feel right on its own. It just wasn’t shouting loud enough. It needed a contrasting companion to loudly harmonise. The bristle ring was born and I love the combination of the red enamel on the rectangle ring and the electric blue of the bristles, they are a perfect pair and feel great when worn together.
For some reason this stack say’s ‘city’ to me, I think of tower blocks, chimneys and windows when I see it, I think of Warhol, New York and Lichtenstein.
Whatever it says to you I think you’ll agree, it’s fun and rebellious. However you wear it this stack is sure to speak out and turn heads. Flip the square ring as you feel to alternate between black or red enamel detailing.
Pop stack – stand our stacking rings
Pop stack – loud and proud stacking rings
crisp angles, bright colours
Mix black or red side for contrast
silver, brass, nylon and enamel
Pop stack – stacking rings
Pop stack is made from sterling silver, brass and nylon fibre. The measurement of the inner circumference of these rings is 53mm both rings together have a total weight of 9.83 grams. Please ensure you have measured your finger carefully before ordering. The investment needed to own Pop Stack is £145
Postage is included if you live in the UK unless you live in Bristol, UK in which case I may be able to deliver. If you live outside the UK please message me for details. Thank you.
If you would like to own this stack please email me directly or visit my shop by clicking the basket.
Joni Mitchell’s song is the inspiration for this work, I’ve always loved it and sadly it seems more relevant now than ever.
Even when things are gone, we don’t seem to realise what we’ve lost. The eradication of habitat is so quick. We don’t have time to stop it. Governments are good at distracting us while they get on with facilitating the destruction. Maybe people just don’t care.
When there are no trees, no acorns, no flowers not even the maligned grey squirrel will be able to survive. It is a fantasy that the red squirrel will return if we get rid of all the grey squirrels. There is no-where for the red squirrels to live. At least the industrious grey squirrels keep planting trees in their absence.
I often find dead bumble bees on my wanderings and always pick them up
I lived in Easton in Bristol between 2005 and 2022 and often mentioned the lack of birds, people say it’s because there are a lot of cats and few trees. During the Covid 19 lockdown, I noticed many more birds and yet there were no fewer cats or extra trees. I did notice the lack of cars and not so much human activity. There were no planes, no fumes, no noise, and by some miracle lots of birds I hadn’t seen in my garden before.
We seem delusional, that if we look the other way, somehow the problem we have created will go away. With every piece of work I make, I have the same thoughts, most of the animals I use have died because of humans. We are destroying the world we all inhabit, reducing the territory of our fellow inhabitants and what we leave them we fill with our rubbish, our noise and pollution.
We are the virus, like bacteria destroying our host. Squirrels are one of the few animals that manage to successfully share the same space as humans. They scratch an existence in the little patches of green we leave in cities. How do we think we will manage to survive when we’ve systematically killed every wild creature and concreted over every blade of grass?
The squirrel is clutching a N.O.S canister which will soon be more common than acorns. I wonder what the squirrels make of them?
If you want to find out more about what is under the skin of this work see my sketchbooks page
I present the squirrel on a plinth which is made of reclaimed wood, leather and has zinc corners. It stands on four snail shells.
The piece stands 47cms high and 29cms wide
This piece is for sale. Message me for details through my contacts page
Black Onyx is said to absorb negative energy and help prevent personal energy drain. It helps during times of stress, confusion and grief by strengthening emotional stamina. The reclaimed Onyx sits next to a small, heart-shaped, raw green Mexican Opal. The contrast of the raw unpolished stone and the mirror polish of the Onyx is what I love. Like the rough with the smooth, they set each other off beautifully.
Antithesis silver ring
Antithesis silver ring
Antithesis silver ring
Antithesis silver ring
Antithesis
Antithesis
The Onyx is set in a simple silver bezel the Opal in a claw setting with ‘toes’ inspired by Mexican geckos. The Onyx is rescued from a traditional antique signet ring which belonged to my father. Both jewels are set on a heavy solid silver hallmarked band, simple, solid and elegant.
The measurement of the inner circumference of these rings is 55mm. Please ensure you have measured your finger carefully before ordering.
If you would like to own Antithesis you’ll find it in my shop, you can also enquire via a message, find me on my contacts page where you can arrange a Paypal payment or BAC’s transfer.
If you would like to own this piece the cost is £165.
Postage is included if you live in the UK unless you live in Bristol, UK in which case I may be able to deliver. If you live outside the UK please message me for details. Thank you.
These rings were inspired by a very heavily drilled wooden peg on a jewellery bench. I love the effect the endless drilling had on the wood, I decided to try to achieve it in metal. The only way I could think to do it this was by using the lost wax technique. I embarked on a long process of drilling and carving creating a fragile wax blank which could be used only once to create each ring.
This technique gave me the scale I like without the weight. A large statement ring that is easy to wear due to its lightweight. As each one is cast from an intricately carved wax blank the final piece is totally unique and can never be reproduced. A little bit of oxidizing brings out the tones and depth of the texture.
Space Rock
23 grams of sterling silver – a solid, mountainous, organic shape.
Patina filled crevases
Space Rock
Space Block
19 grams of sterling silver, a slightly more boxed feel than Space Rock, and lighter to wear.
A simple box houses a Fulmar skull, found by a friend in Wales on a beach the reason for its death was undoubtedly plastic.
There has been a huge growth in information about sea birds and mammals and the effects that ingesting plastic has on them and their population. It is also slowly emerging that the effects are detrimental to us too as we consume these creatures and plastic enters the food chain.
Fulmar
Inside the box, lined with black to give a stunning contrast
Inside the box, the black contrast makes a stark contrast to the bleached Fulmar skull
Outside the box, tempted to look inside?
Inside the box, lined with black to give a stunning contrast
This piece asks us to take responsibility for our use of plastic. Perhaps we can think more carefully about how we dispose of it. It rarely occurs to people in landlocked cities that their rubbish might end up in the sea but sadly that is where most of it comes from.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: 2010 TO JULY 2022/ CREATIVE PRODUCER NOV 2023 TO PRESENT
I have returned to DOCA for two days a week to programme their events and look after their fundraising. It’s great to be back with an amazing new team working on an exciting programme. More updates to come.
Below is an outline of my work as Artistic Director.
I took on this four day a week role only a couple of months before its busy Festival Fortnight was about to happen. It had been programmed by the previous Artistic Director. This gave me the opportunity to experience a year’s worth of activity and work out my strategy to move the organisation forward. I had an initial contract of 12 months and a hell of a lot of work to do. During this first year, I continued to work in the Wyre Forest of one day a week. This was to facilitate a solid handover period, and attempt to protect Kidderminster Arts festival. As Artistic Director I led DOCA, along with an enthusiastic board of Trustees, by fundraising, programming, commissioning and growing the existing offer into something new and exciting.
I slowly implemented change from 2016 bringing our community of dedicated volunteers with me.
It was a huge and rewarding task. The events that were the core of the DOCA offer still exist but are evolving into new, bigger and brighter happenings along with a few additional events which help make the organisation more sustainable.
I brought together a tiny new team with great complementary skills and great passion for our work. Our amazing volunteers power everything DOCA does and are at the forefront of the brand. I worked hard to ensure all the events had equally high-quality of artistic content for audiences who visit from near and far.
Breathing new life into old traditions
Confetti Battle 2019
Audiences have swelled by over half at Confetti Battle with over 5000 attending in 2019. I evolved it into the spectacle I knew it should be. This longstanding tradition offered the perfect backdrop for artistic intervention. I brought in giant inflatable’s, flying clowns, and mad French men firing streamers into the sky. I introduced the Colour Rush which adds to the chaos, engaging new audiences and helping with the sustainability of DOCA’s work.
Rajasthani Circus
Ticker Tape Parade
Rajasthani Circus
Ragroof Players – Happy Feet
Company Satchok in Devizes
The International Street Festival took on a new format, moving a day on the Green into Town and adopting a more curated approach. I used themes and a late night offer to diversify our audiences. I added indoor shows to the program, bringing street or circus inspired theatre to unusual venues adding ticket revenue to support the outdoor work.
Matt Bernard at the Festival of Winter Ales in Devizes
Picnic in the Park included performance for the first time. I added creative workshops to engage families in creating site décor or making elements for other events to the great line up of music.
Storage facilities were improved, evaluation process implemented, a new website commissioned. Our social media engagement and marketing reach grew. We declared ‘Cultural Climate Emergency’, and planted trees to offset the carbon footprint. I implemented guidelines for traders that safeguarded the environment and improved the quality of our offer.
The Lantern Parade grew, as I expanded audiences by introducing high-quality lighting installations and touring the amazing, animated lanterns.
Dinosaur lantern created for Devizes Lantern Parade by Chris and Mick Davey
I headed a commission by Ginkgo Projects to engage and connect old and new sections of the community. I doubled the projects budget by applying to the Arts Council, this enabled the work to visit both Amesbury and Devizes.
DOCA offered artist bursaries and connected the community to the history of their landscape. Enter Beryl and the Mammoth created by Beautiful Creatures and And Now, accompanied by large costumed groups of residents of all ages.
Woolly Mammoth
Woolly Mammoth created by ‘And Now’ https://andnow.co.uk/
In 2021 I worked with Bassline Circus to create an outdoor spectacular with a large strand of community engagement, based on the story of a local woman, Ruth Pierce. The show was a huge success attracting an audience of over 5000 each of the two nights it showed. This was the largest and most ambitious performance presented in Devizes to date.
My time working in the Wyre Forest began in 2005 after moving from London to Malvern. I took on a fairly inactive section of the Local Authority and pushed it as far as I could, bringing ambitious projects to the District. Arts Council England invested in the work which supplemented the small allocated budget. This enabled me to deliver projects on a scale not seen in the area before. As you can imagine there were many projects, these are some of my favourites.
Kidderminster Arts Festival became my flagship project, enabling me to bring in top quality street performers, installations, bands and theatre. I swelled audiences from 2000 to 10,000 plus. I commissioned public art as part of local development 106 funding. My passion to support local artists to develop their practice and stimulate collaboration and ambition was reflected through many local success stories.
Pushing for 106 money to be spent on the Arts, working libraries, museums, developing the Rural Touring Scheme – Shindig and working with the Worcestershire Arts Partnership, Craft Space and others helped to drive up ambition in the area.
BLOOM
Commissioning ambitious projects such as BLOOM to bring new life into the floundering Town Centre stimulated collaborations between artists using different media. Bloom combined community workshops, live graffiti and video mapping.
I wanted to transform a much hated building, Crown House in the heart of Kidderminster into a temporary piece of art. It was once voted Britain’s 6th ugliest building. I was working with the regeneration team to develop plans for the development of the Town Centre. The building was at the physical centre of everything but also the centre of a lot of blocks, obstacles, politics and controversy. It was 2012 and the year of the Para Olympics, my idea was to make local people with disabilities of any kind the stars of the show and give them an opportunity to learn animation skills to make it happen. We projected the faces of the people we worked with onto an eight story building and watched their families burst with pride as the animation unfolded.
The Severn Project
The Severn Project was a collaborative project that reached from Bridgenorth to Malvern and many towns and cities in between. It happened over three years from 2007 onwards and saw involvement from a huge range of artists and organisations and hundreds of participants.
The project culminated in spectacular events in Bridgnorth and Bewdley in its final year. My role was as a lead partner for the Wyre Forest with Shropshire County Council who led the project. Bewdley saw audiences of 5000 come out for the finale show, huge amounts of participation all around the District from schools and local organisations. The model of working was taken forward by the Desperate Men Theatre Company who went on to create The Wye Valley River Festival with learning taken from this work.
In 2014 whilst working for Wyre Forest District Council and responsible for Kidderminster Arts Festival, I began the process of creating an artistic programme for the commemoration of the beginning of WWI. I wanted it to be something different, something that challenged a little. I wanted to create and curate a series of installations that reminded the public of all the sides of War and its effects on the world. Little did I know I would continue the concept four years later for DOCA.
The centre piece of the programme was to be a commission that needed to be outdoors and above ground because of planned development works happening in the town.
I approached Kathy Hinde, a Bristol based artist whose work I’d been interested in which inspired an idea that could work in the Kidderminster where a major regeneration project was making floor space limited. After the initial meeting, Kathy developed a proposal which became funded by Arts Council England, making the concept into a reality. ‘Luminous Birds’ evolved and has become one of Kathy’s most ambitious and defining works, touring widely and winning awards. The piece was picked up by Scottish production house Cryptic who attracted further investment enabling sound to be added. In 2018 Luminous Birds with its new soundscape came to Devizes as part of a wider programme of work to celebrate the end of WWI.
Kathy Hinde in Kidderminster during a site visit
Luminous Birds has toured internationally and the soundtrack won Kathy a number of awards including the British Composer Award 2017 which I collected from the British Museum.
In Devizes, the piece was accompanied by an origami bird installation in St. John’s Church and thousands of poppies which enveloped local buildings and monuments knitted by hundreds of volunteers from all over the country.
Poppy installation for WW1 on St Mary’s Church Devizes
Poppy installation created for Remembrance Reimagined – DOCA 2018
Window in St. Johns Church – for Remembrance Reimagined DOCA 2018
Residents of Needham House working on the poppy project
Poppy installation created for Remembrance Reimagined – DOCA 2018
Luminous Birds by Kathy Hinde
Poppy installation created for Remembrance Reimagined – DOCA 2018
Remembered Reimagined DOCA installation in St. Johns Church Devizes
Origami birds installation for Remembrance Reimagined
Chalk Soldiers
This piece was originally co-created with Kidderminster artist Dom Dunlea, who, I’d worked with on a number of projects in the town over a period of years. We gathered a group of volunteers together and made stencils of soldiers which were used to create an outline representing 661soldiers who died in WWI from the town. We put the installation in place during a quiet early evening and waited. The outlines covered two pedestrianised streets and were a stark reminder of the impact of the war on the town. Over the coming weeks the installation attracted T.V coverage, thousands of hits on social media, debates in the streets, sermons in churches, positive and negative but all very strong responses from the public.
In Kidderminster I brought in Space Cadets who installed red and white inflatable dogs to commemorate the thousands of dogs that supported the war effort. We also worked with local crafts people to add knitted poppies to all of the street furniture in the Town Centre.
Space Cadets dogs above chalk soldiers in Kidderminster
Artist Dom Dunlea with soldier stencil
Chalk soldiers installation Kidderminster
Chalk soldiers above in Kidderminster 2014 and below in Devizes 2018
In Devizes the piece inspired many further interventions, you can find more about the wider programme on the DOCA website
This piece is an adventure into lost wax casting and exploring setting stones using none traditional claw settings.
The stone is a Himalayan Diamond as the Himalayan’s call it or Himalayan Quartz as those in the West prefer.
It’s a birthstone for those born in April. According to healers is helps establish strong, clear connections with higher guidance and were used by Shamanic healers, who channel animal familiars in the mountains they originate from. Clear Quartz is said to help with clarity of thought and purpose of heart and mind.
The claws are inspired by the buds of deer antlers, it has relief hearts carved onto each side. It’s chunky and organic as the stone is, referencing the mountains it came from.
It’s a statement piece made from 18 grams of silver with grains of 9 carot gold to top off the antler buds, a head turner and it definitely feels very magical with its huge glistening stone. I loved making this piece I think it’ll be a joy to wear.
