Rusty circles

I've always enjoyed the effects of weathering and seeing the impact of the elements over time. I find coastlines endlessly inspiring, the ceaseless erosion by waves, wind and salty air on wood, stone and metal.

I am mesmerised by patination and rust and have been exploring natural rust colours with rust dying.

I love the ginger tones that rusty iron creates and have been using similar shapes that I use in my jewellery to explore colour and pattern.

These experimental samples include iron wire, handmade paper, cotton, linen, muslin, hand stitch and burning to create holes and more natural colouration from the deep brown of the burnt edge.

In using copper in my jewellery I try to exploit the natural colouration from heat and exposure to the air, incorporating the warm peach tones, through to deep reds that copper takes on over time.

I can't resist playing with repeated shapes.

Fossil fascination

The repetition of shapes and textures seen in fossils is something I always come back to for ideas. The basement in Manchester Museum has some incredible ones on display.

Knowing that these have been dug from the earth and are millions of years old gives them the fascination of buried treasure to me; rare, precious and valuable like the gold and silver I use in my work. There's something magical and mesmerising about materials that were formed when the earth was young, only to be revealed through careful searching and cautious extraction. 

The dots and dashes have inspired me to explore experimental hammered indentations in metal, simple raised lumps formed with texturing and doming punches and distressed surfaces, altered with heat and abrasives. And as always, I love to draw them, as seen in my earlier sketchbook blog post.

Inspiration

A recent trip to Cornwall has my sketchbooks bursting with inspirational shapes, patterns, textures and colours. The cliffs and rock pools at Perranporth are covered in barnacles and mussels; always one of my favourite sources of inspiration for drawing and making.

These gorgeous rock pools can be found towards the left of the main beach access, reached by climbing down steep steps cut into the cliff face that surfers use to get to the waves.

 
The further you climb down, you will see barnacles and mussels growing on almost every available surface, creating a blanket of lumpy clusters as they all squeeze together. The striped banding on their shells forms rows of arched pattern, I can visualise them made from domed copper shapes, hammered and joined into links in a mussel-shell bracelet or neckpiece. I love the symmetry of their pod form, and would like to add to my 'Moss Pod' jewellery range with some new lockets inspired by mussel shells.

 There's something about the way that barnacles and mussels grow in clumps that I always come back to when I am generating ideas for my jewellery. They often appear in my mixed media and textiles pieces as very small crochet shapes or stuffed muslin balls.

I made these small textiles samples in response to the textures I saw on my travels in Cornwall. All the fabrics and threads are hand-dyed, using traditional fabric dyes as well as rust dying, where found metal objects are laid onto the fabric in shallow trays, and concentrated salt water poured over to speed up the rusting process. As rust forms it seeps onto the fabric leaving permanent marks. I like the authenticity of the colouration and the element of chance that comes from leaving the mark-making to chance. I often bury my work to enable it to become more earth-stained and distressed, nothing makes my work look more weather worn than the weather and there is something very exciting about digging it up again to see what effects have been created.

Frosty moss

Winter sunshine makes my heart lift. I hate the long, grey days we get in the North, so these snippets of colour sneaking through the harsh, bitter cold made me smile.