The Visual Thinker

So I do feel that being a visual thinker is a curse. Look at the state of my work space?

I confess that I am an endless collector, I gather things wherever I go, teeny treasures that spark ideas. They then are laid out in readiness, for that stolen moment when I am not working on orders, to be made into something lovely.

But I never actually get time to finish anything.

So as a kind of confession/New Year resolution, my promise to myself is to finish things. I will push new ideas to completion and I will organise my thoughts by organising my workspace.

This isn't even my jewellery bench, it is an extension I built because my workbench was overflowing with pre-christmas making.

So, I am back making after a wee break, I am stealing some moments before teaching re-commences next week and I am going to make some of these idea happen.

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.