Engraving Weekend

Last weekend I went on an engraving course at the wonderful West Dean College. In case you've never heard of West Dean College before it's a pretty amazing place, it was set up by Edward James in his family mansion on the South Downs as a centre for the study of conservation, arts, crafts, writing, gardening and music. They put on lots of short courses, as well as some full time ones, every year including specialised jewellery and silversmithing ones.The house itself is so interesting to explore as Edward James was a surrealist art collector who was friends with Salvador Dali, the college has one of the famous lobster telephones and a Mae West Lips sofa in one of the hallways which they collaborated on together. There's art and extravagant taxidermy down every corridor.

 

The engraving course was taught by Wayne Parrott who is an excellent teacher and so knowledgable and helpful, if you're interested in learning about engraving I would highly recommend taking a course with him. Here's some examples that Wayne brought in to show us:

We were shown how to transfer designs onto metal, told all about the different tools and equipment you can use, including being shown how to make our own gravers and punches, and taught the basics of how to get started with engraving.

I learnt so much over the three days but it's a skill that takes a lot of practise. I'm going to carry on doing it now I'm home and hopefully be able to include it in my work in the future. Here's one of my finished pieces:

You can find out more about West Dean College and the courses available HERE

My Favourite Commission: February

This necklace is stamped with the Lyra constellation and was made for a new father to give to his wife as they'd just had a baby and named her Lyra. It's so lovely when customers let me know the story behind the piece they're buying.

The necklace photo was taken on a page of the book Stories In The Stars an Atlas of Constellations by Susanna Hislop, one of the most beautiful books I own and I'd highly recommend getting a copy if you're interested in the night sky! I thought the quote by John Berger went really well with the story behind this particular commission :)

February Playlist

February's been a pretty good month for music in my opinion. I'm so obsessed with the new Unknown Mortal Orchestra song Multi Love, can't wait for their new album to come out. Courtney Barnett's new song is also brilliant and Yay! to new music from blur, probably my all time favourite band.

I hope you enjoy my playlist, as always let me know if you've heard anything good recently!