A very big  thank you to everyone who visited me on my stand at the Selvedge Winter Fair in London earlier in the month, I met lots of lovely people and very much enjoyed the day. Here's a few pictures!

Setting up!

I wanted to give my display some height and I found the perfect way to do this with a wooden stand I found in a second hand shop and painted white!

Cover button brooches

 I'm currently making a new addition to my blog- check out the gallery page. Stitch wise at the moment I'm making a little collection of work for the Jessica Muir Gallery in Long Melford, Suffolk (images soon) and I'm planning a joint venture at Spitalfields Market in mid December, I'll keep you posted! Also, look out soon for some new experimental resin and fabric brooches coming soon.

The Selvedge Winter Fair

On Saturday 10th November I will be taking part in the Selvedge Magazine Winter Fair at Chelsea Old Town Hall, King's Road, London. It's on from 10am-4pm, do come along and pop in if you're in the area. There will be over 60 exhibitors and I'll have a range of brooches, rings and necklaces on sale-it's a great opportunity to buy some lovely handmade gifts for Christmas, or just to treat yourself! Find out more at selvedge.org

A selection of knitted and felted necklaces I'm working on, embellished with found objects and broken jewellery

Detail of knitted necklace embellished with beads taken from broken jewellery

Hope to see you there!

My other train of thought

I'd like to share with you some previous work to give some background to my working process.

I love to have the freedom to develop ideas without the constraints of making a functional piece and it is mostly through working in this way that the ideas for my jewellery are formed and developed.

"Curiosity"

As you will know by now, my obsessions are knitting and felting and my main objective through my work is to explore the possibilities of these crafts and subvert wool as much as I can! For my last main big project "Curiosity" I was lucky enough to have a month long residency in the Benham Gallery at Cuckoo Farm Studios, which was essentially an exploration into the sculptural and textural possibilities of knit and felt. This subject is something I want to continue to return to in order to explore the infinite possibilities surrounding this subject and I hope that one day I will have the time and the organisational skills (!) to work the two strands of my work, being the conceptual pieces and jewellery, side by side. Ultimately, in everything I make I want to ensure that there is integrity in the thought processes behind the pieces.

I made this piece from two separate knitted tubes and Shibori felting experiments.


The bobbles run all the way through the middle of the piece! The pieces were hung from the ceiling using invisible thread, creating an ethereal presentation.





Many visitors to the exhibition said the pieces reminded them of sea creatures

Knit and crochet piece- I added my Crocheted strings by hooking them into the knitting machine needles when constructing the tube 

Once I get the Gallery section of my site up and running I can share more, but for now I hope this gives you some insight into how my work and my thoughts develop!

Foraging, walking and cooking!

When I'm not sewing and knitting one of my most favorite ways to spend my time is cooking (and eating!) lovely homemade things. I also love to forage for ingredients, and as I have a Labrador who is at her happiest out in the countryside (pictures of her to follow at some point, she doesn't like to sit still for  long!), dog walks provide a  handy time to pick blackberries and apples, which is exactly what I did last weekend!

Here is the result, Blackberry and Apple Gin which will be ready just in time for Christmas!

This was how it looked a week ago

This is how it looks now, just a simple combination of fruit, sugar and Gin, can't wait to try it!
If you'd like to make some yourself, the recipe is taken from the River Cottage Preserves book

By way of news of the textile variety, I'm currently making lots of things for a London Textile Fair next month, I'll let you know more when the advertising is released!

Latest exhibition- The Minories, Colchester

To co-inside with Open Studios, The Minories Gallery in Colchester has an exhibition show casing a selection of participating artists, and I am very excited that my work is part of the exhibition! Lots of visitors to my studio over the weekend had said how uniquely it was presented, and today I popped into the Minories to have a look! It's always intriguing to see how other people present your work and this particular presentation has definitely inspired me for when I'm setting up displays myself in the future.

The Exhibition is in the lovely Garden Room at The Minories

If you're in the area I can recommend a visit to The Minories, as well as the variety of exhibitions and shop, the beautiful Georgian building and gardens are lovely to see in themselves. There is also a great Bistro so you can really make a day of it! Visit theminories.co.uk for details of how to get there

Open Studios

Cuckoo Farm Studios Open Studios event is taking place this weekend 11-6pm- there are thirty artists in all, including me, and it's always a great weekend. Come along and enjoy a look inside the studios and have a chat with the artists, and maybe even buy yourself some artwork or something beautifully hand crafted and lovely! The weather is promising to be very Summery (fingers crossed!) so make a day of it, bring a picnic or take advantage of our tea, cake and sandwich stall! (I'll definitely be doing a bit of that myself!)

There will also be an exhibition in the studios gallery (The Benham Gallery) entitled "Documenting Memories," which celebrates the 20th anniversary of Cuckoo Farm Studios and gives a great insight into how it all began and how CFS has grown throughout the years.

Hope to see you there!

Here is a little look at what you can expect to see over the weekend

Some of my brooches and rings in progress

Artist Amy Turnbull's piece for the "Outside" exhibition

Artist Jean Muir's piece for the "Outside" exhibition. We  have a unique setting within our  beautiful grounds at CFS
and the Outside exhibition highlights this very well

Please visit cuckoofarmstudios.org.uk for details on how to find us

One man's junk..!

I love scouring second hand shops, flea markets and Ebay for pearly treasures I can up-cycle into my jewellery pieces, and here is a little look at my latest finds! I like to imagine the story of where these necklaces and bracelets may have come from, and I enjoy the challenge of  re-inventing them into my work, juxtaposing them with new materials. Something old, something new!

Looking forward to getting to work with these!

I'll keep you up to date on the transformation of these pieces from junk to jewellery!