This week as well as buying new tools I went about sorting some business cards. Not that I’ll get the opportunity to hand them out on the streets of Macroom but I have signed up for Barcamp in Cork this month. You don’t really see many business cards in my little silver world so I had no idea where to start. Anyway I was directed to Moo which is a great website that gives you lots of different templates and designs. I opted for the mini business card size, partly to save the environment and partly because I’m not sure I am adult enough for a big persons business card! Anyway rather than using a picture of my work which I’m afraid I would outgrow in a few months I picked an image from a book I have about women silversmiths in the 18th century. The cards are winging their way to me as I type so as soon as they arrive I’ll put up some pictures of them and explain the inspiration behind them.
My First Video Blog, New Tools.
Here’s my first video blog! I got a parcel of tools this week so I figured the best way to show them off was to make a video!
Since this is my first video blog I welcome comments. I plan to do some more videos of soldering and other silversmithing techniques but let me know if you have any other suggestons.
RDS National Crafts Competition
I just got my weekly newsletter from Benchpeg yesterday, this is a great British website that posts upcoming jewellery exhibitions and workshops. Anyway there was a piece about the recent RDS National Crafts Competition Exhibition and how the exhibition had made its way to the Courtyard Gallery in Midleton, Cork. So I hopped in my car this morning and headed to Midleton to see the show.
The Courtyard is one of two galleries outside of Dublin where this show can be seen.
The exhibition has twenty different categories of craft making made up of the prizewinners of the RDS Competition. Rather than list all twenty I’ll just talk about the pieces that caught my eye.
Stephen O’ Brien’s Bone Chair was the most impressive piece for me, the only disappointment was that I couldn’t sit on it! I’ve never tried working with wood so have no idea what went into making this but I can only imagine it takes skill to get wood to behave in such a fluid manner.
As the only large silversmithing piece Cathal Barber’s silver salt and pepper shaker set stood out for it’s amazing finish and beautiful geometric forms. The only picture half decent picture I can get of this piece is the one I scanned from the catalogue.
My only criticism is that only some of the labels and programme details listed the materials used. With such a wide range of disciplines it would have been great to know the chosen materials of each artist.
Silver Service Take Away
I found this on the Contemporary British Silversmiths website. It’s a piece by one of their graduate members, Max Warren. I think it’s great to see contemporary silver sculpture like this. I love how he combines silver and traditional laborious techniques like hand engraving with something as throw away as chip paper. Silver is great to work with, not only for the properties of the metal but the concepts of wealth and ceremony it evokes. If you made the same piece in copper I don’t believe it would have the same impact. He has a few other images on the website
https://www.contemporarybritishsilversmiths.org/member-galleries/?action=view-image&image=152
Introductions
As a silversmith/jeweller starting out on my own I hope this blog will give you a chance to follow my progress. Most of the silversmithing blogs I’ve come across either discuss antique silver or else give advice on how to perfect different techniques. What I hope to do is blog about the artistic process from the initial inspiration right through to the execution of the finished piece. Taking you through the various sketches and models, then looking at some of the different forming processes I use.
The aim of my work is to execute my sculptural designs using techniques which have remained unchanged since early silversmithing. Many of these processes are quite labour intensive but the end result is a completely handmade piece with a high quality finish. As I have never studied silversmithing in college I am sure my approach will be ‘interesting’ to some readers. That approach consisting of a combination of my sculptural education and my 10 years experience of silversmithing. I hope you find it interesting please leave me a comment, even if it’s only to say hello.
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