Lovely Customers

Amongst my customers last year I had 3 that I can think of who were slow brewing customers - I love this and it's been common throughout my 'career' (ha). One lady saw my work around 15 years ago in a recycling exhibition called 'Transformations' at the wonderful Pitt Rivers museum, another saw it  - we think - at Cockpit Arts where I'd completed the professional development course they used to run and we all got to show with their own studio artists; this was about 12 years ago. Then in December the above Duet Chandelier went to the home of an ex student of mine when I used to teach black and white photography in Tooting - we reckoned this was about 22 years ago - as my first exhibition was in 1994, so I think she wins the prize of my longest brewing customer. I had no business cards or website in those days. What is so gratifying for me is that my work can lodge in someones brain for so long and them find themselves able to buy a chandelier long after they initially wanted one. Lovely, I love to see my work go to happy homes.

Moody Blues

I'm always very sceptical of trends at first - after all who wants to be a sheep and just follow? At the same time it interests me how fashions permeate us and make us look at things differently or anew and why we start liking things that we didn't before. I've seen a gazillion tasteful interior photos with dark, moody blue walls. At first I thought why would you paint your walls so dark? - my middle aged eyes need more light. I've had many colours including a dark blue in the past and always ended up painting them white after a time because I want the light back. However I recently wanted a nice dark background to photograph my clear chandeliers against so I sought out a rich, moody blue.

The fancy paint companies do some beautiful colours but if you're on a budget they may be out of the question. I usually just believe there is something adequate at the local merchants - I've compared Dulux colour charts to Farrow & Ball and there are some close equivalents. For this panel I just bought off the shelf at B&Q rather than having something mixed from the chart, it's Dulux and called Sapphire Salute. I painted a thin MDF panel first but I'm thinking of doing the actual wall as I liked it so much - even though I'm usually resistant to feature walls. It's always great proving yourself wrong and turning your ideas around!

Objects and plants I had in front of this colour all seemed rejuvinated by the contrasting background and looked enhanced which made me understand why these shades have become so popular.

Colours

I love putting colours together and consider myself very lucky to do this for a job.

DeLuxe Duet

I love peppermint green with cobalt blue and raspberry.
This piece is for 3 candles and is going into Cavaliero Finn's next show in May. More info on that here. They select beautiful paintings and design by contemporary artists and almost sold out their last show.

Duets

These are the smallest chandeliers I make. The tealights will give you an idea of the size. They give me the chance to use very subtle components that would be lost in a bigger piece. Electric light is far too crude for these so I keep them candles only.  You can have hooks in different rooms and move these around.

I even do a mini version when I find tiny components, so these are for just 2 candles rather than 3 above. Here the little cutter at the bottom is about the size of a 50p piece. These two Duets will be for sale at my upcoming show  'A Light Shower' (see earlier post), I give 2% of my profits to the Paul D'Auria Cancer Support Centre every year and at every show I match the sale of the Mini Duet as a donation. Last time I did a solo show I sold the Mini as I was hanging the show and it was bought as a wedding present which is perfect.
The Mini will be around £195 and the regular Duets from £265.