Winter Sun

Lovely winter sun illuminates some of my glass collection in the studio. I don't remember where I found each of them only some of them, but the little hand-painted green one is a bit of a favourite and from Clignancourt flea market in Paris.

Studio Change

Before

After

I left Carlton Mansions after 30 years - all my adult life really - because Lambeth evicted our 35 year old co-op. My work was born and nurtured here and I see how the decaying grandeur of my all time favourite building (and Will Self's!) influenced my work. When I moved in in 1984 Brixton was a very different place; some places were called 'no go areas' and some flats and houses 'hard to let' Imagine that!

Packing was a complete nightmare - there was no motivation as I didn't want to leave. Circumstances meant that I'd be taking half my stuff to Devon to be near my mum in her old age and half my stuff to a London studio which I finally found after months on waiting lists, so every item needed a decision of which of the 2 places to go to and you can imagine how much stuff I have as a salvage artist who hates waste!

So, moving forward I find myself beyond Bow in east London with a whole new area to explore; already got lost cycling but autumn has been so sunny and my favourite season for cycling in London that it's been a pleasure. I love my new studio, am gradually making it mine and have started to meet my customers there. It's probably a good thing to be in a completely new neighbourhood as leaving the glorious Mansions was so painful - I hate to think of it standing there empty without our 16 households keeping it warm and I think of the foxes who would prowl our stairwells at night - I hope they and the squirrels and wrens and tits who all nested there have all taken it over completely.

I love old industrial buildings and it's very hard to find a nice, affordable studio in London these days so all in all I'm very lucky. Most importantly Otis has made the transition well too - I am so proud of him. Here he is resting in the bubble wrap box in between explorations in his new country garden.

Assistant

My assistant joins me at teatime and as usual places himself at the hub of things.

February

I missed posting anything in January, not sure why, but I have been busy working with bright colours in the darker months.  This is thanks my customer Robinsons Goldsmiths who's shop in Bangor, Northern Ireland re-opens any minute now.  You can see pictures here. Cobalt blue in glass is a fantastic colour - it seems to magically invigorate all the other colours you pair it with. I love it with pink or yellow, here I worked with green and turquoise. This kind of thing fascinates me, I could spend my life marveling at what colour does.

I've been taking photos around the studio, partly for someone's book, (more of that when it happens) and partly just as sketches as it changes all the time. Leaving it this year is going to be very tough but I'm determined to find a nice new space to work in by chuck out time.

Wireless

Isn't modern life fantastic - you can work whilst watching the Great British Bake Off on iplayer. I could feel guilty but I got loads done. I'm probably always at least 5 years behind on technology. I'm always amongst the last to get gadgets and stuff like mobile phone, website, blog, digital camera, laptop etc. I wouldn't know what to do with a smart phone or an ipad. In another few years I'll probably discover instagram and facebook etc by the time they're old hat. These things seem like magic to me, I still marvel at what's possible in photoshop. Funny though, alot of these digital things want to mimic analogue stuff like old type that's not aligned and old polaroids.   

These are keys from an old type writer I took apart. I really like the proportion of a metal arm the size of your finger with a tiny little apostrophe or letter perched on the end. I loved how the typewriter was assembled, these just had a rigid wire hook through a hole that I could unhook nice and easily to remove them - don't you love this analogue stuff?! I'm hoping these will end up on a chandelier but I'm not sure how yet.

Countryside

This is the beginning of my second studio I'm setting up here on the edge of Dartmoor. It's not exactly by choice - my mother has had a stroke - what dreadful things they are and so common - so I'm needing to be away from the London studio part time but wanting to work when I'm not at the hospital. I often wonder how other people cope with the mix of professional life and crisis with friends or family health, though it's not a new scenario for me to down tools to be bedside. I suppose we creative self-employed people are lucky to have a more flexible set up than many. Anyway I found this nice old tin and thought I'd keep my new tools in it. I hate cheap crappy far eastern tools - I'd rather pay more and get a decent pair of pliers but they're hard to find so sadly I succumbed to the £1 guys - lets see how long they last! What a cynical activity it is to produce a load of cheap rubbish to make a fast buck.
Countryside tales to come!

Happy Mess

I think tidying up can be overrated. I've occasionally over tidied my studio and then felt it's lost some creativity. I need to see stuff lying around because therein lie the solutions. That's my excuse anyway!

Evening Light

Evening sun coming into the studio, I love this time of day, the chandelier shadows across the wall, I wish there were more evenings like this - maybe some yet to come - it's like being given extra time.

In the Thick of It

Don't you admire how cats know where to place themselves and when?
Otis settles on all my to-do lists in the early morning just when I sort them.

And what would they think if I turned up to accordion class with a cat instead?

But then he gives me a good reason not to do the admin jobs....

And he seems quite happy that it still feels like winter in the studio.

Tidy Table

Look - I tidied my work-table! (see mid April post) This is as clear as it gets and already I have some homeless new acquisitions on it.
Mondays is antiques day at the Jubilee Market in Covent Garden, I hardly ever go there but I got some great bargains this week from John’s Jewels – 2 trestle tables of jewellery heaped with necklaces etc., everything is £1. I got loads of pearlised bead necklaces that I’ll unstring. I also indulged myself and got a ring I like, it’s the missing bits that make it better, and amazingly I found both earrings of a pair amongst all the chaotic stock. Definitely my kind of stall.
ps. My table didn’t stay clear for long….

A Corner of my Studio

As a general rule I don't like to think any of the objects I find are too precious to be used in my work - the opposite in fact, I like to think I can surrender anything if it's the perfect object to make the whole piece work. It's not always easy and little collections have accumulated here and there, often of mini objects.
Here there is a little cake slicer from a charity shop in Sydney, I love it because it looks like a plasterers tool, a chocolate mould that says Leon Letang on it, a very skinny little pastry cutter, a brassy tea strainer, a tarnished Japanese cutter - it has 5 petals, maybe plum or cherry blossom, a little engraved glass from a Paris flea market, an oblong biscuit cutter and a tiny perfume bottle left over from a commission for Penhaligon's perfume shop where I made a chandelier in my style but incorporating their bottles - it's in the Covent Garden shop. Also I love these bits of wood with dripped paint and one day I may use them in a construction too.

Tidying Up? Ha!

I used to be able to tidy this work top regularly. Now it seems impossible - it's become home to so many things that there isn't room for on the shelves. I do know what's here and where, so it does work.
I didn't get that Easter clearing buzz I was hoping for but if it does arrive I'll have a go at clearing this.
I might show you when it's done but I'm sure it wont be so photogenic.
Speaking of photogenic here's Otis again - I was going to sort out all the pieces of bubble wrap, but Otis thought it was a great game, so, so far a real team effort on no spring cleaning!

Otis - King of the Studio

Some friends have been waiting for Otis to appear on this blog, so here he is looking like Quality Control officer in the studio.

He's always dapper, sporting spats, bib, tuxedo, bow tie, moustache and beauty spot!
Easter Cat
Our Easter card has been really well received with a few belly laughs, so since this blog lacked bright colours and since it's been a bit of a lazy weekend in the studio, I decided to put it here for everyone to enjoy.