Champagne Challenge

I had never come across hollow stemmed champagne glasses until someone asked me to make a chandelier from their collection. It's quite a large collection so I don't know how their existence had passed me by - clearly I have lots more to learn, that's good.

My main task was how to make the chandelier not look just like a load of glasses. As I'm sure I've mentioned here before I'm not a fan of wacky upcycling that screams at you about what it used to be. The other task was to work out how to join them to a frame in a satisfactory way aesthetically. They are much bigger than the components I'm used to working with.

So here's the finished piece which is just under a metre long. All the stems are held by spring clips so they can be easily taken out for transportation and cleaning and then just slotted back in. I prefer this way of joining things than a permanent way, it allows flexibility in handling and repair. I never try to disguise the hardware in my chandeliers - I love all the little clasps, hooks, nut's and bolts, my style is very much like that of old Meccano.

The clients took a risk in commissioning something new to me because it meant they didn't know exactly what they'd be getting. I did some drawings to show them but really the possibility was in my mind and not easy to put on paper. So much can change once I start drilling holes and assembling. I'm happy to say they are very pleased with their chandelier and we shall soon be installing it in their conservatory.

Open Studios June 2017

Looking forward to opening our doors in Bromley by Bow this weekend. Some fellow artists are showing work on the theme 'Small is Beautiful, More or Less'

Amongst lots of other pieces this Salmon Pink and rich Turquoise (it looks bluer in the photo) Duet for 3 candles will be for sale here. I just finished making this last week inspired by the colour combination.

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.

Southend On Sea

In October I made the trip to Southend on Sea to see a wonderful exhibition. Here's the sea front with the longest pier in the world - apparently. The Beecroft Art Gallery was hosting the touring show Radical Craft organised by Craftspace showcasing work by self-taught artists. It's now on show in Scunthorpe, you can check the tour schedule here. It's good to see it's going to places that aren't saturated with culture and usually get forgotten by major exhibitions - so none of the big cities.

I loved this textile piece by Lasmin Salmon, the colour mixing was fantastic with lots of small areas that drew you in to the detail and then the whole piece worked beautifully in full view too.

This tram was made by Willem van Genk from collaged,  recycled objects. There were a few trams by him, and so many great and varied pieces - too many to  show here - by so many talented artists, so do look at more here. I also loved these monochrome textiles made with a sort of knotting by Atsushi Yoshimoto.

Southend is only an hour from London on the train but didn't appear to have been changed by 'down from London' types like Brighton, Whitstable, Margate etc. which all have cafes and trendy and vintage shops and are full of people who've left London. It's surely only a matter of time though before it gentrifies in this way?  So the charity shops were very cheap and there are loads of fish and chip places on the sea front.
However by chance we found one place which would appeal to those looking for a visual feast, this  cafe and restaurant San Fairie Ann was really styled amazingly.

They have gone for the Paris flea market style in a big way. I loved the scale of their decor, a buffalo head on the wall and sizeable objects hanging from the ceiling - none of your mini, pretty, vintage tea time style stuff, this was done with bigger, bolder brush strokes and was so full of character.

The menu looked amazing though we just had tea and cake - I say just, the cake was about 5 layers high! They don't do things by halves here.

And they had a large chandelier by the fire place, it looks great but of course I always look at these and want to take them apart for the glass pieces for my chandeliers!

Exhibited in Plymouth

This was my first time exhibiting in Plymouth - my home town. I left it aged 18 desperate to get to London. Decades later it has a fast growing arts scene - thankfully - and Plymouth Arts Weekender is in it's 2nd year. Six Caroline Place is the project of Charlotte Squire who selected 8 artists for Uncanny World of Interiors. The setting has layers of domestic unspoiled-ness (I loathe all those super modernised interiors you see when perusing rightmove etc.) - a perfect backdrop.

Holding their own against the funky wallpaper are the skillful, intriguing paintings by David Edmond.

A curious corner created with a sculpture (made from interior items) by Charlotte Squire and paintings by David Edmond against the wallpaper that Charlotte and inhabitants haven't decided whether to keep yet or not; lovable and livable are different things aren't they?!

Where the wallpaper is gone there are many different coloured patches of plaster wall; gorgeous colours and textures. I loved showing my chandeliers here because the texture of my tarnished and rusty metal items felt so at home in a space that also showed it's history. It was a fantastic weekend chatting to the many visitors doing the Plymouth art trail - thanks to all who took part!

Uncanny World of Interiors

Please excuse my absence from the blog - I got distracted by joining instagram! I really don't know how people keep up with using all the social media, the networking is fun but time consuming. Now I'm about to dip my toes in the Plymouth art scene at Plymouth Art Weekender. I was a foundation art student here aged 16-18; several decades ago, in an age before drastic cuts when we actually got given boxes of pastels, paints and a drawing board on arrival, oh happy days. 

If you are in this neck of the woods at the weekend please come along to 6 Caroline Place, Millbay, Plymouth PL1 3PR. Curated by my friend the artist Charlotte Squire the Uncanny World of Interiors, 'showcases the work of 8 artists and designers working with everyday materials, transforming the mundane into objects of desire'.  Sat & Sun 24/25th 11am-6pm

Large Chandelier

This is a large 12 Cup chandelier recently happily installed in it's north London home. It's the result of this colour palette choice by my customer from my available components. The owners are very keen on LED bulbs and luckily now you can get dimmable candle bulbs - very neat and delicate which suits decorative and antique lighting. These are 3 watts each, there are 6 bulbs and the light given was ample.

Illuminated

Clear and white 8 Cup Chandelier

I finally got round to photographing my clear chandeliers against a black back ground. The switch to digital definitely made photography easier; back in the day I had a range of flood lights with 1000's of watts, had to blackout the daylight and shoot on slide film over-exposing by 2 and 2.5 stops. I'd then get the film processed in Soho, edit them and press into slide frames. Then I'd post them to magazines etc. That seems so elaborate and lengthy now but I used to really enjoy the analogue way and was a really late adopter of digital - no going back now!

Upcyclisted Directory

I'm very happy to be included in Upcyclist's Directory,  Upcyclisted.  Antonia wrote one of the best books on upcycling that I've seen. Each time I look through it I see something I didn't notice before so I'll never be finished with looking at it. I particularly love the furniture by Italian company Manoteca, one of the 48 featured artists in her book.

The play with proportions in this dressing table called Ephemera makes it stand out against most furniture I've seen, this is daring but not loud which I find really aesthetically pleasing.

And I love this ingenious work table called Windoor that folds away. Isn't great when you see something and love every decision the artist made and wouldn't change a thing.

Open Studios

I'm very excited to be taking part in these Open Studios next weekend - see you there!

Deco Mag and Breakfast

Many Thanks to Deco Mag for the feature on my work here.

You can sign up for their regular newsletter and stay in touch with all things eco and interior.

All Day Breakfast

Coffee and Croissant theme chandelier, I think it might be one of my favourites.

LED Filament Bulbs

I was thrilled to find these LED filament bulbs at B&Q. Having always had one eye on the development of low energy bulbs waiting for those big clumsy white plastic ones to get replaced by more refined designs it's great news that LED bulbs have been getting better and better and are more easily available. This filament style are great for my chandeliers, are a warm tone with an A++ energy efficiency rating. They were about £5 or £7, can't remember exactly, but these are 4 watts and 2.2 watts so a great saving in electricity usage. I hope they'll make the candle style with a twist in the glass one day, it scatters light nicely.

Jelly Bowl Lantern with rusts, amber and pinks, 4 watt bulb (similar to 40 watts incandescant) 470 lumens.

Reloved

Thanks to Reloved magazine for including me in the editorial of their August issue.

Orange, Green and Exam Time

Orange and greens, nice colour scheme to work with. So many clients have wanted bright colours this year, that must be a good sign I reckon.

Many youngsters are doing exams around now and are under far more pressure than in my day. Many years ago I got a C for my art O Level (equivalent of GCSE) that was the lowest possible pass. I then left school at 16 and went straight to Art School where I took my A level during a foundation course. For that I got an E, I think, anyway again I got the lowest possible pass. So my conclusion is don't worry about your Art marks - what do they know?! Having scraped through (according to others opinions) decades later I am still enjoying a pioneering creative life with many highlights under my belt, 3 exhibitions in Tokyo, 5 chandeliers in the British Council collection, teaching at Pilchuck Glass school and a residency in a Capital of Culture amongst many other adventures. So, follow your heart and don't let them get to you!

Featured!

My copy of Upcyclist arrived today - I am so proud to be included in this beautiful book. It really is gorgeous and full of great artists and photographs - no dabblers here - this is seriously good design only.

And perhaps most importantly.....Otis made the edit....in what is perhaps his best portrait to date.

Handsome and well dressed.

Colourful

By coincidence I've been working on two very colourful commissions this winter. It shows how far we've come in being more adventurous with our homes and especially lighting. When I started out - a long time ago now - the only lighting with bright coloured glass seemed to be in Barcelona or Milan but not customary on this island, but then again continental cafes were rare and so was a good coffee. Even if you always had adventurous taste you just couldn't get the stuff. We've clearly learned alot from mainland Europe.

Small is Beautiful

This is one of my Duets for 3 candles. I've been trying to make more smaller pieces for Xmas stock. These actually take ages to make; because they're small they're more intimate so all the detail has to be spot on. I wasn't going to use turquoise in this colour scheme but I was holding some glass drops up to the piece to see if I wanted to use them and the turquoise was attached and suddenly they made the other colours sing louder. I'm thrilled to still be having these happy accidents even after 20 years plus of making my chandeliers because that's really the root of the way I've been working and I love a solution that I couldn't have planned. This is for sale for £295, you can contact me on the e-mail address on my website here. Info on size here, scroll down.

My work is included in the directory of this online eco magazine Deco. You can subscribe to their newsletter and if you do that soon you'll no doubt get their preview of Design week; a selection of eco conscious design. I cant believe how quickly it's coming around again. I took part in Tent last year but this year I shall be a happy spectator and am looking forward to getting to Design Junction and Designers Block. The details of what's on are here. It's 18th-23rd Sept.

I used to avoid Design Week - too many silly chairs and superfluous stuff but I surrendered because amongst that I see a tiny handful of stuff that excites me.

This year Designers Block is in a building I always wanted to get into, Sessions House on Clerkenwell Green. It's opposite Craft Central's Corner Shop so when I was exhibiting there I looked onto this grand building.  You can start registering for tickets now.

And sorry for the huge gap in blogging - summer and straddling south London and Devon have something to do with that.

Summer Sea and Fair

I'm very happy that my chandeliers have been selling well at Two Kats and a Cow Gallery in Brighton. I've been working fast to restock. There's something about the light by the sea that enhances everything. I've been working alot with greens and turquoises. I prefer slightly muted colours, I think they look better with aluminium because it's not shiny. If you're getting your sun and sea in Brighton do visit this gallery - it's on the beach between the 2 piers.

Meanwhile....

...I have not been to the sea but to a country fair. I loved some of the old village games. The above of course is really timely (am enjoying odd binges of the World Cup) but I loved the quality of the painting. Is this considered folk art? I'm not sure the exact definition - maybe I'll find out more when I get to the British Folk Art exhibition at Tate Britain next week. I think of my work as urban folk art. I cant tell you how much the division between fine art and craft annoys me. Since I've been looking for a studio (really tough) I found that 2 of the major providers in London only consider fine artists. It makes my search doubly hard.

Zooming in on the background this reminds me of the 3D spectators I bought in a market near this fair, that I featured here on my blog. I love the passion in their creation - beats fine art anyday!