Pipe Dream

This is the light I made using the bits of old clay pipes gathered mudlarking from the Thames river bed at low tide. I called it Mudlark's Pipe Dream. Apparently mudlarking is really trendy now (isn't everything!?) Anyway this piece is now Tokyo bound for my show and sale there in November at Found Garage; my clients new shop.
I didn't know how it was going to turn out I just knew I wanted to use the pipes somehow - so I just played around with them and colours and the result surprised me. I think it's two colour schemes merged.

More Mudlarking in the sun

If we get more sunny days like earlier this month I can really recommend morning mudlarking. I googled low tides and picked my day, it wasn't so early but I was the only person there. It's amazing to be in the middle of London and have this environment all to yourself.

I wanted more bits of clay pipe for a new chandelier. I got quite alot but there's an awful lot of bones down there and masses of plastic cable ties. Below is a piece of pipe, quite easy to spot. See my previous post on Mudlarking.

I picked up a few bits of crockery pieces - I like to imagine they all belonged to Samuel Pepys!

I used a piece of pipe in one of these Baby's Fascinators. My friends in Tokyo are opening a new shop called 'g(i)ven' selling smaller antiques and vintage items. I made these especially for the childrens section as it's fun for me to deviate from my usual stuff and make something different. In these I use brighter colours and can use up the odd single beads, but also keys, tiny spoons, buttons and coins.

Mudlarking

 I found myself at Tate Modern with 15 minutes until they opened, so walking by the river with sun illuminating the wobbley-no-more bridge, I noticed how very low the tide was – just time to do something I’ve always wanted to do – go mudlarking!  I’d heard about the masses of bits of clay pipes you can find and thought I could use them in my work if I found some. Here’s my first haul.  All stem pieces, no bowls but I love their textures and colours.

It’s amazing how old they are, from around 1600 onwards. I got fascinated so googled and found a lot of info on them, I liked Gia’s blog post, really informative and she found a really stunning piece that must be the find of all mudlark finds.
It seems odd to me that they were so disposable, often bought already filled with tobacco and never refilled but thrown away. I think of one-use-disposability as a modern thing, but clearly not. Maybe they blocked too easily with debris? I shall research more; I’m hoping to give mine another lease of life anyway and I may well become hooked on this mudlarking lark.