Coming into the close

Coming into the close of 2011, I feel like my creative plans need some consolidation (is that a word?).

In the last month I have been very busy with commissions and making work for my Christmas season.
It's been amazing to be able to get back to the studio, and my bench.


The Grande Bracelet - with a hand forged silver band and cast solid brass marigold and sugar skull.

 I have been focusing on creating a comprehensive range of cast work that is very wearable - and I am very pleased with the result.

The Grande Skull ring



The Marigold Ring



As I mentioned in my last post, I have shamelessly borrowed from the Mexican culture - giving in to my desire to create a body of work based on the Dia Los Muertos holiday.
In an ideal world, I would have been travelling around Mexico during that holiday season, absorbing the sights and sounds for myself. That was not to be, but I have still really enjoyed reading up on this fabulous celebration, and the roots of the tradition.

You might ask why Dia Los Muertos?

I guess because it is one of the most colourful celebrations of death and life. I often work with the leavings of life - bones, feathers, dried up bodies of bugs and birds. In this, I am looking at the ideas and feelings that surround the subject of death. Dia Los Muertos is one of the few publicly accepted celebrations where the death of a human is not hidden away - where the leavings of the life, and the place of burial are not seen as scary or sad, but rightly as an honourific, a memorial, a keep safe.