An inspirational exhibition that sparked a new collection
The first completed blossom piece that holds a special place in my heart.
Pretty in Pink, copper, leather and porcelain beads, 2024
"Spring is nature’s own moment of regeneration, a hopeful time when the cycle of life begins anew, after the stillness of even the darkest winters. Small glimmers appear everywhere: fresh green buds, unfurling leaves, the first delicate flowers in the hedgerow and tree blossoms bursting into bloom as if in celebration of life.
Tree blossoms have always captivated me with their sudden spectacular appearance, both bold and beautiful, yet fragile and fleeting. A brief joyful moment. I especially love the Magnolia that transforms from bare branch to blossom filled beauty seemingly overnight. Taking inspiration from their ephemeral yet exuberant nature, I have tried to capture their joyfulness as a symbol of Regeneration.
Each piece has been crafted from recycled, reused and repurposed materials, my own act of regeneration. I challenged myself to only use materials that I had around me and to have fun with the making. The creation of each piece, each flower, has been a regenerative and joyful process."
Regeneration, artist statement, May 2024
Regenerative
In May this year I was lucky enough to be involved in a group exhibition with other artists from the Terra Mater Art collective. If you don't know them, it is a group of women working in different disciplines, each in their own way, but all inspired by and with a deep love for nature - you can find out more on the group website: www.terramaterart.com
I have been involved with Terra Mater for a while now, and taken part in a few exhibitions, but the latest one has been special. Prior to taking part in the Regeneration exhibition I had had a very quite creative period, where I really hadn't made much work or been sat at my bench hardly at all. Something about the theme of the exhibition called me to take part; perhaps the need for a fresh start, the arrival of spring, the desire to be creative again, or maybe all of those things. And I am well aware that I am most productive when I have a deadline to work towards, so agreeing to take part was a self-inflicted kick up the bum! And I'm so glad I did it.
Random images of nature captured with my phone camera during local walks:
I spent quite a lot of time thinking about the theme, especially during solo walks, a quiet time when I absorb the peace of nature and do my best thinking and processing. I took notice of the moments that sparked little glimmers of joy: noisy sparrows hopping about in their mischievous way, a robin singing it's heart out, new life popping up in the hedgerows. But perhaps most joyful of all was the trees blossoming, in such a stunningly beautiful way.
This was my inspiration.
The process
In order to take all the inspiration and ideas that were flowing around my head and bring them to life through my hands, I reached for paper. I find I often start with paper or card, it's a very useful way of working quickly, and without the commitment of using more expensive materials. The dual nature of paper, it's fragility but also strength, also seemed a perfect material to capture the petals and blossoms.
A single paper blossom, created from two layers of paper:
As soon as I bent the petal upwards, and the flat paper took form, I was smitten. I fell in love with the shapes it created and the possibilities. I tried different types of paper, but kept returning to this semi translucent paper (believe it or not it is baking paper - I have lots of it hanging around my studio, that I use when I'm working with wax). It looks delicate but held up to all my experiments, bending and shaping.
It wouldn't however hold up to being worn, at least not and keep it's shape. So I turned to metal - my trusty friend. My first test was created from a small scrap of brass (you can see it in the photos below), but the sheet was too thick and didn't bend like I wanted it to. Next I tried cutting the petal shapes from copper sheet, I had some pieces that I wanted to reuse from previous projects. Luckily it was thinner sheet, which allowed me to have some fun with bending and shaping the petals. The colour of the copper seemed right too, there is something beautiful about the soft pink of freshly sanded copper.
A few paper flower experiments and a little brass flower:
One of the first copper flowers:
Copper flowers
The copper flowers quite simply made me happy, so I knew it was the direction I wanted to move in for the exhibition. I set about producing a bunch of flowers: drawing the shapes on the copper sheet, sawing them out, filing and then sanding them until they felt soft and nice to hold. It was a repetitive and quite time consuming process, but also peaceful and therapeutic. The bending and shaping stage was more instantly gratifying, as the flowers come to life.
When I had a small collection of flowers, I started playing around with methods of connection and the layout of some statement necklaces. Quite early in my attempts at joining the layers of petals, I realised that I wanted the flowers to move freely and keep their sense of life and movement. Soldering any of the components in a fixed position, immediately lost some of the playfulness that made the flowers so much fun. So I continued to fit the flowers onto copper wire - as I had previously done with the paper flowers - and allowed them to dance and spin.
I saw statement necklaces in my mind, something bold and big that would hold their own among larger ceramic pieces and colourful paintings. Looking through the materials in my studio, I came across some pink porcelain beads that I had had for years - pink seems to have slowly crept into my practice, it's there in some of my branding, but I still don't really think of myself as a pink person. But, something about the soft pink worked so well with the copper and was also reminiscent of tree blossom. So I tried the two together and a happy pairing was born.
Clockwise, from top left: the contrast between sanded and not sanded copper, a handful of flower shapes, the first pairing of copper and pink porcelain beads, a statement necklace in the making.
Necklaces
I planned to make at least three statement necklaces for the exhibition, the first one that came together was the most subtle, designed to be worn long - a little like a garland - it has one large show stealing blossom and a smaller one on a piece of branch, nestled among the pink beads. It's name instantly became Pretty in Pink in my head. The other two necklaces that were finished in time for the exhibition were Bursting to Life and Blooming Beautiful - the titles are an expression of how joyful I found both the tree blossom inspiration and the process of making such fun, lively, colourful pieces. I admit the names are a bit cheesy, but I just don't care, ha ha.
Top to bottom: Pretty in Pink, Bursting to Life and Blooming Beautiful, copper, leather and porcelain beads, 2024.
And rings too
All through the process of making the necklaces, I thought the flowers would make fantastic rings. Not practical every day rings, but fun statement rings to wear on a happy occasion. And I wanted them to move and dance too.
Using the same size of flowers as the ones on the necklaces, made for very large rings, so I scaled them down (to the size of the smaller flower in Pretty in Pink). For the sake of wearability, I decided to make the ring band from silver - and it was the best decision. The contrast between the copper and silver made such a gorgeous combination, I loved the result:
Joyful, copper and silver, 2024
The ring was instantly named Joyful. And as all good things come in threes, I made two more to accompany it in the exhibition.
Joyful rings, copper and silver, 2024
I also made a brooch, but it got missed out from a lot of my photos... I don't think it worked quite as well as the rings and necklaces, and is something that I need to revisit. It did make it into the exhibition though, poor thing.
The Blossom collection
The blossom pieces together made a small but cohesive collection. I was happy that my response to the theme of the exhibition - Regeneration - was so joyful and vibrant, a colourful celebration of nature, spring and new life.
Fabulous photographs by Paul Mounsey, 2024
Yet, the ephemeral nature of tree blossoms, their brief appearance during such a short season, was perhaps better expressed by the paper flowers at the start of the project. So, I decided to create some wall pieces that captured the paper blossoms, framing their delicate petals. A 3D image of a brief moment in time. Using different size petals and recycled copper wire, I made three (yes, there is a theme here) wall pieces. I'm very fond of them.
Clockwise from top left: Wall pieces on display at Trebah Garden, Fragile Beauty, Captured, and Fleeting Moment, paper, copper and leather, 2024.
I felt the wall pieces complimented the jewellery collection, but expressed the dual nature of tree blossom and flowers in general. They are also a lovely example of how a change in material can create such a different effect, and tell a different story.
Regeneration Exhibition
The exhibition included the work of seven members of Terra Mater, all with different styles, each piece contrasting yet complimenting the others. The set up day was a truly lovely experience (as Terra Mater set up days always are). The exhibition was held in the gallery at the beautiful Trebah Garden in Mawnan Smith, nr Falmouth. The stunning gardens are reason enough to visit, but they have a full programme of events too.
Snippets of the exhibition. The photos were taken on a phone camera and do not do any of the work justice:
Regeneration, May 2024.
A massive thanks to the wonderful women who were involved in the exhibition, and made the whole experience absolutely joyful.
From left to right: Me, Katie Bunnell, Linda Styles, Karen McEndoo, Maxine Greer, Jan Phethean and Sarah Drew - some, but not all, of the members of the artist collective Terra Mater Art.
New ideas
The pieces I made for the exhibition have since sparked new ideas for a whole new collection. Some ideas have been bought to life already, but there are many more bouncing around in my brain! I have made some more delicate blossom pieces, tried some ideas out in silver and worked out different ways of connecting the flowers - especially the rings. Some pieces are available on my website: Blossom Collection.
As an added bonus, this whole process has sparked new ideas for my Fragments collection.
But as this blog post is long enough... I'll save that for another post.
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