Brooches that look like rocks and minerals

David Choi - Brooch via Crafthaus


Isabel Dammermann - Perpetua Brooches

I've been dipping into some of my old posts to enlarge the photo's in them and came across the original Brooches that look like rocks and minerals post in 2008 and decided it was time for another set.


Anna Wallis - 'Silver Crystal' Brooch via Velvet da Vinci Gallery


Amy Tavern - Fabricated Memory: Jewelry Box 1980 via Velvet da Vinci Gallery


Hanna Liljenberg: Brooch via Klimt02
Looks like a piece of Hubnerite


Sofia Björkman - Blackened Brilliance series 2010-'11 via Klimt02


Sofia Björkman - Blackened Brilliance series 2010-'11 via Klimt02
Has echoes of this Goethite over Quartz on this page.


Anna Wallis - 'Drip' Brooch via Velvet da Vinci Gallery

Silke Trekel - Spatial Structures

Silke Trekel - Spatial Structures via Fingers
Photography by Christoph Sandig, all images copyright Fingers

These appeal to the part of me that likes to play with slotted card shapes. Silke has made that type of delicate and vulnerable creation into something much more durable, permanent and best of all, wearable with her enamelled iron constructions.

Wyatt Ellison - Bear Head & Boulders

Wyatt Ellison - Bear Head and Boulders, on Etsy

We don't have bears here, but it certainly has been wild. Storm force Gales 100 mile an hour winds, power cuts. I'm embarrassed by how dependent I am on having internet access. I can manage without food, heat, money and do ok but take away my broadband and I feel lost. So glad it's back.

Scottish jewellers

Iona Brown - Ring with salt crystals - DJCA graduate 2011

I love making crystals, haven't done it for years, so it was nice to be reminded of them and even better to see them incorporated into her jewellery. I don't know how wearable or lasting it is but that is part of the beauty. Lots of my own paper and twig jewellery pieces are still going strong after 20 years despite everyone telling me they would fall apart quickly.


Merlin Planterose - Necklace, Ring and Silver Bowls - DJCA graduate 2011

As someone who liked working with nature to create my own metalwork, bowls and other works I'm really liking the techniques used by Merlin Planterose to, in her father's words, turn silver into stone. She used stone as both hammer and anvil to give a beautiful natural texture to her pieces, which includes stone dust from the process which gets embedded into the silver. I'd love to see and feel the effect in real life.

Faces on brooches

Constantinos Kyriacou: Brooch, 2008


Inês Almeida: Brooch- Diálogos e monólogos 2 2004-2005
Wood, silver and coins (via Klimt02)


Fabrizio Tridenti: Brooch- F. Guelfi 2007 (via Klimt02)
Plastic, oxidized silver, paper, electric wire


Bettina Speckner: Brooches, 2007+2004


Eija Mustonen: Brooch (via Hibernate)

Black lace-like chain of thought

Suzanne Beautyman: Brooch, 2007, Antique lace, resin (via Klimt02)
It reminded me of...

Anne Wilson: Black lace at the V&A 'Out of the Ordinary' exhibition 2007
Which reminded me of...

Cal Lane: 5 benevolent cans-2007, oil cans. Available to buy on Artnet


Cal Lane: 3 Shovels-2006, wood, steel (found via Found Object)
Cal's work blows me away, you should see what she does with cars! I'm really in awe of what she does with steel because when you look deeper than the compelling beauty each piece also has a very subtle but strong message and I would encourage you to read more on her website.
Which reminded me of...

Paul Villinski: Paradigm, 2007, beer cans

The chain of visual memories continued but I could be here for weeks trying to find the links so I hope these few have been good. I had to access my old computer to get some of these and I found lots more of interest, expect further themed posts soon.

Hanna Hedman + Sanna Lindberg

Hanna Hedman: Jewellery 2007-2008. Photography: Sanna Lindberg

Sanna Lindberg shot these striking photo's of great jewellery by Hanna Hedman which Karin showed on her Flickr pages of the 2008 Degree Show at Konstfack. Karin blogged about her visit. Read what Hanna says about her work here, also shows a really good photo of her work in 3d sketch form.

Foliage and a fish

Claude Schmitz: jewellery

Claude Schmitz: Brooch


Claude Schmitz: Brooch, via Galerie Orfèo


Claude Schmitz: Brooch, via Galerie Orfèo

Part of 'All things white and beautiful' as I post a visual snowscape of creativity and observations in shades of white through January.

My work: Pic 'n' Mix 1990/94

Seed pods, Edinburgh Botanic Gardens 1992


'Quality' 1992, word based layered image
cartridge paper, tissue, tape, acetate, charcoal, ink, dictionary photocopies

I found some old plastic sleeves with photo's in them. I only took very quick snaps so you can see the reflections of light and my red top. You can click to see them larger, though they are very fuzzy.


Various Pieces from the early 90's

As well as these pics from an old file, I also found some contact sheets of other work including the following two, the 1st is a very large recycled copper pod, the second is phase one of a perpetual calendar which got left in a locker at college along with a whole ton of other work because I forgot the combination on the lock!


Copper Pod and Perpetual Calendar, 1993/94

I was so stressed after the Ceramics Dept. broke my degree show pieces that I gave up on the ceramics aspect and forgot about the locker entirely. When I returned the next year they had been emptied, so it was quite a treat to find I had a photo of this half made. I still have the little carved wax animals that were going to be cast as part of this piece, it was all tied in to animals on a medicine wheel.

I was researching moon lore and mythology which related to a lot of my work. In doing so I found out my animal totem was a Wolf and, given my love of wolves, I got a bit side-tracked by the book Earth Medicine. Reading the description of 'wolves' (Birth date Feb 19 -March 20) was the clearest most accurate description of myself I have ever read, both the good and the bad aspects of my personality. I must look it out again and see if I've changed since then.

My metalwork - spooky fingers

Copper fingers, 1991

These look good when my hands are painted the same colour. The fingers flex a little. I appear only to have 5 left. I know one fell down a public toilet (oops!) at a fancy dress night at college on Halloween '91 but goodness knows what happened to the others over the years. Hey, just realised I got the dates wrong on my earlier posted work, I left textiles in '91 not '92 so most things should be dated one year earlier.

Been chugging out a few pre-drafted posts but wanted to tag onto this one to say thanks to everyone for your comments and emails. I seem to be getting quite a lot recently, esp emails, and though I don't have the energy just now to reply to them all but I really do enjoy hearing from you and appreciate every single one. Miss P, note for you in my comment for this post.

My work - ceramic pod brooch

3 pod brooch, ceramic & titanium, 1993
(actual piece hangs vertically)

These, like so much of my work, were meant to be glazed white on the outside but when I realised glazes were environmentally un-friendly I stopped glazing anything. Instead, I biscuit fired them inside one of my large copper pods while I was annealling it (that's when you heat the metal to make it more pliable for working). I burned some paper in each pod to create a smoky dark interior. Some pieces were later painted instead using other people's leftover paint. Because they have only had a low firing they are still quite breakable and proably unsuitable for wearing, but I liked that. I fired the other groups fully but I kept this set like this as a small sculpture with the real fragility that found pod cases often have.

I love red & black

Having neglected my blog I'm giving you some links to explore instead. It seemed a nice idea to illustrate the links (some old faves, some new faces) with colour themed images. I opted for red and black since it evokes winter, all those dark nights and red berries.

Grainne Morton...


Marjojo (Marion Michell)...


-Yu-Chun Chen...

Beppe Kessler...


Lina Peterson...


Lina Peterson & Polly Wales (collaboration)...


Lynette Andreasen...


Joanne Haywood...


Susie MacMurray ...



Willemijn de Greef...


Unrelated, Kat Trappa, a whole blog dedicated to cat ladders found via Bibbi.