It will be great to go back to Sheffield for a visit – I have not been back much since I finished my degree. Hope to see some familiar faces!

Just back from Harrogate where we exhibited at the British Craft Trade Fair; it was the very last show as part of DesignSpace which was a little sad, but we had a great show and now we just need to follow up on all those contacts we made!My stand – I went super colourful for this show and had some great comments on the colours a few visitors said it made them think of Spring which is lovely.

We are moving out of our workshop this weekend but hopefully we all have exciting things to look forward to in the coming year. It was a great way to end our year at DesignSpace at BCTF.

A few images of the fantastic Suspended in Pink exhibition when it visited the School of Jewellery.

We stopped by for the opening evening of the show and spent a good deal of time examining the work included in the exhibition. I love the colourfulness of the exhibition and was pleased to see the theme had resulted in s great selection of very pink pieces of jewellery! As with jewellery of this nature, sometimes termed ‘Author Jewellery’ or Jewellery made by ‘Designer Makers’, there is often a lot more to the work than just its physical appearance there is a questioning of value and ideas behind the work as well as it’s careful composition.

Pieces on show are by a great selection of makers, including Zoe Robertson, Jo Pond, Karen Bartlett, Rachel McKnight, to name a few.

Close up of work by Katharina Moch.

Lana Crabb and Amanda Trimmer at the event.

Next stop for the exhibition is Schmuck 6th – 12th of March

 The accompanying catalogue is available to buy now on the Suspended in Pink blog here.

The group setting up at the fair on the Saturday.

My display at the show, I went for a black white and gold theme due to the small size of the space. Items are black rhodium plated, white rhodium and 18k gold.

http://www.thejewelleryshow.com

I was lucky enough to be selected for an exhibition at New Designers One Year On this year called out of the blue; I attended the private view when the exhibition opened and here are a few of the photographs and statements from the show.

For Out The Blue Kath Libbert has chosen nine new BA and MA graduates from all over the UK:  ‘Spotting and then supporting the work of cutting edge new graduates has always been extremely central to the ethos of the gallery.  Forging a career straight out of college is really challenging. Now, more than ever, it is vital to exhibit and encourage these incredibly talented jewellers at this formative stage in their careers. In this Olympic year we think we can spot a winner….the gold medallists of the future!’

Just like this year’s graduates, renowned goldsmith Jacqueline Mina, who has won the Jerwood prize for Applied Arts and this year received an OBE for services to Art, started out on her jewellery career over 40 years ago after graduating from the Royal College of Art. She is now exhibited and collected worldwide with pieces in the Victoria & Albert Museum and in the Museum of Art and Design in New York. Currently represented by Libbert she says:

‘Galleries such as Kath Libbert Jewellery play a very important role in the career of the new graduate because they educate and encourage their clients and can also advise budding jewellers to go in a certain direction. With her background in psychology, I think that Kath is particularly good at tuning in to new designers who are prepared to take risks in their own careers, people who will stick it out. Knowing this, collectors have confidence in who Kath selects to be in the gallery’s exhibitions. A new graduate exhibition such as Out The Blue allows collectors to spot someone right at the start and then follow them throughout their career.’

The Nine New Graduates that Libbert Tips for Gold are:

Francesca Flynn, Glasgow School of Art, whose sparkling crystalline collection epitomizes the title of the exhibition, Out The Blue, explores the facets of natural and constructed crystals creating vibrant jewellery.Edinburgh College of Art graduate Mariko Sumioka is inspired by the natural materials used in Japanese architecture and creates elegant pieces that interact sculpturally with the human body.

Joanna Hemsley, RCA, London, makes playful, mobile pieces that surprise and delight by revealing hidden elements, while Cristina Zani, Edinburgh College of Art, creates striking, erudite work inspired by her travels in Seoul and the writings of Italo Calvino.

Amy Logan, Sheffield Hallam University, creates pieces which play with concepts of space, containing and encircling it with elegant swirls of finely curved coloured metal. Heather Woof,Edinburgh College of Art, forms windswept looking pieces from the hardest of metals – titanium and steel, not normally used to express movement as they are so very difficult to work with. Very much inspired by the wild Scottish weather she experienced whilst studying in Scotland!

Also an Edinburgh graduate,Nabla Pall’s work is joyfully colourful, each piece like a miniature modernist painting, inspired by circuses, exotic birds and her early exposure to a multitude of cultures. In contrast, from Central St Martins, London,Yannan Song’s work is meditatively simple – elegant neckpieces in fine stainless steel curves and lines mimic the way that strands of hair rest on the body. Finally Marek Svana, De Montfort University, Banbury, constructs superbly engineered geometric copper bangles, darkly oxidized on their exterior, with contrasting flashes of enamel inside in brilliant primary colours.

I had a lovely time at the Saltsmill and would love to visit both the mill and Kath’s gallery again soon!

http://www.kathlibbertjewellery.co.uk/

Its our open night tonight! Wine, cupcakes and jewellery all at out pop-up boutique No. 22 Design in the Great Western Arcade here is a sneak preview of the cupcakes made specially for us by Connie.

Our pop-up boutique is open! It has been a lot of hard work and planning but it is finally here…. We are No. 22 in the Great Western Arcade which is in the centre of Birmingham so be sure to visit if you are near by. Our handmade jewellery is unique and will make beautiful presents this Christmas.

http://number22design.wordpress.com/about/

Since last October I have been part of a project called Making Moves which involved a placement at Holte School with jeweller Miranda Sharpe. We were there to teach year 9 students basic jewellery making and we also made a wall hanging with a textile class based on jewellery.

The project included a touring exhibition which started its journey at Stafford train station earlier this month. The objective of Making Moves has been to bring Craft to a different audience and place makers and their work in unexpected places. 

I went to visit Stafford train station for the opening of the exhibition with all the other makers involved in the different projects across the West Midlands and as we went into the station we spotted our cabinet first – it was just as you went through the door – right in front of the window! I was really impressed with the cabinets made by Natalie Cole and her partner Wayne; (they had some strict instructions about size and durability to adhere to.)

Just opposite our work was a fantastic wire suitcase made by Cathy Miles which due to its see-through nature I just could not get a good photograph of as unfortunately the bright red benches behind took over the whole picture.

Another jeweller involved in the project was Lina Peterson renowned for her use of bright colours and playful skill in making jewellery she found one of the few decorative elements in Kingshurst – a fancy roof to create her work for the project.

Ruth Spaark worked with items from the Spode factory, a place which is slowly shutting down, and this piece expresses her interpretation of nature moving in to reclaim the environment as the industry slowly disappears.

This cabinet contains work made by Charlotte Huges-Martin and Robyn Smith they were amongst the first residencies and I remember attending a networking event and hearing about the residency and some of the difficulties they overcame. They were based in Corbett hospital, basically in a waiting room, and they mostly engraved glass whilst they were there; they retold reactions from some of the patients and mostly the receptionists – apparently they were not always popular as the engraver could sound very like a dentist drill. But they encouraged people to get involved and they were pleased to find people came back with personal items they wanted to engrave.

Their cabinet really stood out to me as its location appeared to be just right; in front of the window with the light creating lovely viewing conditions and just beyond the train tracks stretched into the distance reminding you that you were in a train station. 

Surprisingly I think the station actually made a great exhibition space and as we all milled around admiring each others work I tended to forget that there were people around us who were in a hurry and the space for them was nothing more than a landscape in which to rush through quickly on their way to somewhere else. Perhaps that will change slightly as those early for their journey will have something unexpected to look at as they make their way through with a little less haste than normal.

http://www.makingmoves.org/

The exhibition will move to Rugeley Leisure Centre for the 3rd of October- 4th of November. Then it will be at St. Editha’s Church on the 6th of November to the 28th. The exhibition will then travel to Birmingham.

I recently ran a wire workshop at Bilston Craft Gallery for kids. They were all super creative; I had a fab day – and I hope they did too! Here are some of the results of their hard work.

To visit Bilston Craft Gallery or see what’s on: http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/visit/bilston/

I came across these images when I was doing my degree and I found that they drew me in with their air of mystery and ambiguity. I liked how the presence could be interpreted in so many ways. 

The works are from collaboration between Ujin Lee and Tom Edwards and they are simply called ‘Dust series’.