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| making jewellery with air dried papier mache, hardening, gilding, scorching |
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| making jewellery with air dried papier mache, hardening, gilding, scorching |
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| making jewellery - papier mache, hardening, gilding, scorching |
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| making papier mache bowls - textured pulp, painting, gilding, distressing, waxing |
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| papier mache bowls - creased finish - metallic powders and wax |
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| making papier mache platters with paper layers, gilding and distressing |
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| decorating bowls with printed papers - gilding |
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| quickly drying papier mache bowls via microwave - flour and water |
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| making papier mache collars - to be gilded. Also rims for platters + bowls |
 papier mache gilded and painted bowl
I make necklaces, rings, brooches, pendants and earrings rings that may incorporate papier-mâché beads that resemble baroque pearls, opals, ancient clay, bone, metal or semi-precious stones. I am fascinated by fragments of all kinds and often include pieces of discarded clay pipes stems that I find on the foreshore of the River Thames at lowtide. They sometimes taken on the blue/grey colours of the clay and river silt that has washed over them for hundreds of years and through countless ebbing and flowing of many tides. Also I may add fragments of pottery, glass, plastic and numerous little seaworn treasures that are cast up along the shoreline. I look in antique and flea markets to find beautiful old necklaces that can be broken down and incorporated with my own work. I make impressions from found and natural objects - magnolia seed heads for example - then I cast impressions in papier-mâché clay and or epoxy resin, that are twisted and folded, dried or hardened with wood glue or resin, gilded with gold or silver, distressed or painted. Necklaces, bangles, earrings and brooches, bowls and platters - embellished or incised, painted and gilded, the list goes on.
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| making necklaces using pressed and folded air dried paper pulp, hardened and gilded |
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| making flexible moulds using natural and found objects |
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| moulded impressions of tiny flowers |
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| mould with pressed fine white papier mache pulp |
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| papier mache impressions of sycamore seeds to be made into necklace |
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| impressed and folded papier mache beads, hardened, painted, gilded, varnished |
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| different ways of finishing papier mache beads - these resembling faience |
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| making papier mache beads with flour and water |
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| making beads with Tyvek paper and iridescent tissue - heated and compressed |
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| making papier mache beads, discs - hardened & gilded with matt gilders paste |
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| making various papier mache beads, impressed, hardened and gilded with gold leaf |
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| making various papier mache beads, hardening and gilding |
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| looking for inspiration - collecting photos, sketches, objects |
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| collecting inspiration - for example distressed plastic discs from a timber yard |
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| collecting inspiration - driftwood |
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| painting techniques - acrylic inks, gilding, overlays, mixed media |
My working methods are to travel and draw, paint, make notes, take lots of photographs and bring back paintings and ideas to work on in my studio, some of which I later develop into paintings, often abstract, from images that hold the key colours and associated ideas of the different places. Then I research, paint, write and make a unique kind of papier-mâché jewellery from fragments of my paintings. They are coated in a clear, hard epoxy resin, gloss or matte varnish.
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| making papier mache jewellery that resembles enamel |
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| painted and gilded papier mache and resin pendant |
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| painted and gilded papier mache and resin earrings |
I also experiment by using a combination of things in some pieces - papier-mâché, mixed media, resin, wax and found objects, acrylic ink, gouache, watercolour, pencil, oil pastel, gold, silver and copper leaf, metal foil and powders, pigments, tissue and tracing paper plus interesting commercially produced paper and found paper, Italian sweet wrappers, metro tickets, unusual packaging etc.
