Well I’m back form London with lots of inspiration and some new tools! As well as going to the Mindful of Silver exhibition I went down to Hatton Garden to pick up metal and tools. I had ordered a bossing mallet and a dome stake from HS Walsh which I collected. I had planned to pick up a sand bag too but they were the wrong size so I’m still on the hunt for a nice leather sandbag. Here are some photos of the bossing mallet and dome stake. The bossing mallet is used with a sandbag to give a bowl it’s initial domed shaped. The dome stake is used like other stakes to form or planish the metal over it. I have other domed stakes but this one is much higher, allowing me to get a deeper curve.
I’m working on some jewellery orders this week so I called down to Holts to buy some pearls. They have an amazing collection of stones. I was like a child in a sweet shop and ended up leaving with much more than I needed!
I had hoped to see some exhibitions for London jewellery week but I was a few days early so instead we went along to the Saatchi gallery. The Saatchi contemporary art gallery occupies a premises near Sloane Square and is made up of fifteen equally sized gallery spaces. I had never been there so it was great to see it for the first time. At the moment they have an amazing exhibition of sculpture ‘The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture’ the exhibition is made up of the work of twenty artists working in sculpture. It’s the first time the entire gallery has devoted the space entirely to three dimensional work.
German artist Dirk Skreber has two pieces in the gallery Crash 1 is pictured above. At first I was worried the cars may have come from actual crashes. Having looked him up afterwards I discovered that they were done in a vehicle testing factory where he ‘choreographed’ the accidents. Here’s what he had to say about the work.
“If you pass an accident and see a car like this, it’s occupied by tragic thoughts for the people that would be involved, and you might see blood. This work gives you an opportunity to see the things like in a dream. It’s clean and polished and abstract.”
Below are a few more photos I took at the gallery. There was no problem taking photos and the great thing was the gallery was free so if you find yourself in London I would definitely recommend a visit.
*I’m not a tiny as I look in this picture they’re just particularly tall, 2.72 meters to be precise.