Unique
Objects
As a contemporary silversmith, my role isn’t just to make objects, but to acknowledge the traditions, then actively question and subvert them. Although I take a playful approach, the intention is serious. It aims to challenge and open up a discussion about what the future could look like for the next generation of makers.
Here’s a snapshot of a selection of work made over the last 25 years.
An Ebay find. Using old slip cast figures and animals as a tool, they are used as a mould where molten pewter is directly cast into the ceramics. Actively embracing the elements of risk, chance and failure.
WREN
Title: Wren
Material Porcelain, Pewter
Dimensions 6cm x 6 x 10
Year 2019
Location UK Private Collection
BRAINFART
Ceramics can be viewed as the King of Craft. I’m interested in changing the balance of hierarchies and order. Blowing up ceramics and capturing the explosion allows me to create by being disrespectful and willing different disciplines to collide.
Title: Brainfart
Material Porcelain, Pewter
Dimensions 10cm x 8 x 26
Year 2019
Location USA Private Collection
Title: Blow Spoons
Material Pewter, Silver Plate
Dimensions 10cm x 10 x 15
Year 2017
Location The National Museum of Northern Ireland,
Multiple Private Collections
BLOW
SPOONS
An investigation into exploring the potential of a spoon. It’s a measuring tool, an implement and utensil. We understand it and it’s used by all…. mess with it and it can offer up another expression, lean towards a different function and question it’s role.
BERMONDSEY
BEAUTY
Until1995 Bermondsey market was known as an open market to sell stolen silver between the hours of sunset and sunrise. I took one foot from a stolen silver tray. It was replicated, stacked up and soldered into a very posh 4 tiered cake form, however reverse the form and its a bucket; from the gutter to the high table.
Title: Bermondsey Beauty
Material Sterling Silver
Dimensions 26cm x26 x 30
Year 2005
Location UK Private Collection
INSALTED
Baked in an oven gas mark 2 for 12 hours. What appears is a ‘caked’ piece of silver. Salt corrodes and pits silver. Here the rules and regulations are broken. Presenting the dilemma of what do you value: the silver or the journey of seeing this piece slowly disintegrate.
Title: Insalted
Material Sterling Silver, Table Salt
Dimensions 12cm x 7 x 7
Year 2004
Location UK Private Collection
OOH LALA
I was told by the establishment that; you’re not a silversmith until you have made a teapot. This was my response: taking an unwanted antique chopping it up and stuffing it with lead. Shifting it from functional and practical to totally poisonous. Most of these old pieces are rarely used and most don’t even pour properly, they dribble.
Title: Ooh Lala
Material Silver Plate, Lead
Dimensions 27cm x 15 x 36
Year 2008
Location Dallas Museum of Art
DROWNING
MAN
A porcelain figure found in a thrift store in USA. The first piece I made after my fathers death in 2018. Poignant, emotive and timely. Stuff happens through making and we should embrace it.
Title Drowning Man
Material Porcelain, Pewter
Dimensions 9cm x 6 x 12
Year 2018
Location USA Private Collection
50/50
The tea cup that my mother used to take medicine towards the end of her life while suffering with cancer. The self-corroding elements of the combined materials, pewter and lead, mirroring the effects of cancer as a destructive disease. The title referring to chance and a gamble in life. As you ascend the stack the forms become less defined, the last element being the lip of the cup only.
DOA
DEAD ON ARRIVAL
Title: 50/50
Material Lead, Pewter
Dimensions 12cm x 12 x 18
Year 2015
Location Plymouth Museum of Art UK
Title DOA ( Dead On Arrival)
Material Sterling Silver, Lead
Dimensions40cm x 40 x 50
Year 2012
Location Röhsska Museum, Sweden
A tea service at rest, laying down, not standing however housed in a presentation box, or coffin. Lead had been used to ‘finish off’ these redundant pieces that had never been used. Continuously polished for years to show material wealth. Death comes to us all and objects can help us talk about such subjects with more ease.
BAROQUE
BEAUTIES
A series of silver candlesticks bought from Ebay. I was curious in levelling the material value of silver, bubblewrap, cardboard and other packaging we so quickly disregard as junk. After each casting the mould disintegrates a little so using classic production methods for developing unique one off pieces.
Title: Baroque Beauties ( 5 Editions)
Material Pewter
Dimensions 10cm x 10 x 10
Year 2016
Location Private Collections: Germany, USA, Australia
STASH
A collection of excess, abundance and opulence in the year of austerity and Covid-19. Many silver bowls have lost their boring lids. Here they become crowns, exaggerated and at times extreme, however some have hidden compartments. Time to offer a different expression for the dining table to lure and tempt the guests for gorging on sweets and other treats.
SWEETHEART
Title: Sweetheart
Material Sterling Silver, Sugar
Dimensions 9cm x 9 x 3
Year 2014
Location USA Private Collection
Sugar was traditionally used to preserve fruits through the winter months. Here a sentimental solid silver love heart has been ironically conserved to protect and evoke the nostalgic feelings many have around historical silver. Assisted by sugar expert Natalie Smith.
AWOL
ABSENT
WITHOUT
LEAVE
A cup caught in motion. Objects are still for a most of the time. I wanted to capture the cup awake and moving in space. Our interaction activates objects as they become animated when lifted from the table.
Title AWOL ( Absent Without Leave)
Material Sterling Silver, Pewter
Dimensions 40cm x 40 x 9
Year 2015
Location Hong Kong Private Collection
BROUHAHA
Sugar was traditionally used to preserve fruits through the winter months. Here a sentimental solid silver love heart has been ironically conserved to protect and evoke the nostalgic feelings many have around historical silver. Assisted by sugar expert Natalie Smith.
Title: Brouhaha
Material Silver Plate, Lead
Dimensions 55cmx 25 x 60
Year 2007
Location The V&A Museum, The National Museum Oslo, Private Collection Switzerland
INFLUX
A series of jugs developed to offer new characters hiding within old redundant objects. Once surgically opened up, then reassembled these collaged mash ups take on bold characters and offer humour and show how they can misbehave at the table when your not looking.
Title: Influx
Material Silver Plate Pewter
Dimensions 15cm x 10 x 12
Year 2012
Location Private Collections: Germany, USA , Australia, UK
ONE DAY MY PLINTH WILL COME
All meticulously made, then dropped from a 12 foot ladder. Finished off by gravity showing the pieces vulnerable side; split, bruised, ruptured and dented. Metal is seen as hard, resilient and long lasting, however it also holds much more vulnerable characteristics that need to be explored.
Title: One Day My Plinth Will Come
Material Silver Plate, Lead
Dimensions 8cm x 15 x 6
Year 2009
