Delivered!

playing with ideas

green beach glass and st. silver

My work has been selling well at Janet's Gallery, so I spent the last part of the week with my head down, beavering away at my bench for hours on end.

I was hoping to get a few ideas, that had been brewing in my subconscious for several weeks, out and in 3D form. For months now, I have been collecting (and then more recently with Markus' help) gorgeous pieces of sea glass from the beaches here on Anglesey. 
The Menai Straits were used as a dumping ground for all sorts of unwanted glassware and ceramics - a lot from the Victorian era. As a result this 'rubbish' has spent scores of years under the water, being tossed, turned, polished and refined.  Eventually, they are washed ashore by waves or uncovered from mounds of tiny pebbles, that have been harbouring these little gems. 

Along comes Markus and I, collecting them by the handful. Some of the ceramic shards are so gorgeous with faint, ghost like images of birds, flowers, patterns and colours, left visible on their bleached surface. These ceramic pieces are scattered all over our cottage and a few are being used in my mosaics, as accents and features. 

Pieces of glass however, have been sitting on my workbench for months, beckoning me to make something with them, urging me to bring them to life again. With their frosted, etched surfaces, they are such a contrast to my shiny, glossy beads and so it has taken some time for them to perculate into my designs. But at last, these past few days I have started playing with them, and I know over time the designs will evolve to let these little pieces of history truly shine.

It felt good yesterday to replenish my work in the Gallery, with both ceramic jewellery and new glass jewellery, now let's just hope there are lots more sales!