About the finds...

Ever since I was a child, I have loved ancient history.  My parents were forever getting me books on Egyptians, Mayans, Incas, and the Aztecs,  all of which I have to this day.  They came over to the UK with me when I moved here.  There are still quite a few of the "Gail" library at my mother's house in Pennsylvania that have yet to find their way to Suffolk.  I even have some really old editions of National Geographic that had articles on human sacrifice in Central and South America.  All this stuff fascinated me especially the art that adorned the buildings and tombs of these wonderful and ingenius people.

I also developed a fascination for Jack The Ripper at the age of five when my dad gave me a book about the murders.  He said " here, see what you think of this".  I now own about 20 books on the Ripper murders and attend Ripper conferences here in London.  Its not just the crimes that interest me, its the era too that makes me wish that time travel was possible.  I would love to visit Victorian London.  See the workhouses, doss houses, the mean streets and their inhabitants.

When I discovered Time Team and Meet the Ancestors, I was in heaven.  It was through these shows that I discovered field walking and gathering small finds from times past.  I visit and photograph priory ruins with my husband.  I am amazed that these ruins have survived and when I walk through them, I try to imagine what the day to day lives of the monks were like.  What sort of food they ate and what kind of cooking utensils were used.  This takes me to the present and my odd little habit of picking up bits of pottery I find.  A few of the bits I have found have been identified as medieval, as well as 17th and 18th century.  

I have collected this stuff for gone on 11 years now and have quite a nice little hoard.  After getting into working with silver clay, I decided to put the pieces to use in jewelry combining them with the clay to make what I now call wearable historical art.

I have already applied slip, which is art clay thinned with water to make a heavy cream like consistency, to several pottery pieces and have made a pendant with one and now I will be using the smaller bits to make a type of charm to use in bracelets and earrings.  I will also be using the pipe stems in the same manner but will incorporate the use of  both slip and clay in the designs.  I may add cubic zirconias to these as well  because they can added to the pre fired clay and are able to withstand the high temperatures of the kiln.

Selection of clay pottery found along the Thames at low tide.  This lot has been cleaned and the edges smoothed for ease of clay application.

These pieces have already had the clay slip added to the edges.  After a few applications of slip, they are individually sanded before adding several more layers of slip.

Clay pipe stems which have been cleaned.  The hollow parts have also been cleaned thoroughly using a wire to remove all traces of silt and dirt from the Thames.  I also soak them in bleach to remove stains and for sanitary purposes.  These have been sorted by size for the most part and will become earrings and possibly bracelet charms.

The pipe bowls will become pendants or keychains.  The foreshore at low tide is littered with pipe stems, bowls and pottery.  

Just how long these pieces have been in the Thames is anyone's guess.  But they are part of England's past and now with my unique jewelry, they can become part of England's present and future.  If they could speak, I am sure they would have some interesting stories to tell....

How It all began part 2

I bought some fusing supplies such as glass, cutters, frit and other bits and started being creative.  I made some pendants and earrings from both glass and my old standby, polymer clay.  I was pleased with what I made so took them to work  to show to my friends.  I forgot to say that my husband thought that all of this was a load of rubbish and he couldn't understand why anyone would like any of this stuff and told me straight out that he thought I was wasting my time.
I took a small box of creations to work and came home that evening with £80!  Needless to say hubby then thought it was a good idea after removing his size 10 foot from his size 4 mouth.   Another friend at work was starting a course in beauty therapy and asked me to make a name tag for her.  I created a tag from liquid polymer clay that I coloured with a bright pink and wrote her name onto a small sheet of polymer clay and then baked it.  I was quite pleased with the way it turned out as was she.  It was my workmates who put the idea into my head about making a business out of my creations.  It took a few years and a redundancy from my QA job to inspire me to give it a try.  
I took a course about starting my own business with a group called NWES in Norwich.  The course was very informative and even now that the course is over, I can still ring them and ask for advice should I need it.  I also have a business advisor named Paul who meets with me to discuss what things I have been doing and to look at the new things I have made.  He also wrote a press release for me that highlighted some of the pieces I have made from things I have picked up through field walks and walks along the Thames at low tide.  
I have always had an interest in archaeology since I was a small child and when I moved to England and discovered shows like Time Team and Meet The Ancestors that made field walking more than just a walk in a field.  It is amazing the things that people from other generations have left behind.
Mostly I find clay pipe stems and bowls as well as bits of broken pottery.  Some of the pottery dates back to to the 1700s.  Each of these bits is to me a page out of the book of time.  I find myself wondering what the people were like and how they lived.  I still haven't found any Roman bits which to me would be the ultimate find.  I like to imagine one of these Romans walking back from a visit to a Roman town here in England and discovering that he dropped one of his coins.  Little did he know that it would survive, covered in earth until someone like me sees it glinting in the sunlight.  I don't want to find a Roman coin hoard (although it would be nice), I just want to find that little bit of history dropped over a millenia ago.
These clay stems and pottery bits I find, I cover with silver clay and then fire in my kiln to make unique pieces of history.  They can be made into pendants, earrings, cufflinks, charms for bracelets and if properly cared for will give the wearer a bit of the past to wear today and into the future.

The piece above was made from a broken clay pipe stem, covered with silver clay and then a strip of polymer clay made mokume gane cane was applied.  The chain and beads were added as a final embellishment.  Can be worn as a pendant or used a a mobile phone charm.

                                                           Field Found Pottery Pieces

                                                  Field Found Pipe Stems and Bowls

How It All Began....

I thought I would start a blog to talk about my designs and how I got started.

When I lived in Bristol, I decided to take some craft courses.  I wasn't sure just what I wanted to do until I saw some dichroic glass jewelry in the Bristol City Museum gift shop.  I thought the pieces were very interesting and was curious as to how they were made.  I did a Google search and found some info about the glass and about fusing in general.  I then did another search for courses in the Bristol area and I found a weekend course at the Creative Glass Guild in Bedminster.  I phoned them and booked my spot.

The first day started with introductions and then a bit of health and safety.  After the H&S bit, they started by teaching us how to cut glass.  Each member of our class was given a glass cutter and a sort of t-square which we used to keep our cuts straight.  After we had tried a few times, we had gotten the basics of the cutting under our belts.  As this was a course in fusing, we were then given a few pieces of glass to cut into the sizes given to us.  We then were instructed to select colours of glass and then begin building our colours.  James, our instructor, was telling us how to layer different colours of glass to  experiment with the way the colours are reflected and blended after firing in the kiln.  We made a few tiles and a bowl with this process.  We also used thick kiln paper which is like a soft tile that can be carved.  We carved designs into the kiln paper and then placed a square of float glass over it.  This was then placed in the kiln where it was heated and as it did this it melted the glass onto the kiln paper tile.  I believe that this could be used to carve individual spaces for making earrings and pendants although I have not tried it.  We were also taught about different types of glass.  Frit is ground glass in different sizes from a very coarse stone like grit to a powder frit which is extremely fine.  There are also pieces called stringers which look like uncooked spaguetti and also confetti which is very thin flat pieces of glass.  These kinds of glass come in a multitude of colours.  I found the class to be very inspirational.  James is a great guy who is always available to answer any questions.  Before the end of the second day, they even gave me a quick soldering lesson.  They also have courses in stained glass as well as a very well equipped shop and online ordering is also available.  If you think you might like to have a go at glass fusing, stained glass, I recommend a visit to their website.  GJD

https://www.creativeglassguild.co.uk/index.htm

04 February 2011