stuff about me...
I love making gorgeous things, it's really as simple as that. I've been making jewellery for about four years all told, starting off purely with wire and beads...and through continued and persistent nosiness, curiosity and a magpie's eye for all things shiny, I've investigated materials, techniques and methods ever since.The worst thing we can do in life is stagnate, and I love to try new things, so you'll see a fairly eclectic mix of styles on the site, or at fairs and exhibitions should you be able to come along - details of where and when I'm doing stuff are, oddly enough, on the stuff i'm doing... page.
I flit a lot. I've tried not to, but to no avail. That's one of the reasons I turned my hand to making jewellery in the first place - the diversity at a jeweller's disposal is, well, pretty much limitless. Having played around with wire for a while, I got fed up of not having the technical skills to realise what I wanted to make, so did some training at flux'n'flame down in Dorset (great people, ace courses). At the same time I did a year's postgraduate programme in Arts Practice at the Uni of Derby. It was a great help in kicking me up the bum, but after a year of trying to shoehorn myself into what the industry thinks jewellers ought to do, I'd pretty much realised I didn't want to box myself in like that. I think that was probably when I decided to split myself in two..not sure how long it'll last, it's difficult to define which jewellery should go where sometimes, but hey, like I said, it's not good to stand still :)
My Victoriana and Coast collections are still part of my Code incarnation, and that side of things will be joined by another collection shortly (watch the bloggage), and the beaushambles side of my head will be something different...
Having taken over half our attic bedroom at home, I finally drew the line when gas cylinders and hardcore soldering torches came into play; I wimped out and moved into my dinky wee studio in Banks' Mill, an old rope factory in Derby's west end. 'Tis lovely, if not very tidy :)
