Christmas is in the air.....

With all the preparations for the upcoming Christmas exhibition at LOD I thought I'd take a moment to share my Christmas candleholder from a few years ago. A simple yet effective design in powder-coated metal.

It's all birds and clouds on the bench whilst the sketches for this year's candleholder are still on the drawing board. It's looking promising if it can all come together.

Jag Flyger Till Dig

Christmas is fast approaching and yesterday 2011's tree decorations arrived in flat pack in preparation for the Christmas exhibition at Galleri LOD.

Our theme this year is 'wings' and I've chosen to make a little bird in flight. I'll be constructing these little creations later today and will let you see the result alongside colourful clouds for an inspiring twist to a traditional Christmas Tree.

Engraving with Pierce

We had a wonderful engraving course at LOD last weekend. What an inspirational day! Engraving was a really satisfying technique and very direct - like drawing but slower and more controlled.

That's us learning how to sharpen the gravers and how to pick the tool up so that it's held correctly when engraving. Oh and that's my first bit of engraving there.

Corresponding Graphics In Unexpected Places

I've been noticing beautiful graphics all over the place of late and in quite unexpected locations. This little bottle top stood out on this drenched forest trail whilst we were out walking at the weekend. Someone's trash is another's treasure. A little beacon of nice design.

The significance of a dot

The dot can be a symbol for something or someone. One dot or several to represent family members or simply just a pattern?

Buttons and Storm Clouds

I was listening to P3 on Friday whilst working on some Button Necklaces and happened to hear a program hosted by Swedish Musician, Timbuktu. The theme was 'Storm' and it brought with it an unusual and excellent mix of music for daytime radio, which made for several hours happy working.

This necklace was a special commission and a variation to the original design with only three units and a double chain. It needed to be soft and tacile to the touch yet strong and sturdy whilst still holding on to the feel of the first designs. Petronella Eriksson took the top photograph on the street in Stockholm and in the studio it's me behind the lens. Soon I'll be posting the new versions of the Button collection that I've been working on. It just might be in Göteborg and a storm cloud or two in the background. I have a feeling.

The highlight of Friday's program was 'Storm' by Jose Gonzalez which stopped me in my tracks - literally. Files down, micromoter off! If you want to be swept along then click vidare to - http://www.jose-gonzalez.com/.

Göteborg

I moved to Göteborg at the start of the month and have been wanting to share some images of the city and its surroundings. On Saturday we walked through the town and up to a hill overlooking the port and then we drove out to the archipelago as the sun was setting. Bitterly cold, but beautiful images.

I have taken some time off from LOD at the moment to pursue different opportunities in Göteborg. I'll still be a familiar face at the gallery in Stockholm however as a 'vilande medlem' and I'm already I'm looking forward to participating in the up-coming 'Engraving Workshop' in a few weekends time with Pierce Healy. Check out some of his work at this link: http://www.velvetdavinci.com/artist.php?aid=127

Currently I am working on some new collections at studio SJU, http://www.sju7.se/ alongside the talented 'Jewellery Artists' who trained at HDK. It's always really interesting and beneficial to get the chance to work alongside different designers, share opinions and live in new cities. It's all about exploring.

And if you're in Stockholm this week you should take a look at Erik Tidäng's latest exhibition at Gallery LOD.  I had the chance to see the exhibition pieces whilst they were still in progress. Here's a link for those of you who aren't going to be able to swing by the gallery whilst the exhibiton runs http://lodmetallformgivning.blogspot.com/2011/09/delarna-gor-helheten-utstallning-pa-lod.html.