Going Small! My lockdown challenge!!!
All our lives have been affected in some way by Covid-19 and I don’t think any of us imagined we’d be doing the things that we have had to take on board in the last 6 months, least of all me. During the height of the pandemic, I became an accidental key worker delivering parcels and embraced Zoom with a vengeance in order to teach my photography students online. We have all had to adapt and change our habits, as well as relinquish many of our previous freedoms that we took for granted.
I feel really grateful that as an artist I had a creative outlet during lockdown otherwise I think I would have gone a bit bonkers. So I was thrilled when the British Association of Modern Mosaics, an organisation to which I am a member, set a series of challenges for its members. One of BAMM’s online challenges was t0 ‘go small’ initiated by Rachel Sagar, a talented mosaic artist who makes beautiful jewellery. The prompt really appealed to me, as I’ve been thinking about making mosaic jewellery for years and just needed that nudge to get on and give it a try.
I set about sourcing some pendant backs and collated all the tiny pieces of vintage crockery that I’d saved over the years and got to work experimenting with miniature patterns and shapes that inspired me. To my surprise I was immediately hooked and within a few weeks was selling my pendants to friends and family via Instagram and Facebook. The response to my working small has come as a complete surprise and I’m just so glad that I’ve had the chance to make jewellery at last. I have been commissioned to make pendants for people who have requested particular colour schemes and wanting something unique and special for birthday presents.
Please get in touch if you would like to have a pendant made to your own specifications or visit my shop if you would like to purchase a ready made necklace.
