Summer Exhibition 2009
It’s that time of year again: Bristol School of Art end-of-year Exhibition – and this includes me for, sadly, what will probably be the last time.
I decided not to take more evening classes next year. The defining moment came about half way through the second term, about mid-February, when the tutor asked me to help one of the other students with a stone-setting. I took that as a message that, while I still have a lot to learn abut metalcraft, I ain’t gonna learn it at evening classes. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at Art School, and found the experience transformative. (I wouldn’t be writing this blog if I hadn’t been there.)
Plus, I find it embarrassing to be sat with people who are learning to make their first bezel, and I can throw them off like ring-pulls (!not!). If I’d had that experience in my first class, I might have been a little put off.
Mind you, when I mentioned this to my classmates they were wholeheartedly supportive (nice thing about evening class
) and pointed out that it’s been less than four years since I was a complete noob, and they find that inspiring (I think that was the word they used – I’m sure they’ll correct me!)
So for all of us – not just the jewellers, but the sculptors, painters & printmakers, too – here’s an advertisement:
Bristol School of Art, Queens Road, Bristol (just off the Triangle, next to Habitat) – Art Exhibition
Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 June 2009
1000-1600 daily
Come along and see us before we’re famous!

Pendant, Klimt 2 (c) AMcA 2009
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Tags: art, cabochon, craft, design, fireandhammers, handmade, jewelry, saw, stone setting, uk
The Next 550 Million Years?
When I was looking for the name of these trilobites, I came across this post. I was struck by the description of one of the little critters, “wandering away from it’s hatch-mates, poking its feelers through the sand, over a rock, feeding, respiring, evading detection by predators”.
By the sounds of it, there wasn’t much fun around while the wee things were alive. And subsequently, I thought about how boring it must be – stuck in a rock somewhere for 550 million years. I’ve been stuck in places (towns, jobs, etc.) and always found my way out, but it wasn’t sedimentary rock and I’m not a fossil trilobite.
I reckoned the little chaps needed a bit of a boost, so I built them some transport. I picture them scooting around space on their little rocketships, spooking the team on the Nostromo and hitching a ride on the Millenium Falcon

Trilobite Rocketships - Elrathia kingii

Trilobite Rocketships - Elrathia kingii
So, although it probably won’t be for the entire next 550 million years, I hope they have some fun.
P.S. These trilobites are the species Elrathia kingii, which I think is a wonderful name. In the film (of my trilobites scooting through space in their rocketships) the queen of the trilobites should be played by Elsa Lanchester.
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Tags: aliens, earrings, elrathia kingii, fireandhammers, fossil, jewelry, rocketships, silver, space, stone setting, trilobite, uk



















