/// HOW DO YOU DESIGN YOUR WORK? ///

HOW DO YOU DESIGN YOUR WORK? /// For silversmithing pieces, as opposed to jewellery, I tend to get an idea from inspiration. This can be looking at brutalist architecture such as the University of East Anglia Campus (designed by Denys Lasdun) which informed my boxes titled Similar but not the same, or some Bauhaus exercises which underpinned my jug design, or sound mirrors which inspired my pinch pots.

I get a rough idea in my head and will start sketching it out. Sometimes the first sketch works, other times I go through a series of adjustments to get the design right. Tweaking scale, proportions, details until I think it is working.

Often I will then test the idea in 3D using thin card, to check it works as well as the 3D version does, adapting it as necessary. Sometimes this gives a false sense of security because it will seem straightforward to create that into a silver version, but of course as soon as I start making it in silver I realise that is not the case.

My jewellery designing it much more literal, I see an idea in my head and I will make it straight with the silver. Then tweak the design as necessary until I get it right. I'm much more relaxed with the jewellery than I am the larger pieces, probably because the larger pieces are my priority so have the weight of the pressure to get them just right.