Meet the maker: Stay Gold Mary Rose

Dean Hearne, creator and curator of The Future Kept talks to jewellery maker Abigail MaryRose Clarke about upcycling beautiful objects that have outlived their intended use

SGMR's tools of the jeweller trade

What first got you interested in making jewellery?

As a teenager I wasn’t impressed with the mass-produced accessories that were available on the high street. My school friends and I would venture to an old junk shop in the Brighton laines that had vintage jewellery from all over the world. In school I started to make my own jewellery from whatever I had lying around and I continued my experiments through college and university. 

Tell us about your design style – what makes your collections unique?

I love to work with patterns, glazes and texture so I tend to find a ceramic piece and try to incorporate the existing image or design. I like to preserve the original qualities and history of the piece rather than just smashing up a plate to use the shards. 

Where do you draw your inspiration from?

I am obsessed with ceramics in general, from contemporary designs to chintzy antiques; Scandinavian, West German and Postmodern ceramics always catch my eye. Most recently, 1960s and 70s British ceramic designers have played a huge part in my work, especially the work of Susan Williams Ellis of Portmeirion and Honor Curtis of Troika, St Ives. I love their techniques of the way they combine embossed symbols, scratched patterns and organic rough glazes. There are some incredible modern ceramic artists I follow on social media, such as Martina Thornhill, B-Zippy and Young In The Mountains. 

What did you do before you made the leap into being a full-time jewellery maker?

As a student in Manchester I'd work part time in bars and music venues in the evenings and at weekends. I eventually ended up moving back to the south east where I ran an old bookshop and crafted in my spare time. I then started to apply for craft events and created an online Etsy shop. The big change came when my work was spotted by the accessory buyer at Anthopologie and everything started to take off.

Can you tell us about a favourite piece that you have created?

I love giving my jewellery to friends and family – this was originally who I started making for. I particularly enjoyed designing the groomsmens' button holes for my friend's wedding as well as the bridesmaids' head pieces for my brother’s wedding. It’s always an honour to be asked to make a piece for such a special occasion.

What are your favourite places for sourcing materials?

Oh there are so many! When sourcing for larger wholesale orders I go to the larger porcelain manufacturers in Stoke-on-Trent to buy in bulk. It’s always so amazing to look around the old pottery mills and factories – some still have the old kilns and equipment lying on benches, and old plaster moulds and bisque-ware stacked on drying racks. For smaller-scale orders and commissions I look around charity shops and markets. I adore Lewes flea market and the old fishing hut antique shops in Rye, but I absolutely love it when the customer brings their own heirloom crockery to be transformed. I've recently finished an order for a bride-to-be, using her grandmother’s wedding china. That really makes the transformation all the more special. 

Stay Gold Mary Rose's Spearhead Pendants (£25, pictured), upcycled from vintage willow china, are available to buy through The Future Kept.

This is a sponsored blog post, created in collaboration with The Future Kept. For more information on partnerships and joining our directory, please email advertise@ernestjournal.co.uk

Back to the elements

It all started when Peter Charnaud was nine years old and his father brought home a tonne of wooden scraps for his son to build things with. A few collapsed tables later and he had very much caught the bug. Now as an adult, Peter works for the family business selling wood working machinery to customers all over the world. However, in his spare time he still build things out of his beloved material and there’s one thing he loves to build above all others…

“I was in Italy and I saw a very crude bike made out of wood. I’d never even thought about making something like that, but I said to myself: "I’m going to have a go at that when I get home." That was four years ago and I’ve been making them ever since. You’re never going to see two wooden bikes that are the same. 

“The thing I really love about it is that you’re making something out of a material that was once growing. A bike is different to a piece of furniture. If I’m making a table or chair, it’s static; it just sits there on the floor, but a bicycle moves. They’re mobile and have a life of their own. It brings the wood back to life. My bikes were growing, they had their branches out in the wind and rain and I’ve now taken them back out into the elements.

“Certain woods are heavy and others are brittle, so by combining the two you get something that is tough but also lightweight. You have to consider the mechanical properties of each wood. You can take a piece of London plane and bend it into a u-shape over your knee and it won’t break. If you did that with a piece of cedar it would just snap, but cedar is incredibly light. So you can use cedar for the core of the bike and the London plane on the outside. You’ve then got something incredibly strong but also light. I’d like to get people making them themselves – it’s not that difficult.”

Words by contributing editor Duncan Haskell

To find out more about Peter’s bikes, or if you'd like guidance on how to get started building one of your own, visit woodenbike.org 

Age of Reinvention #6

It's the sixth and final phase of our Age of Reinvention competition in collaboration with Pedlars and The Good Life Experience. This time, we're offering a Swiss Army officer jacket – what would you make out of this?

Measurements: pit to pit 54cm, length 75cm, sleeve length 60cm

A century ago, Britain was known as “the workshop of the world.” It was a hotbed of invention and industry. After a 100 years of decline, we’re seeing a real resurgence of craftsmanship – a return of traditional industries, swathes of makers taking risks to set up businesses based on doing what they love and buyers who value the story behind the products they buy.

To celebrate this new age of innovation, we've launched the Age of Reinvention competition – a chance for amateur inventors to furrow their brows, doodle on graph paper and transform old items into unique and practical products. The competition is brought to you in collaboration with our friends at Pedlars, purveyor of wonderful homewares, gifts and quality vintage, and The Good Life Experience, a festival of music, food, culture and the great outdoors.

Between January and August 2015 we're offering six items for reinvention. Each month, Ernest Journal and Pedlars will choose their favourite design concept then post the item to the inventor so they can work their magic. We will then exhibit the six completed items at The Good Life Experience (18-20 September 2015) and give each successful inventor two free tickets to the festival and a subscription to Ernest Journal.

The sixth item on offer is a Swiss Army officer jacket, made from cotton. The jacket is size L with a pit to pit measurement of 54cm. The length is 75cm and sleeve length is 60cm.

For inspiration, have a look at the winning designs from our first and second rounds: 

Age of Reinvention #1: a maker's smock

Age of Reinvention #1: a military groundsheet turned into a maker's smock, by Francli

Age of Reinvention #2: a cooking set

Age of Reinvention #2: pair of fireplace sides turned into a cooking set, by Grain & Knot

How to enter 

Simply share a sketch of your proposed design with us on Twitter or Instagram, mentioning @ernestjournal and @PedlarsWorld and using #AgeofReinvention.

The deadline for your design idea is 26 July 2015. 

If you have any queries, email features@ernestjournal.co.uk

Terms and conditions:

1. The closing time and date is 11.59pm on 26 July 2015. Entries after that date will not be considered. 2. The winning entrant will be posted the item for them to reinvent and display at the Good Life Experience. 3. The prize is two tickets to The Good Life Experience and a subscription to Ernest Journal. 3. The prize is non-transferable and no cash alternative can be offered. 4. See our full terms and conditions.

Behind the scenes: meeting mechanical sculptor, Nik Ramage

For the third print edition of Ernest Journal, photographer Colin Nicholls headed to a medieval farmhouse in Monmouthshire to meet Nik Ramage, a kinetic sculptor who makes machines the world didn't know it needed – including a mechanical hand with forever tapping fingers and a free-range pen. Here Colin talks about his approach to the shoot, his choice of Fuji X-E2 camera and then shares a few shots that didn't make it into the magazine...

A few months back I was asked by Ernest Journal to head down to Monmouthshire and photograph a man who builds mechanical sculptures. As always, I was game and treated to an incredible assignment with massive photographic potential. 

We arrived at Nik Ramage's house nestled in the South Wales countryside. I had a great feeling walking through the door, spotting unusual things all over the place, then Nik led us down the garden to his old chicken shed where he does most of his work.

For this job I took just one Fuji X-E2 body with 23mm and 56mm lenses and swapped them as I needed them. This was one of my first proper outings with the 23mm and I was thrilled with how it felt to use and the images it allowed me to make. I tired to keep my shooting style fairly realistic, while getting a nice amount of coverage for the magazine.

My editorial work is starting to gain real traction and allows me to visit some great places and meet fantastic people – something I'm working on expanding this year.

Colin Nicholls is a Cardiff-based photographer specialising in weddings and editorial work, with a passion for landscape and street photography. He shoots on Fuji X100 and Fuji XE2.

colinnichollsphotography.com

 

 

You can see more of Colin's images and read about Nik Ramage's work in the third print issue of Ernest Journal, on sale now

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For the love of Fair Isle

You cannot hear the words ‘Fair Isle’ without picturing the knitwear that takes its name from the Shetland island of its origin. In the third print edition of Ernest Journal, we explore the history of this timeless garment, featuring a faithful yet unique creation by Mati Ventrillon, who has lived and crafted on Fair Isle for eight years. Kirsty Lee pulled her up for a chin-wag about island life, wooly horses and weaving landscapes

What brought you to Fair Isle?

Fate was definitely involved in my move to Fair Isle. When I lived in London someone in my ex-partner's office was applying to be a tenant of the Auld Haa Guest House, which was advertised by the National Trust back in 2005. The story was picked up by the media and word spread as far as Canada and USA. I've always lived by my instincts and and this was an opportunity of a lifetime so I thought, 'Why not?'.

Although we weren't successful in getting the tenancy at Auld Haa, we moved to Fair Isle in 2007 when a flat in the South Lighthouse became available. A month after I arrived on the island, I started knitting with the now dissolved Fair Isle Craft Co-Operative (I trained as an architect so creativity is at the centre of everything I do; falling in love with knitting was destined to happen). I felt a light ignite inside me and I couldn't stop myself wanting to know more. I researched the history and looked at every available piece of Fair Isle Knitwear in the museum and a local social historian's collection. I wanted to learn more about shaping the garments so I trained with a Shetland Artist in machine and shaping techniques. It’s an ongoing search for perfection.  

I understand that in 2011, after the co-operative closed, knitting in Fair Isle was in jeopardy. How did the community respond to your efforts of preserving the history of the knitwear through the launch of your Mati Ventrillon brand?

After the dissolution of Fair Isle Crafts I decided to carry on. I couldn't do any thing else as I was totally hooked - I knew it would be a life-long relationship. I launched Fair Isle Knitwear in September 2011 with only six patterns, and my fellow islanders were supportive. Many people here knit and most don’t do it commercially. The few of us left after the co-operative dissolved had different ideas so it was natural to go our separate ways.

Fair Isle knitting belongs to the island, and the people who live here are instruments for its continuation. For more than 200 years, women have learned the technique and passed it down from mother to daughter, and also to anyone with an interest. The Mati Ventrillon brand took shape in 2012, inspired by tradition and crafted for life.

How did you develop your styles and designs? Was it difficult to capture such a long line of history in your patterns?

When I started knitting I was like a sponge; I absorbed every bit of information about the patterns, the colours and the garments. I didn't think too much because I knew that by just doing it, I was learning. Over four years I found out all I could about Fair Isle knitting. I imagined the life of women 200 years ago and their relationship with the landscape. I wanted to feel how it would have been back then and take inspiration from that. I've been using the same patterns used since Fair Isle knitting started, as they carry the history. My designs are inspired by pieces knitted in the 19th century.

How do you weave Fair Isle's landscape into your designs?

It’s an interesting question because this ties in neatly with my next project! The landscape is a constant presence and the weather rules our lives – both have an impact on everything we do. I do not consciously design patterns by thinking about the landscape but I am sure my choices of colours are influenced by it. 

Through the photographs on your website I feel the wooly horse is a celebration of solitude and embraces the landscape that surrounds you – how did it become such an important figure to you? 

The best way to dry a jumper is on a wooly horse or a jumper board because it helps the fibre to keep the shape. Every knitter in Fair Isle has one. My wooly horse has an interesting story. It belonged to my ex-partner David – it was his father's, who received it as a gift from Tulloch of Shetland. David had it with him for over 30 years and took it with him as he moved around the world. He had it with him when we met in Venezuela in 2002. The wooly horse moved with us to London and then made its way back home to Shetland in 2007. Tulloch of Shetland stopped manufacturing them in the early 1960s and no one has produced anything of such quality since, so now I collect and treasure them. They are a work of art.

Kirsty Lee is native to a stony seaside town on the Kent coast. She has a penchant for exploring, documenting and collecting keepsakes from her travels.

You can read a pocket history of Fair Isle knitwear in the third print edition of Ernest Journal.

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