Inspiration: Eggs

When it comes to Easter, chocolate eggs are the first thing many think of.  Certainly I love them!  Eggs are a symbol of fertility and across the world they are linked to Spring for the return of life it brings.  In Christianity, they are linked to the resurrecution of Jesus.  Eating eggs was not allowed in Holy Week, the week before Easter, so any laid were painted and saved before they were given to children.  The Victorians started giving gifts at Easter in egg shaped boxes.  Chocolate eggs were first developed in France and Germany during the 19th Century and eventually hollow eggs were developed.  

Given the symbolism of eggs and the widespread tradition of decorating them, it's not surprising that there are so many different styles and traditions.  In the Ukraine, decorated eggs are call psyanka and are decorated using a wax resist and the decorations are written more than painted.  The Ukraine egg decorating is not all about psyanka though as there are a huge range of techniques used.  These include scratching eggs to reveal the white underneath, adding wax and embedding beads in it and dyeing eggs with small leaves attached.  More recently, carved eggs and lazy eggs have become more common where lazy eggs are decorated with stickers or shrink wrap.

Ukrainian egg decorating techniques go back to pre-Christian times and there are many superstitions.  They protect from evil spirits, lightening and fire but have to be disposed of properly as they can be misused by witches and this involves grinding the shell up but they should never be stood upon as this will give great ill health.  Witches could use them as part of a ritual to dry up a cow's milk or to cause illness in people.  The cloth used to dry Psyanka was also special and could be used to cure skin illnesses.  A large family might create up to 60 in the run up to Easter and many would be gifted or kept for different reasons.  Some to the priest, for children, others were given by unmarried ladies to the unmarried men, others placed on family graves, some kept to add to the coffins of any family who died, still more kept for protection in the house, placed in the mangers, under beehives, under chicken nests and taken to the pastures by shepherds.

With such a long and complicated history, it's not surprising that different villages had slightly different techniques and patterns.  The symbolism of the patterns and colours used is very well developed!  Following the introduction of Christianity, the patterns became less about magic and more about Christian themes, but there are literally thousands of traditional designs.

One group in western Ukraine believe there is a giant serpent that is chained to a cliff who seeks to destroy the world and he is only prevented from doing so by Psyanka.  Each year he sends out minions to see how many have been created and the tightness of his chains depends on the number... More Christian legends suggest that Mary Magdalene took eggs with her as a meal when she went to anoint Jesus body and their plain shells were transformed in to rainbow colours.  Simon, who helped carry Jesus cross, left his possessions by the road to do so and when he returned his eggs had turned in to Psyanka.

Many Eastern European countries have similar traditions, including Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Slovakia.  It's not surprising really that egg decoration was taken to excess by the Romanov family, as so many other things were...  Faberge eggs are famous and are the pinnacle of egg art with the incredible craftsmanship and expensive materials.  Alexander III and Nicholas II commissioned Peter Carl Faberge to create 52 eggs as Easter gifts for their wives and mothers.  The Faberge family left Russia following the revolution in 1918 and the trademark has since been sold several times with egg related jewellery still made.

One of the most incredible artforms involving eggs is egg carving.  I first saw this on Kirstie Allsop's Christmas programme where one contestant carved an ostrich egg.  There is something incredible about the delicate ethereal shapes that be created in this way.  Atilla Szabo is a retired Hungarian diplomat who has taken to creating the most delicate carvings....

The egg is a form also celebrated in dragon egg creation and there are amazing eggs created in a wide variety of ways.  Game of Thrones really increased the appeal of dragon eggs!

I have collected some egg art images together on pinterest which you can see here.

Inspiration: Trust

Trust is a really important concept and fundamental to our society.  Everyday, our society functions on trust.  We might trust the sun to rise each day, that there will be food to eat, that our loved ones will be there.  It's about confidence and believe.  I know that my money has a certain value for instance.  I am lucky to live in the UK where life has a certainty to it and there are many things I can trust in.  Life is not so certain everywhere or at all times and change inevitably happens.

I remember in history at school we studied Germany and we learnt that inflation was completely out of control there in the early 1920s.  Germany had huge war debt and printed money that was not backed by gold or any other resource.  The value of their currency fell and a loaf of bread which cost 160 Marks in 1922 cost 200,000,000,000 Marks in 1923.  People literally used wheelbarrows to transport money.  Workers were often paid twice per day as prices were changing so quickly that they quickly became worthless and money was literally not worth the paper it was printed on.  Nobody trusted the currency.

Life has been pretty stable in places like the UK for a long time and we have gotten pretty used to that which has made the events of the last year or so particularly hard to adjust to.  Life was particularly uncertain at the beginning as few of living people in the UK had been through a pandemic like this.  It caught people by surprise...  Too much certainty, too much trust can be bad for us because we still need to maintain a certain flexibility, the ability to judge....  For instance, it's better to trust a builder with the job of putting up an extension who has a good reputation and reviews rather tan someone who turns up on your doorstep offering to do the job for a very low cash price...

I remember that I began to see articles on Covid and realised it was serious when China started building hospitals at a speed that was incredible.  By September 2020 the official death toll stood at 4634 in China and it just seems incredible to me and completely unbelievable....  Such a death toll seems very unrealistic when compared to the effect Covid has had on other countries who at least knew it existed when it reached their shores and were prepared to fight it.  China denied it's existence for some time and when they accepted the reality of it, their reaction was on a scale that suggests it was a much larger problem.  I once heard a rumour, friend of a friend of a friend that 1,000,000 telephone numbers were deactivated  following China's first wave.  Trust is an issue...

From the point of the hospitals being built, my ears were pricked and as soon as cases were identified in Italy, it was clear to me that Covid was out and it was going to have a huge impact on our lives, though I couldn't comprehend the scale.  I remember asking my boss if they had started thinking about homeworking and she looked at me like I was crazy and asked what for.  A week later I tried again and enquired about a mobile so I could check my emails and even in that short time, the situation had changed and they looked at me like I was perhaps panicking a little but was not completely crazy.  Meanwhile Covid was spreading in Italy and tourists from all over Europe were visiting for the school break, completely unaware, before they took Covid home with them.  

I think one of the things really impacted by Covid has been trust.  On the one hand, something really bad has happened and life goes on, our systems continue to function and our country is definitely taking steps to keep tings going.  On a smaller scale, communities have really come together to look after people.  On a less positive note, while some sorts of crime are much lower, the streets being empty has allowed some negative behaviours to flourish.  Theft of dogs has risen considerably and I find that the streets feel just a little bit less safe, even in the middle of the day.

But Trust is so important to me...  I trust that everything will be OK.  That no matter what happens I will do my best and I will cope...  that should the worst happen, things will still be OK.  It's a nebulous sort of thing, trust at that level.  Everything will be exactly as it's supposed to be... I still have a responsibility to take action, it isn't a blind trust.  I guess it's much like faith.

I chose blues for this design because it feels like a river, that carries you along.  Little eddies in the current...

Inspiration: Clover

I wanted to celebrate spring and St Patrick's Day and combining my Spring Tartan with four leaf clovers seemed like a good idea.  The shamrock has been used as s symbol of Ireland since the days of St Patrick because he used one to explain the holy trinity and had one in one hand and a cross in the other when he drove the snakes from Ireland.  The leaves also came to represent faith, hope and love and if there is a fourth leaf it represents luck and a fifth leaf represents wealth.

On St Patrick's Day, people would wear clovers and sometimes eat them to give sweet breathe.  There was also a tradition of toasting the memory of St Patrick or drowning the shamrock.  The shamrock that had been worn would be added to the drink and when the drink was finished, the clover would be thrown over the left shoulder.  Some also believed wearing clover would allow people to see evil spirits or fairies, giving them a chance to run away.

As well as being a symbol used extensively for St Patrick's Day, when many across the world celebrate with much drinking, it is a symbol of Ireland now, due to it's connection to St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.  This began in the 18th Century when a regiment of volunteers used it as their symbol while protecting against invasion by the French and Spanish.

Shamrock is Irish for young clover and clovers belong to the family Trifolium and are also called Trefoils because they generally have three leaves.  Very occasionally a rare four leaf clover will be found amongst the three leaf clovers.  Even more rare, clovers with even more leaves are found and the record is held by a 56 leaf clover discovered by Shigeo Obara.  Shigeo was a farmer who studied clover and ways to increase the number of leaves on clover and he held the previous record of 21 leaves as well.  His record was recognised following his death at 85.

It's not clear why the four leaf clover and it might just be because it's rare or it's apparent ability to allow the wearer to avoid fairies and evil spirits.  There is a legend that as Adam and Eve were leaving the Garden of Eden, Eve picked a four leaf clover as a souvenir.

Clover is often added to pastures as it is nutritious for livestock and grows well.  It also fixes Nitrogen in the soil which reduces the need for fertilizers for other plants.  It's often found naturally in fields, hedgerows and gardens.  It's also very bee friendly and pollinated mostly by bumblebees, but also honeybees.  Pollination increases reseeding making clover more abundant so beekeepers are often employed by farmers with clover pastures.

Red Clover has edible flowers that can be used as a garnish.  It is also often used as a herbal medicine for the menopause and asthma amongst other things but little research has been carried out in to this.  The flowers are commonly used to make a tea.  The leaves can be added to salads but I am not sure exactly which species is edible!

Clover is such a common symbol, it's in a lot of art and jewellery but surprisingly for it's widespread use, it doesn't seem to have been used as a theme in sculpture, street art or art installations that I could find.  It's almost like it's too common and widespread as a symbol, too particular in it's use, to have inspired many artists....  The only thing I found was some marketing by McDonald's and it doesn't even really feature a shamrock....  Because of the clover, green is associated with Ireland and St Patrick's Day and many St Patrick's Day celebrations feature green with green beer being the most common.  The Chicago River has been dyed green every St Patrick's Day since the 70s.  A green Shamrock Shake was invented in the 70s and is sold by McDonald's for St Patrick's Day in some places.  In 2010, McDonald's placed a giant Shamrock Shake by the Chicago River, tipped over so it looks like the Shamrock Shake is responsible for the river being green.... 

If you want to have a look at my pinterest board, it's here!

Inspiration: St Piran

I had never heard of St Piran before I moved to Cornwall and I had some huge gaps in my understanding of Christianity and some of the part it placed in the history of the British Isles before I moved to Cornwall.  I grew up in the heartlands of England and I knew Scotland, Wales and Ireland had different history to England to a limited extent but it was not really taught in school.  Many of the difficult and divisive parts of our history were completely ignored.

The IRA's bombing campaign was part of my childhood.  I knew to look for unattended possessions in public places and not to leave anything of mine behind.  Every Friday my Dad would be in London for work, driving around.  We all kept an eye on the news on Fridays and that continued until he retired.  Despite all this, I was never taught the roots of the conflict in history.  It was actually my English teacher that caused me to start to understand. She asked us to do a debate on Ireland and I did my research using the schools encyclopaedia's.  I was horrified when I learnt of the potato famine...  Even more horrified when my classmates thought I was making it up in the debate and laughed.

The consciousness slowly seems to have changed and Scotland's fight against the English has definitely taken a place in mainstream culture thanks to Mel Gibson in Braveheart and more recently, Jamie Fraser in Outlander.  Scotland and Wales now have their own assemblies with political power and it makes a strong statement of their differences from England.

Cornwall though is smaller with a lower population and it's right to be scene as different to England has been slower.  Cornish is now an option on censuses though and there is a greater appreciation of the Cornish as being a distinct people now than there was when I first moved here. 

The Tamar River flows along the border of Devon and Cornwall, joining the sea on the south coast while it's source is only 4 miles from the north coast up near Bude.  As a well a physical boundary, genetic studies have shown that the river forms a distinct genetic boundary too, with the Cornish being completely different.

The Cornish are one of the Celtic nations which are Scotland, Wales, Ireland, The Isle of Mann and Brittany in France.  These areas retained languages and cultural traits from the Celts while England did not.  When Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, it reached the British Isles too.  When the Empire fell, the islands fell in to the Dark Ages, so called because the history is harder to piece together.  The Celtic nations retained much of their Christianity while England did not.  

Devout people from Ireland, Wales and Cornwall would still travel on pilgrimages.  Welsh and Irish pilgrims would travel by boat from Wales to the north coast of Cornwall and then walk to the south coast before traveling again by boat to the continent.  The Saints Way is one such route that remains in Cornwall going from Padstow to Fowey via Luxulyan, but there were others.

The Christianity that remained was much more representative of the Christianity that initially existed and it organically adopted the pagan practices and landscape of those in the Celtic nations because they were in charge of their own faith.  When the Roman Catholic Empire turned it's sights to Britain, it couldn't ignore the existing bastions of Christianity, so all the slightly paganish things were retained rather than upset existing Christian territories.  England lost much more of it's pagan landscape.

The power of the Roman Catholic Empire can not be understated.  They ruled Europe without having to worry too much about the actual business of running things in a way.  When Henry the Eighth removed the Catholic Church from his territory, I don't think it would have just been about his desire to divorce...  Without the Catholic Church and the much more relaxed Church of England, the United Kingdoms became a place where different forms of Anglican Christianity thrived.  

John Wesley was born in 1703 and he founded the Methodist church.  He liked to preach outdoors and talked of love  and was one of the first to talk of rights for slaves.  Although he travelled all over the country, the Cornish in particular took his words to heart.  It appealed to the farmers, fishermen and miners and they would gather in their thousands to hear him.  Gwennap Pit is a local landmark where he used to preach which is a depression in the ground which has circular terraces cut in to it.  It is said as many as 2,000 people could be sat to listen but maybe more thousands could gather around the pit.  It is said that Wesley preached to 32,000 people in 1773 at Gwennap Pit.

So to me, the Christian landscape of Cornwall felt different before I understood why.  The Church of England churches I grew up with are much less common here but there are many many simple blocky chapels.  Many places are named after obscure saints you would never have heard of anywhere else.  Many traditions with hints of paganism remained mainstream such as Helston's Flora Day, Padstow's Obby Oss and Penzance's Montol.  The landscape is littered with holy springs and remnants of long ago times.

This probably explains some of the weird and wonderful legends associated with St Piran, patron saint of Cornwall and tin miners.  He was Irish but was thrown out by heathens who tied him to a mill stone and threw him in the sea.  The stormy seas subsided and he floated safely to Cornwall where he landed on a long sandy beach and established himself as a hermit in the sand dunes.  He was venerated locally and began to attract followers until he established the Abbey of Lanpiran.  It is said that the secret of smelting tin had been lost with Romans and St Piran rediscovered it by accident when his black hearthstone ended up with white tin on the surface which gives rise to his black flag with a white cross.

The bay he landed on has the town of Perranporth at one end and the village of Holywell at the other.  His oratory remained in use until the tenth century when it was buried by the sands.  A new church was built but this was also eventually buried in the 1800s.  It may be difficult to imagine but the sand dunes were not anchored by Maram Grass at that time.  Sir Walter Raleigh was friends with a family who had lands in the bay that were constantly in danger of being engulfed and he brought maram grass back from his travels and gifted it to them.  Our sand dunes still move but not as drastically...  

The Oratory was the subject of an archaeological dig and entombed in a concrete bunker for it's safety before being reburied.  Every year, on March the 5th, St Piran's Day a procession goes across the sand to the site of the oratory.

I have read that some of the stories associated with Cornwall's diverse saints were likely stories of pagan deities that were merged organically with the local christian faith.  The Roman Catholic church adopted all of these saints, unlikely origins and all. 

For my St Piran pinterest board, click here!

Inspiration: Don't Panic

Don't Panic

For people of a certain age who like science fiction those words are very evocative.  It should be written in large friendly letters.  The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a fictional book that Douglas Adams named his classic after.  It is believed the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy outsold the much more detailed and accurate Encyclopedia Galactica in part because it was cheaper but also because of those nice reassuring letters on it's cover.

One day my husband decided to watch the first episode of the old TV series and Don't Panic was the first thing that came to mind and I just knew I needed to do a piece inspired by this phrase.  When I think of the book, I can still see the front cover of the copy I was loaned by some family friends.  It was very bright and different to any other book covers I had.  Definitely influenced by psychedelia....  

The artists of this edition in 1979 were Hipgnosis and Ian Wright.  Hipgnosis was an art collective who primarily designed album covers with the most famous probably being Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.  Ian Wright is an illustrator who also has many album covers in his portfolio, including a picture of Grandmaster Flash made using salt to mimic lines of Cocaine for the track White Lines.  I guess it isn't surprising this cover made such an impact on me and was so different.  

When I created the design I knew I wanted the background to reference this psychedelic style that is almost a little too much to look at and take in...  I knew that using transparent beads can give a really interesting effect where colours can merge a little and actually grow stronger when looked at from an angle rather than straight on.  It's easier to discern the hard lines of the pattern from a distance and an angle than it is close up and looking straight on.  I love this effect, so I knew I wanted to use these beads and a 70s style swirl was perfect.

The bracelet has come to mean more to me than just that book however.  There is something very calming and reassuring about those words.  They recognise that you are panicing which is the first step to calming down...

I am not one to panic generally but it's been a difficult year.  I have been out very little not just because of lockdowns but because I really do understand that as a larger lady with asthma and a variety of other slightly irritating health conditions, I probably wouldn't do too well if I got Covid.  My husband likes me to get out a little though, so we go to the supermarket together, which is fine...  I like to go in the evening when there are fewer people and it's easier to maintain your distance.

On one such trip, we met a friend who had only recently had Covid and was still a little under the weather with a bit of a cough left.  Afterwards I just wanted to get the shop done as quickly as possible and get out.  It only got worse over time until I left my husband and went back to the car.  I can safely say it's the only time I have had a full blown panic attack.  Honestly, I don't know how my husband does it...  as a frontline healthworker he has spent the last year working with people with Covid.  I have nothing but respect for all those people who have worked directly with Covid, knowing al the risks and managed to keep their heads straight.

Don't Panic is now my going to the supermarket bracelet of choice.

If you want to see pictures of Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, Hipgnosis and Ian Wright's Artwork and Don't Panic inspired things on pinterest, go here!

Inspiration: Explosive

 All of my halloween hazards (so far!) are inspired by the international safety symbols but explosive required a slightly different approach.  It's not easy to just show those little exploding pieces in black and have the symbol be clear because it's actually quite a detailed symbol with irregular edges.  The lines radiating out though really gave me something to play with and I decided to make these look like flashes of light using silver lined beads.  I think this makes the piece look really dramatic!

And explosions really should be dramatic!

Well, maybe that isn't true.  There seem to have been a lot of explosions down here this winter.  Probably no more than normal but maybe the local news has been keener to report on them to shift focus from the dreaded C.  With our many miles of beaches, every year potentially unexploded ordnance is uncovered or washed up.  

My favourite story this year was about a local guy who runs Shiver me Timbers a local reclamation yard that has some really cool stuff online but somehow I have never been to visit....  It's on my to do list once the world goes back to normal...  Anyway, he had wanted a sea mine for some time and found one washed up on the beach and rolled it home, where he used it as footstool.  He had however gone through proper channels and it was known that the mine was a dummy mine used in practices, so it was completely safe.  The Royal Navy reclaimed the mine however, although it appears that wasn't exactly the end of the story....

There was a WWII bomb found and exploded in Exeter and a phosphorus flare was blown up at Polhawn Cove just in the last few days...  (Yes, this was posted retrospectively!)

But there is something about explosions.  One of my childhood memories was watching footage of old brick works chimneys being brought down at Stewartby.  If you want to skip to the best view of the explosions though, go to the last minute!  

I guess it isn't surprising that artists like to play with explosions too....  there is something so powerful about them.  One of my favourites is Cai Guo-Quiang with the Ninth Wave and Transient Rainbow being just a couple of his works....  There are many other artists that use explosions though.  Martin Klimas photographs flowers as they explode and the images are so beautiful.  Nick Knight photographs powdered paint explosions, as does Irby Pace, but the two could not be more different in their styles.

Of course, there is a tragic and sad side of explosions, but I just don't really want to go there right now...  Not really...  But, Hayat Nazer built a sculpture of a woman from rubble left from the Beirut port explosion last year.  It's a beautiful piece.

If you want to have a look at some pictures on pinterest then click here!

Inspiration: Spring Tartan

 It's that time of year, winter is dragging on in a damp fashion, compounded by lockdown.  It's dreary many days.  We don't often see snow here and have few frosty mornings.  It's not that cold most days but it rains...  frequently.

The upside of our climate is that spring comes early and green things thrive.  And the landscapes here are truly glorious so when we do have a clear blue day, we get to take advantage of it...  when we can leave the house.

Daffodils are a sign of spring all around the UK, but they flower earliest here, well except for the Isles of Scilly which are off the coast of Cornwall as they have an even milder climate than we do in Cornwall.  Daffodils are grown here and sent to the flower markets and muddy brown fields with brilliant yellow stripes are common.  

The Daffodil is the national flower of Wales and is worn on St David's Day which is the first of March.  In Welsh though, it is known as St Peter's Leek.  Originally, the national plant was believed to have been the leek but the Daffodil was adopted in the 19th Century.  I am not sure what the daffodil has to do with St Peter!

As much as I love Daffodils however, the flower I grew up with as the first flower of spring was the humble, shy Snow Drop.  A flower that is strong enough to flower while snow is still on the ground but fails to thrive if picked.

Galantamine is a drug used to treat Alzheimer's to help slow the cognitive decline.  It was first isolated from the common Snowdrop but was later produced from Daffodils.  Although daffodils are still used, it can be produced commercially.

It's still dark right now.  It's some time till the clocks change, but here at least, the world is green.  So my spring tartan is mostly green with black but there are threads of yellow and white...  either for daffodils and snowdrops or snow / frost and the returning sun if you live somewhere a little colder!

If you want to look at my pinterest board it is here!

Inspiration: Valentine's

So Valentine's has been a huge inspiration to me and no doubt, will continue to be so!   Actually, it's not so much Valentine's as it is love...  My favourite genre of books these days is definitely romance.  Valentine's Day is like a little vortex that sucks up all the love themed things, including my bead designs.

I actually am not overly fond of Valentine's Day...  I went to a girls school and had an older sister.  I desperately wanted to receive Valentine's when I was younger and used to watch as my sister did receive them.  My first ever Valentine was actually from a boyfriend of my sister's.  He gave both of us some fabric roses, though my sisters was of course larger.  I always appreciated his kindness and his generous spirit and he remains a friend.

My first serious would frequently give me flowers and while this was lovely, I knew that it was because he worked in a supermarket and whenever they were discounted at the end of the day, he would make sure a bunch or two were reduced to pennies and set aside for me.  I kept some dried in a vase until I left home.

I have always loved roses but I actually prefer the old varieties that smell delicious and have great blousy blooms.  I grew up in an old house with a few well established bushes in the garden.  My name is related to roses and they have not surprisingly always been my favourite flower.  The roses sold for valentine's always seemed like pale imitations of those beautiful flowers...  The blooms were smaller, no smell, strangely straight stems and far fewer thorns.  Those thorns, such an important part of rose, some of the old varieties, they are huge!  To breed them smaller and tamer feels like the wild beauty of the rose has been removed somewhat.

Roses are not native to Britain.  They were first cultivated 5000 years ago by the Chinese and Egyptians.  The rosehips are rich in vitamin C and used to make a cough syrup.  Roses are used to make perfumes and rosewater as well as used in food.  Jams, jellies and soups all feature roses and it is a flavouring for the sweet Turkish Delight.  It is also an ingredient of the spice mix Ras-el-Hanout from North Africa.

Don't go thinking you can eat any garden rose though, the genetics of roses has been tinkered with considerably and many hybrids now exist.  Not all roses should be eaten and only some are licensed for use. 

Roses were linked to the Goddess Aphrodite and have become so closely linked to love and through that, Valentine's Day.  Sales of red roses boom every year....  Even though they naturally do not flower till the end of the summer...

If you want to look at my pinterest board for this post, it is here!

Inspiration: Love

I had to study Latin at school and one of the few things I remember (apart from that I really like the design of their villas) was that they have multiple words for love.  It introduced me to the idea that there are different types of love and that it is not understood in a universal way.  After all, love is a luxury in a relationship if you just need to survive but a necessity between parents and children for the next generation to prosper.

When I was younger, I had a very idealistic, romantic view of love.  I think I assumed passion and love went together indefinitely as well.  I have been with my husband for nearly two decades and  that first flush of romance and passion has settled into something warm and deep, comfortable yet fun.  I still love romance though and it's one of my favourite genre of books.  I understand now that those first heady flushes are not sustainable, it's a transient feeling, but I would rather have what I have now than hunt for greener grass, because the hunt would never be finished.

I see us growing old together and remaining happy.  It's hard to envision life without him and tricky to remember what it was like before we met.  I suspect things would have shifted if we had had children, but we never did.  We have always been able to prioritise our relationship so we have not grown apart.  We both have our own hobbies and friends that relate to our interests.

Roses are great symbols of love and the background to my love design was designed using petals...  but not from Roses.  Roses don't blossom in February without help but Camelias do.  In Cornwall, we have an unusual climate for the UK and camelias grow well here.  They actually seem to have very similar symbology to roses and the different colours have similar meaning.

I like to take one of my photos with some nice texture and colour and blow it up, turn it in to a piece of beadwork using software and then pick bits I like and play with them to create abstract designs.  The camelia was largely red but the shadows came out more maroon.  When I came to bead it, the maroon and deep reds did not translate well at all.  I didn't like it.  I played with the colours extensively before settling on rich purples with more red than blue tones and some beads with hints of magenta.

I really adore how it turned out in the end, but its hard to photograph.  Many of the pink tints come from AB finishes and I just have not found how to get these to show well, yet.

But I like the idea of love being red, purple and pink more than I like it being red and darker red.  It feels more balanced, more representative of the wide range of feeling love includes...  well kind of, I don't think it represents some of the gentler forms of love, familial for instance.  It would need more white and yellow.  But its a Valentine's pattern really, so I guess it never needed to cover the whole range!

Inspiration: Inspire

Inspire is the first in a series of words made in collaboration with my friend, the calligrapher Inkywhispers.  I first connected with her many years ago when I began my first blog which was a journal where I wrote about anything and everything, including the things I made.  We have been friends for years now and our conversations often feed creativity, they inspire and we grow ideas between us.  I don't remember who came up with the idea for this collaboration, I don't think it really matters.

It was a problem to begin with, how to recreate the curving angled letters.  I sat with it for sometime, waiting for inspiration to strike.  It did, but not for this project.  A lady in a facebook group I belong to asked for a biohazard pattern.  I went to bed that night thinking about it and the next morning, I woke with a fully formed idea for Biohazard.  From the matte black frame to the translucent green background with neon detail and the letters that used shades of grey to blur edges and trick the eye a little in to seeing curves.  Once I had that idea, I knew I could apply it to this series of projects.

Sometimes creating is a process, applying skills and techniques to produce something, experimenting to see what happens.  You can often see artists work developing as they explore a principle.  Inspiration is that eureka moment, the breakthrough when you realise something new.  It's a great feeling.

Unfortunately, this series of collaboration is not one where inspiration strikes often.  They are hard work, balancing colours and lightening and darkening individual beads in the letters to create the correct visual effect.  The background of Inspire was developed from a photograph I took from a ship of the churning water of the bow wave.  I zoomed in and changed individual colours.  I chose citrus colours for their bright energy and white for the blank page, because you have to keep creating, keeping showing up at the blank page in order to be inspired....

I was inspired when it came to the whites though....  I had an idea to play with opacity.  Beads have a wonderful quality which allows you to play with light.  I used opaque white beads and crystal beads and I needed something inbetween and chose white lined crystal.  I love the effect this gives.  Like glass painted white where the paint has been scrapped off to varying degrees.  It's an effect I am sure I will use again and when I do, it will be less about being inspired and more about using a skill, an understanding I already have.  I think inspiration is like leveling up in a game.

Inspiration hit working on my tartans too.  I didn't want to make tartans using diamonds and I didn't want to only have a tiny part of a large pattern, in the way you would if you work it in a perpendicular fashion or even at 45 degrees.  It hit me that you could work it at an angle so that you got a larger variety of the larger pattern and the shapes would be closer to rectangular, although not perfect.  Each tartan I make uses that initial inspiration but I don't have that big flash of inspiration for each one.

I like that the word inspire also means to inhale, the opposite of expire.  It's a bringing in of breathe.  Air symbolizes the mental body.  Bringing in ideas....  It isn't just about the mind though.  There is an emotion connected to being inspired, an energy.  It feels really good!

Where do these ideas come from?  It doesn't always feel like they come from us.  People believed that the bible was inspired by God.  The Greeks believed that the Muses inspired mortals and there were nine who inspire literature, science and the arts in all their variety.  The word muse has come to mean a person that inspires someone's art and painters were famous for having muses.  Generally male artists had female muses and they were inspired by the beauty of their muse to attempt to recreate the female form.  There is a dark side to this relationship though...

Sometimes the female muses were artists in their own right but their art was never going to be as important in a male dominated world.  Some artists were married to their muses and considered their needs.  Others would have passionate relationships with a muse for a time, before moving on to the next.  Picasso was infamous for his muses, he was married twice and had four children by three different women.  He often had mistresses.  His relationships were stormy but vital to his creative process, though the women often fared less well.  His second wife and one of his mistresses committed suicide and others had nervous breakdowns.  Marie Francoise Gilot was muse, mistress and artist and following her split with Picasso, he used his influence to discourage support of her artwork and her celebrity fame far eclipsed her artistic fame.

I find the world around me hugely inspiring.  The natural world, the work of others, science, popular culture....  There is inspiration to be found everywhere....

Inspiration: Yellow Brick Road

Growing up, The Wizard of Oz was one of those films that was repeatedly on TV and we would often watch it.  There was very limited numbers of TV channels and no dedicated childrens channels so any opportunity to watch something that was not geared towards adults was eagerly taken.  It was iconic and much loved.

The original book was written by L. Frank Baum and released in 1900 with the name The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  It was adapted into a Broadway musical in 1902 and the iconic film was made in 1939, although three silent films were made before this.  The copyright has lapsed and the story has been taken and used to inspire many other stories, including Wicked by Gregory Maguire.  In Wicked, the story of Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West, is given resulting in a very different viewpoint of the original story.  The beautiful song 'Defying Gravity' comes from the very successful musical.  Both the original Wizard of Oz and Wicked have spawned cultural references.

Many people have looked for deeper meanings within the story, political, religious, and it's true, authors often used fantasies to provide a cover for criticism.  The story stands on it's own in my view and it's appeal to children has nothing to do with any allegory.  It's success is due to the masterful story telling and incredible imagery.

So many iconic phrases have come from the story, such as 'there is no place like home' and follow the yellow brick road'.  The yellow brick road has become an important cultural feature.  In the books, the yellow brick road leads to the Emerald City and Dorothy's way home.  As long as she sticks to this path, she will get where she is going.  It has become a representation of the light at the end of the tunnel but it's use is not necessarily optimistic, it can be pessimistic or sarcastic.  

I think Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road sums up much of the feeling of the yellow brick road.  It's a journey from innocence and safety.  The path takes us away from our childhood life seeking for something, more.  The things we seek do not always seem worth it, it's hard to judge a journey until it's finished and when does the road leading us to seek ever truly end?  It's easy to become disillusioned.  The wizard after all was not infallible and Dorothy became a pawn in the plans of others.  In the very end though, she did make it home and her friends did get the things they sought.  I think your belief in what the yellow brick road represents depends on what your outlook on life is.  I guess I am an optimist but that said, I don't believe things are always easy, there are troubles and pitfalls waiting for us all.  Does anyone sail through life without any trouble?

The iconic images and characters from the film have inspired so much, from lego minifigures and a film to barbie dolls.  Banksy produced a piece of art called Stop and Search showing a policeman in riot gear wearing blue gloves searching Dorothy's basket.  Harrods produced replica ruby shoes and numerous pairs made for the film have been sold with the most expensive going for $666,000 in the year 2000.  Other memorabilia from the film has sold for astonishing amounts with Dorothy's dress selling for over a million dollars and the lion's costume for over $800,000.  There have been many editions of the books since it was initially published and most of these featured different artwork.

The Wicked Witch of the West was played by Margaret Hamilton and she was so good at being scary that many of her scenes were cut because they were too scary.  Many years later she visited Sesame Street and reprised the role in 1976 but the episode received a lot of complaints for being too scary and was never aired again.  I find it interesting that she became the central character of Wicked, which showed her as wronged and misunderstood.  

The film that cemented the story into the lives of millions of children was not without controversy.  Stories of abuse and debauchery abound and many of the effects were achieved in very dangerous ways.  The lion's costume was made from original lion hair and he sweated so much it had to be industrially dried each night as the set was frequently over 100 degrees.  The aluminium in the tin man's costume made him so sick it hospitalised the original actor who was replaced when he was too sick to immediately continue.  The snow used in the film was asbestos.  The wicked witch caught fire and took six weeks to recover and could not wear the hand makeup following this due to nerve damage.  The wicked witch's double later did another fire scene and also caught fire spending eleven days in hospital.

Some of my favourite images actually come from the Land of Oz theme park which was abandoned in 1975 following a fire.   It lay derelict for some time but portions were restored and it occasionally opens.  My favourite photos are the ones showing the yellow brick road.  There is something about it wending it's way through the trees, particularly when it looks a little unkempt.

Just stay on the yellow brick road and you will get where you are going.  Adventure will be yours, through dark and light.  Take one step and then another.  Hope will keep your feet moving.

That's definitely the theme of this bracelet for me, hope, finding your path.  Covid gave me the push I needed to leave the rat race and pursue creativity as a career.  It was the first of my designs that went beyond simple geometry.

Want to look at the images which inspired me on pinterest?

Inspiration: Radioactive

The radiation symbol was originally developed at the University of California in 1946 with a blue symbol on a magenta background.  The symbol is now internationally recognised as being black on a yellow background.  The symbol is actually specific to ionizing radiation and there is a different symbol for non-ionizing radiation.  This symbol has a red background with a skull and crossbones and a person running away both sat below a radiation symbol.

For something to radiate, it means it emits something, either waves or particles.  So things emitting light radiate.  Ionising radiation is the category that includes all high energy  waves and particles, such as X rays, gamma rays, some ultraviolet light as well as alpha and beta particles and any other sub-atomic particles.  Non-ionising radiation includes visible light, infra red, lasers, microwaves and radio waves.  So things that are radioactive radiate and are classed as ionising radiation.  

Radioactivity is something that happens at the atomic level.  Some atoms are just so big and ungainly, that they are unstable.  They fall apart.  Different substances have different numbers of protons, neutrons and electrons. When an atom is unstable, it loses bits until it become more stable.  It can lose pure energy, which is gamma rays; an alpha particle which is two protons and two neutrons or a beta particle which is a single electron (or if it has a positive charge, a positron).

I think radioactivity is a very scary thing and one of the things that makes it so scary is that it is invisible and the scale of the disasters caused by it.  One atom decaying is not to much of an issue but there are a lot of atoms in a tiny amount of material.  When a particularly unstable radioactive material is concentrated and allowed to be in contact, as each atom decays or falls apart, it causes the atoms next to it to also decay.  Imagine a bunch of jenga towers next to each other, one falls and it knocks two of the others, each of which knock two more and so on, until most of them fall.  This is what happens when there is a radioactive explosion.  The bombs used in Japan, the disasters of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima...  all runaway radioactive decay.  Uranium and Plutonium are the most dangerous of elements.

Uranium occurs naturally and is present in the granite where I live.  When I was at college we took a geiger counter out one time and found some very radioactive rocks.  A cave on a beach created when they used to mine and this mine produced Uranium amongst other metals.  A stone in a wall by a busy path, at the perfect height to sit on.  Down near St Just, children are told not to play with the black rocks.  The Uranium is spread out so it isn't going to cause a runaway event leading to an explosion.

It isn't actually the Uranium that is the most dangerous though, one of the things it decays into is a radioactive gas called Radon.  Radon is able to travel upwards, out of the ground and into peoples homes.  Some homes in Cornwall have very high levels of Radon and have to have alterations made to ventilate the gas away.  Basements are also particularly susceptible.  People breathe the gas in and it is one of the biggest causes of Lung Cancer along with Asbestos following Smoking.  One particular issue is that people that smoke and also live with high levels of Radon are at even higher risk because the Radon atoms tend to be attracted to the smoke particles which remain in the lungs.

Radioactivity is not all bad.  When managed extremely carefully it is very useful.  It is the cleanest source of electricity after renewable sources.  It is also used in medicine to treat people with Cancer and for sterilizing things to ensure they are completely clean and not contaminated with any microbes.  That's not to say it's nice, even when used in these ways....  It's a harsh treatment.

When I was growing up, they wanted to bury radioactive waste nearby at Elstow.  I remember seeing protests on the local news and I remember a family friend being amongst those protesting.  It was such an important story locally that a monument was built, although it had to be relocated and repaired a few years back.  The site that would have been used for nuclear waste has been redeveloped for housing and what was a quiet backwater in the 80s is now a vital part of the local road network and part of huge redevelopment.  I don't think any of that would have been possible if they had used it for nuclear waste.

Nuclear has laid waste to land, made it unsafe to inhabit...  Fukushima and Chernobyl have both resulted in ghost towns with haunting photos of what happens when people just leave.  The fear of this happening haunted us all during the Cold War.  Nowhere would have been safe.  I don't think people realise the scale of nuclear preparations.  I know of several basement nuclear bunkers now used as storage and often full of files.  The irony is now the ventilation has been turned off, in Cornwall at least, these rooms are sometimes more radioactive than those above ground, full of Radon gas.

You can see my pinterest board for Radiation here!

Inspiration: Skull and Crossbones

In the UK, the skull and crossbones is also known as the Jolly Roger and was used as a flag to show when a pirate ship was about to attack.  The ships would fly false flags as they pursued their prey and then hoist the jolly roger as they were about to attack.  It was an offense to even own a jolly roger flag, so only lawless pirates would dare.

It seems though that Jolly Roger may have originally been a generic term for pirate flags and may have originally been Joli Rouge and actually referred to the blood flag, a plain red flag used by French privateers.

Some sources say that quarter would be given when a flag with a black background was used, but no quarter when a red flag was flown.  Those that surrendered under a black flag would be spared and allowed to live.

While the skull and crossbones go back to the 1700s, the variety of designs of pirate flags was much wider.  Hourglasses symbolising death and cutlasses were common, along with the long bones and skulls we are used to.

Pirates are strongly associated with Cornwall, where I live.  Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, 'the Pirates of Penzance' means that in the public mind, Penzance is especially pirate like.  Penzance is a town situated along the coast of Mounts Bay, along with Mousehole (home of the infamous Mousehole Cat, star of a children's book); Newlyn (still a thriving fishing port) and Marazion (a beautiful ancient town connected to St Michael's Mount by a causeway at low tide).  We even have a rugby team called the Cornish Pirates.

There is a world record for the largest number of people dressed as pirates in one place and Penzance has tried to get the record twice now and come nail bitingly close both times.  I was there the second time with some family members.  It was great fun to go and dress up as pirates and see everyone's costumes.  Some of my pirate things have become permanent home decor.  I have a wolf's head sculpture which wears my tricorn hat and a jolly roger sits on the table with our TV on.  There is something so romantic and exciting about pirates, even if the truth was very different!

Pirate John 'Eyebrow' Thomas was believed to be a pirate who lived in Marazion and his grave is now a minor tourist attraction in it's own right, featured on tripadvisor.  After his death, Marazion church refused to bury him and so he is buried in the churchyard of the nearby village of Gulval instead.  Cornish Bird Blog explores the story further and it ends up being more of a mystery...  It's not clear if he was a pirate, or maybe a privateer.  Certainly his gravestone features the skull and crossbones.

Cornwall was generally well known for it's pirates and smugglers.  With 400 miles of coast riddled with rocky little coves, there were numerous spots to land illicit goods or treacherous rocks to lure unsuspecting ships on to.  It was such an issue that coastguards created a path along the entire coast so that they could move quickly to intercept illicit goings on.  This path has seen many uses since and is now the South West Coastal Path and draws many tourists to the area and gives access to the entirety of the Cornish coastline.

This is a link to my Pirate Pinterest Board!

Inspiration: Christmas Tartan

 I don't know why, but Christmas and tartan are connected in my head.  Not all tartans, obviously, some are just the wrong colours.... Maybe it's the thought of tartan blankets.  Nice warm woolly tartan things.

I am not the only one, if you search Christmas Tartan online, there will a wealth of results.  There is even a Christmas Tartan which has been registered and the copyright is held by Tartans 4 Africa.  The registration states that the green is for Frankincense, red for Myrrh, yellow for gold and kingship.

Tartans used for Christmas decorations and clothing are generally red and green with some black.  The one I put together for this bracelet and brooch is red and green with black, but it also has white and gold.  To me, red and green reminds me of Holly.

White is very Christmasy.  It's the old myth of a white Christmas.  I know plenty of places have white Christmas every year, but where I live, it's extremely unlikely!  Even so, Christmas images always have snow.

Gold and red are often paired together in Christmas colour schemes, they just go so well and I really love the contrast of it in this tartan.

I think another reason tartans of these colours remind me of Christmas is Shortbread.  Every Christmas, my Gran would come and stay for a few nights, even though she only lived a few minutes away.  There were certain treats that appeared every Christmas with her.  Newberry Fruits by Meltis were sugar covered fruit jellies with a little sweet liquid in the middle.  Chocolate covered brazil nuts and Shortbread....  The shortbread always came in a red tartan tin.

If you want to look at my Christmas Tartan pinterest board, you can!

Inspiration: Neon Strip

 

This design reminds me of the Vegas Strip, not that I have ever been there, but it's so iconic.  All those bright lights in the dark of the desert, so bright, it can be seen from space.

Things have changed though and my view is out of date.  Lighting has changed....  The lights are LED now, not neon.  Most of the big hotels are big on sustainability, using solar arrays to power the lights.  Las Vegas is still the neon capital of the world though!

Las Vegas has it's very own Neon Museum.  The Neon Boneyard is part of the museum but can only be accessed via a guided tour.  It was setup to keep save the oldest neon signs of Vegas, to ensure icons were not lost.  Over 150 signs have been preserved though the exhibit still includes broken glass.  If you go at night, there is a show called Brilliant which uses projectors to show how some of the signs would have looked if they still worked.  The Museum also works to maintain some of the neon signs that remain on the strip.

Neon lights work by trapping gases, not just neon, in a glass tube.  High voltages are applied across the tube by attaching electrodes to each end.  This electricity makes the gas light up because the electricity causes the gas to ionize, because it becomes charged and releases electrons.  Neon gives an orange glow, while Hydrogen glows red, Helium yellow, Carbon Dioxide white and Mercury blue.

When a substance emits light it is known as fluorescent and this phenomenon was first exploited for magic tricks but fluorescent materials were developed for the military.  Fluorescent printing inks became available in the 1950's and caused a stir with some feeling them vulgar.  The 60s claimed these colours and psychedelia was born.  Although the first highlighter pen became available in the early 60s, it was not until 1971 that Stabilo Boss released it's first highlighter and in 2011, 60 million are still produced each year.

My Dad was a printer and stationer. Whenever we visited the factory, looking in his stationery cupboard was my favourite thing, to see what new delights he had that I absolutely needed.  I remember the yellow Stabilo Boss highlighters and the increasing number of colours.  Fluorescent materials are hugely important in Personal Protective Equipment and I have certainly had fluorescent work clothing.  Fitness clothing also draws on it to keep people safe as they exercise in the dark.  I adore that new reflective white that has become common.

I wish Miyuki did beads that were really fluorescent but this must be a really different thing to achieve in a tiny glass bead.  The neon and luminous colours are the closest we get and they really do add a bright pop!

Neon Strip is now available in my etsy shop and at GJ Beads.

If you want to look at my inspirations for this post, you can look at my pinterest board.

Inspiration: Halloween Hazards - Poison

 

My interest in poison began at an early age, in a perfectly innocent way.  The house I grew up in had secondary glazing creating a space between the windows and the secondary glazing.  My parents collected old bits and pieces including bottles and jars.  One of their collections was of poison bottles.  These bottles were beautiful, brightly coloured blue or green glass, ridges on the side and often the words NOT TO BR TAKEN.  At the time, few could read, so the colours were used specifically for containers of poisonous substances.  They were an early suncatcher I guess, glistening prettily in the sunlight.

The colours of the bottles inspired the background of this piece, although I went for lighter colours, to give a contrast to the lettering.  The original bottle green and cobalt blue of the poison bottles are colours I will return to, I am sure...

What makes something poisonous is largely a matter of the quantity required to produce a negative reaction.  The black stuff on burnt toast is toxic in large quantities, even water could be toxic, if we were physically capable of drinking enough.  Other substances are far more poisonous and it requires only a tiny amount to make us ill.

Growing up, my parents made sure I knew what poison plants I might encounter looked like.  So I knew deadly nightshade, because some would occasionally sprout in our garden.  My mum was a herbalist and a nurse so had a great interest in the medicinal use of plants.  She valued them as much as she knew which ones to treat with caution.

She taught me how Digitalis, a medicine produced from Foxgloves, was the one medicine a herbalist could never prescribe.  The problem with is, if you don't have the precise heart condition it is used to treat, it would instead be likely to kill you.  Also, ensuring the exact dose that was required was received was so very difficult with a plant based medicine which had to be used so carefully....  It's much better to see a cardiologist and receive full tests followed by the medicine Digoxin which was developed from Foxgloves.

I definitely find poisons interesting, with their often complicated nature and I know I am not alone.  At the Alnwick Castle, they have a special Poison Garden.  It contains around 100 different poisonous and toxic plants and can only be accessed on a guided tour.  Visitors can not touch or smell any of the plants but even with these precautions, some visitors still faint from the fumes when they visit.

The garden was inspired by a visit to Italy where the Medici family cultivated poisonous plants in the gardens at their properties and used them to kill their enemies.  Catherine de Medici had a particularly bad reputation when it came to using poisons and it's not clear if this was deserved or not.

The modern symbol for toxic substances is the skull and crossbones which has long been a symbol that something is deadly, dating back to the late Middle Ages.  The skull and crossbones was first used as a symbol for poison in New York in 1829.  By the 1870s, it was in use to denote toxicity everywhere.  It's connection to pirates meant that in the United States, it was replaced by Mr Yuk because it was felt the skull and crossbones might attract some children who liked pirates.  The skull and crossbones is a public domain symbol but Mr Yuk is not.

If you want to see images of some of the things that inspired me, here is my pinterest board.

The pattern for this peyote bracelet is available at Etsy and GJ Beads.

Inspiration: Halloween Hazards - Biohazard

Sometimes inspiration hits quickly and it comes with a fully formed idea.  Biohazard was like that.

Someone in a bead group I belong asked if anyone knew of a pattern for a biohazard symbol for a keyring.  The next morning, I woke up with a fully formed idea in my head.

With a scientific background, I am used to these symbols, mostly.  There are a lot of them!  The craze for zombies means that any sci fi fantasy fan is probably familiar with the biohazard symbol.  This year too, has been all about biohazards as Covid has had an impact on everyone's lives.  One way or another, biohazards are a real halloween horror this year....

A biohazard is a substance that is hazardous to human health that is biological in origin, so it includes viruses.  The symbol is used as a warning marker and this includes human waste, used needles, toxins and microorganisms.  It was developed by Charles Baldwin and the Dow Chemical Company.  They wanted to make an entirely new symbol that was different to anything else so that they could then educate people as to it's meaning and it would not be confused with anything else.  Before this symbol, there was no standard and the symbols used by many organisations were not distinctive.

Charles Baldwin however did not approve of it being used for other purposes.  At a seminar on biohazards, participants were given a tie with little biohazard symbols all over it.  In his own words, he sent the organiser a nasty letter.  He certainly would not approve of it's connection to zombies and common use in such horror films and images.  He would not like this bracelet either....

The background of the bracelet is lime green with various neon greens to represent biological matter, plants particularly...  but it's not supposed to be entirely pretty, it's lurid...  but contained in a black frame.  Blood also features round the symbol itself.  This is not a new idea to me as many people have modified the symbol in this way.  It's striking and in my view, really suitable for Halloween this year.

Want to look at the images which inspired me on pinterest?

Inspiration: Singularity

I often find the simplest designs are some of the most striking, easiest to match to an outfit or look.  This means they are often the ones I wear the most.  Growing up, I identified as a rock chick or goth and black remains my go to colour for clothing.  Now, it's more about the fact it makes a really good background for bright colours than identifying myself with a particular culture....  I also love silver jewellery more than gold.  So black and silver is a match made in heaven to me.  Striking, classy and easy to wear...  So singularity pairs up a couple of my absolute favourites.

Matte and frosted beads give a beautiful softness.  Matte black beads swallow the light and appear blacker than opaque black beads.  There are black paints now that almost absorb all light that hits them.  Vantablack absorbs 99.965% of light.  This paint is licences to Anish Kapoor and is not available to other artists but it has been used on a BMW concept car and watches by H. Moser & Cie.  It is however highly toxic, cannot be taken across borders, has to be applied and sealed in a lab, has a tendency to get very hot and is also phenomenally expensive....

Stuart Semple was incensed that one artists had managed to monopolize the world's blackest and black and has been vocal about it ever since.  He first released PINK, the world's pinkest pink and all buyers had to sign saying they were not associated with Anish Kapoor and in no way would the paint be able to fall into his hands.  He later released Better Black, then Black 2.0 and most recently Black 3.0, which are all  considerably cheaper than Vantablack and available to everyone (except Anish Kapoor).  You can read more about that story here! 

I called this design because there is just one stripe, it's a singular stripe, so singularity seemed perfect.  It also really appeals to the science geek in me...  A singularity is what exists at the centre of a black hole, it's a point where matter becomes infinitely dense.  It has a wierd affect on time....  Light can not escape from a black hole...  So it suits the matte black of the beads.

The silver stripe reminds me of a horizon and black holes had a special type of horizon, an event horizon.  This is the boundary beyond which any object or light can not escape from the black hole.  Stephen Hawking found that blackholes do emit some radiation though and he believed that as pairs of particles and anti-particles hit the event horizon, one of the two would be reflected and escape the black hole.  Light has even been observed shooting out of a blackhole now.  

Honestly, I don't think we understand them too well...  It's hard to really understand something so hard to observe...

Singularity images were hard to find on pinterest.  I did learn that BTS had a song by that name though.  I also learnt there is a Marvel character called Singularity.

Inspiration: Cornish Tartan

When I moved to Cornwall twenty years ago, I knew very little about Cornish history and heritage but I was very interested in finding out more about this beautiful place.  I expected to only be here a few years, but I met a Cornishman and never left.  One of the many things I had no idea about was Cornish Tartan.  

It's common to know about Scottish tartans, particularly if you have Scottish ancestry as I do, but tartan is a celtic tradition.  It is believed that the Cornish wore tartans of some sort as there are references to garments that were checkered or freckled.  Altarnun Church, which dates back to 1510, was found to have carvings of people wearing kilts by the historian and poet L.C.R. Duncombe-Jewell.

Cornwall did not have clan tartans in the same way as Scotland though and the tartans now registered with Scottish Tartans Authority are all of more modern design.  The first of these was the Cornish National Tartan which was registered in 1963 having been designed by E.E. Morton-Nance.  Each part of the design relates to an aspect of Cornish history and identity. 

Before Cornwall became Cornwall it was the kingdom of Dumnonia and this encompassed all of Cornwall and Devon with part of Somerset and Dorset.  This kingdom existed between the 4th and 8th centuries with territory gradually reducing as the Saxons advanced, pushing Dumnonia back to Cornwall.  In 1066 the last surviving member of the Cornish royalty, Cadoc, was made Earl of Cornwall by William I of England following the Norman Conquest.

The history of the ancient kingdom of Dumnonia has been rendered particularly murky because of it's close ties to Arthurian legend.  It's believed Arthur was of the royal Cornish line and born at the castle of Tintagel and that he died in the Battle of Camlann believed to have been fought at Slaughter Bridge near Camelford.

Legend has it that Arthurs spirit took the form of a Chough when he died.  Some versions say the bird was originally a Crow but it's legs and beaks were turned red by the blood of the battleground.  The legend also stated that if the Chough ever left Cornwall, it's return would herald the return of King Arthur.  The bird did become extinct in Cornwall with the last breeding recorded in 1947 but returned in 2001.  There are now a number of breeding pairs!

The Chough is a member of the Corvidae family of birds that includes Crows and the red beak and legs are it's distinguishing feature.  It has long been associated with Cornwall and it is considered very bad luck to kill one.  As the emblem of Cornwall it is part of the logo for Cornwall Council.

St Piran is the patron saint of Cornwall and the flag of Cornwall is known as St Piran's flag and is black with a white cross.  Legend has it that he came from Ireland where he was tied to a millstone and cast in to the sea by some heathens.  Perran Bay is a beautiful sandy bay, backed by sand dunes and it is here, at Perranzabuloe that he reached Cornwall.  He became a hermit there and established the first Oratory which was later replaced by a stone building.  The oratory was abandoned in the tenth century when it was engulfed by sand.  It was excavated in 1910  but then reburied.

St Piran is the patron saint of tin-miners and is credited with the rediscovery of how to smelt tin as this art had been lost after the Romans left.  It is believed his hearthstone was made of tin bearing rock and the fire caused some of the tin in the rock to melt.

Cornwall is known for it's long history of mining, not just tin but other metals too and stone for building.  The sea is never far distant either, no matter where you are in the county.

So the colours chosen reflect aspects of Cornish history...  Black and gold were the colours of the Kings of Dumnonia.  Black and white are the colours of St Piran and the tartan features the white cross on a black background.  The blue is for the sea and the red is for the Chough and the blood of Arthur.  I like to think the black is also for the Chough!  

It's not surprising I was inspired by the Cornish Tartan!  It was a tricky project though.  Many tartan or plaid patterns are completed using a loom or turned in to diamonds in peyote patterns.  I wanted to get the whole pattern in and keep it as square as possible.  I eventually realised that having it at an angle would allow the pattern to be fully represented.  I have the pattern as an A4 which I may also release as a chart and I would also like release a brooch pattern which I have developed but not made as yet.   This bracelet pattern is the first, for now!

Want to look at the images which inspired me on pinterest?

Inspiration: All That Jazz

So when I named my All That Jazz bracelet, I plucked the name out of the ether.  It's a glittery bracelet, full of silver lined beads in sumptuous rich colours.  It reminds me of Quality Street wrappers when they used to be foil, the colours so rich and indulgent.  There is just something glittery and alluring about it, it's hedonistic and glitzy.

Looking up the roots of the phrase has been interesting.  It was originally the name of a song from the musical Chicago before being the name of a film made in 1979.  In Chicago, it's the opening number which shows Velma Kelly dancing on stage and it is clear the production is missing her sister.  Velma found her sister with her husband and killed them both.  The other main character Roxie Hart shoots her lover at the beginning of the show as he attempts to break off their affair.

The play is set in the Jazz Age which was a time of carefree hedonism and exuberance but it also overlapped with Prohibition Era.  Chicago in the 20s was run by infamous gangs who controlled alcohol supply and the underground scene of the speakeasies was the home of vaudeville and scantily clad ladies who you could pay to dance with you.  The Capone gang looked after the south and 'Bugs' Moran's gang ran the north.  The officials of the time were particularly corrupt in Chicago.

The 20s saw women having increasing freedom.  Fashion was suddenly much more revealing and designed for new dances.  The flapper was born, with revealing clothes and I love the way the fringeing of many of the dresses moves as they dance (I am a huge Strictly fan!).  They drank and smoked and were much freer with men than previous generations.  They had spirit, but they also courted trouble.

In the musical, one of the themes is the pursuit of celebrity.  The two main characters are celebrity criminals but their fame is fleeting.  They were in pursuit of more.

While part of me loves the idea of the freedom and creative growth of the 20s another part of me sees an awful lot of shadows.  I think the dancing, music, clothes and freedom would have been great fun but you link that to gang culture and a society that largely wasn't ready for woman's liberation and there was also the potential for great suffering and misery.  

The misery of extreme hedonism is also explored in the film All That Jazz, which is semi-autobiographical of the director Bob Fosse who directed and choreographed Chicago in 1975.  The main character, Joe Gideon, is a chain smoker, workaholic and womanizer who uses stimulants every morning.  He develops heart issues but refuses to change his ways and despite surgery, eventually dies.

When I think of All That Jazz, it's that rich over the top creativity, the women in their beautiful dresses and the incredible art deco movement of the time.  It is an inspiring time and looking back, the excess and darkness is just as fascinating as the beauty.  

I made a 20s board on pinterest!