I'm absolutely over the moon to have finally found a new workshop! I'm moving from inside my home to a larger workspace, and it's just a five-minute walk for me, as it's also situated in the centre of the village.
I have been working with a view over the mountains for some years now, and now I have changed it for a charming street view complete with garden gnomes, that belong to the neighbours. It's perfectly fine, because I needed more focus, more space and quiet time.
I wanted to be able to close the door behind me, rather than working too many hours on most days - which wouldn't be a problem if only I were better at focusing. Mind you, when I'm in my flow, I'm absolutely in my flow and nothing can stop me. But I was far too often distracted by everything happening at home, and obviously there is cat George.
This is part of my short route to the workshop, and my own first peek inside, seen from the photo at the centre.
I tried working with headphones on, which was quite helpful. But I realised that when preparing exhibitions or new projects - it's crucial to have more workspace where I can lay out ideas instead of stumbling over them on the floor at times, because the space in my house became almost permanently cluttered and thus unworkable. My cupboards and drawers were absolutely bursting with materials and stones, I also needed a better space for my finished jewellery pieces and in general room to breathe creatively.
I took these photos on my first visit. Simple wood on some of the walls, maybe I will cover it too. The ring in the centre, is for the exhibition in London later this year: "Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway", it's about anxiety.
After months of quietly searching, I was tipped off on this temporary place.
It's quite old and it comes with the linoleum flooring from either around 1910 or the 40s, and I'm sure it was covered by layers of carpets before. It has no running water, because the building will be renovated at some point.
On the left, a cupboard filled with my to soon to be exhibited artworks, before putting the table and more cupboards in. On the right, a German magazine 'Schmuck' from 1981, rescued by me from decluttering the house of my father and his wife, who was the one who got me into jewellery at a young age.
I covered the walls with pages from books, found at the village recycling centre, to hide the uneven parts and to cover up tubes and wires... On the floor I've put the wonderful carpet that I bought at Harrods, when living in London.
I love to see my jewellery from different periods, next to finding back all sorts of things.
This is a workshop, not a shop, but I do have shop windows!
Leaving the window display empty would be somewhat boring to me. As I'm a collector of all things, my vintage vases and china (you know how I adore chinaware and porcelain), came in handy, next to displaying a few minerals. It's a great start of the day, when passing my new world, however it might create intrigue for passersby who are wondering what goes on behind these scenes... I just like some mystery, because I don't want to be distracted. But it's fine for people in the area to book an appointment with me, on certain days.
When I started out I wanted the display to be kind of unattractive on purpose, only then I started to change a little thing, each day, which made it more attractive in the end. Oh, well.
Though I haven't actually started creating any jewels yet - I've been moving things over daily, little by little, to keep track of everything and find proper places for each and every stone or jewel, at home or here. I'm certain that this step will spark new ideas and more peace of mind.
So, up next we have the contemporary jewellery exhibitions!
These contemporary rings are very different from my stone rings, as they are part of the Arty Scenes collection, with a connecting theme about slime... Left: 'Meltdown" in the middle "Slime Splash" and to the right "Mega Show".
One small presentation will be held in my village in September, which is more of an introduction of my work to the village. Up then it's Venice and Florence in October, and in November I will exhibit in Soho, London.
There's definitely some anxiety involved - I actually created a ring about this very emotion for the London exhibition. Find that photo in the second photo collage, at the top of this blog, and this ring is named 'Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway", she is part of a series named 'The Living Trace". You'll understand it's rather challenging for someone like me - a perpetually shy person - heading to exhibitions when I'd honestly just love to hide forever...
New magazine features. Go to the homepage: -> news -> in the Press.
This is the cover of the book 'The Lost Archive' by The Lost in Jewellery Magazine, because my work was chosen to be featured in this very first edition!
Enjoy your summer. I will try and write another blog in about a month or so.
Sheila xx
