Tag: jewelry

Jo’s Jewellery – an update

Post author By greenbenchramblings
Post date December 23, 2017
2 Comments on Jo’s Jewellery – an update

Jude the Undergardener and I were so proud when we attended the launch evening of a new season at a gallery in the world-famous riverside town of Ironbridge. The gallery is appropriately called Ironbridge Fine Arts, which aims to showcase the best local artists and crafts people. We arrived in the dark of a winter evening to have a look at Jo’s jewellery in the gallery, and on the way to find her display I set to work with my camera.

And then there its was – Jo’s work.

While on holiday in Norfolk with daughter Jo and her husband Rob, we found a beach where we could photograph some of her jewellery for her new website. Here we used the colours and textures of sea-battered wood of groynes and supports for beach-huts. Jo works mainly in silver with some gold embellishments and some resin work so you need the right backgrounds to enhance the character and characteristics of the work in photos.

Once we realise we have come across a suitable location, we are so pleased with ourselves – not all ideas work out! We soon get to work if the light is right, checking out backgrounds, angle of light, cloud cover, and then homing in on colour, texture and patterns for each piece of jewellery. Sometimes we strike lucky and the piece matches and works with the chosen object behind it and the effect of the light of course. Sometimes though we wander around trying a single piece in lots of different places until the feeling is right. All four of us discussed each and every one of the photos so it was real teamwork.

A perfect location will afford us the chance to photograph against a background that enhances the jewellery, adds atmosphere and adds interest without distracting from the subjects themselves. This beach was spot on and the row of beach houses on stilts was an added bonus.

Here was plenty of potential for shots to be taken. We had the sea, the sand and the sky to photograph against as well as rusting metal surfaces, sea battered wood and pealing paintwork.

It feels good to be involved in Jo’s jewellery craftwork. But even better is being able to contribute my photographic interests with Rob’s IT skills on Jo’s website he designed and runs. Here are some of the successful photographs from the session on the beach.

More recently more new jewellery awaited photographing and this time we used the colours, patterns and textures of the autumn garden, including our Seaside Garden. This time Rob and I worked together to find the best backgrounds and positioning of each piece – we work well together. I thought I would share twenty or so of the many photographs we took. So I hope you enjoy this gallery – as usual click on the first pic and then navigate using the arrows.

To check out Jo’ creations and Rob’s website skills please look at the website at

http://www.jo-mhjewellery.com .

Tags art galleries, close up photography, craftsmanship, creativity, galleries, Ironbridge, jewellery, jewelry, Jo Mollart-Highfield, photography, silver craft

jewelry

Our Two Gifted Children

Looking back into our families’ past when we researched our family histories we discovered that on my side, the Mollarts, a common thread was that of creativity. We found ancestors who were pottery workers in Stoke including pattern designers and model makers, silk workers and gardeners. We found that one of my pottery ancestors was involved in creating the famous Willow Pattern and one of my gardener ancestors helped with the creation of the Tuilleries in Paris. so it comes as no surprise that our own children, Jamie and Jodie and several of their cousins have creative streaks in them.

Our children are now 39 and 37 years old but we still feel the same sense of pride when they come good. This year has seen important times for both of our offspring.

In April our son Jamie had his first novel published. We attended the launch and book signing in a book store in Leicester, where he now lives. We were proud when we spotted the window display in the local bookstore. We couldn’t wait to get inside to see how Jamie was coping with the anticipation.

He was easy to find. A big piles of new books awaited with lots of bubbly!

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The crowds gathered as Jamie prepared to read sections of his book in between being interviewed about writing “The Zoo”.

The book reading began and we felt so nervous for him, but it soon became apparent we didn’t need to be.

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It is interesting to see the changing expressions of the interviewer and interviewee!

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Book signing followed. Sister, Jodie looked proud of her big brother as he signed her copy of the book, closely followed by more friends and family.

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Jude, aka the Undergardener, waited patiently looking proudly on until her turn to have a book signed arrived.

Luckily for Jamie that big pile of books kept getting smaller!

So from that day on Jamie’s “The Zoo” was on sale! We longed to get home and start reading our own signed copies.

In July our daughter, Jodie put on an exhibition of her jewelry work, following courses on working with silver and gold. Her display at Westhope College showed final pieces and all the work it took to prepare for their completion.

We always enjoy studying the plans and sketchbooks of artists and craftspersons at exhibitions. Jodie displayed this aspect of her work well and showed just how important these stages are.

The centre piece of the display was this amazing necklace.

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And so it has been a good year for our two and of course for us as well!

Tags family, family history, jewelry, new book, publishing, talented people

colours jewelry Shropshire

Jo’s Jewellery on show.

In Ludlow Library our daughter, Jo exhibited some of her silver jewellery, so we trotted along to take a look. Her fellow craftspeople at the Westhope Guild of Contemporary Designers had put on a fine display, showing great skill and creativity. The level of creativity and originality was startlingly impressive.

When we arrived Jo was there performing her meeting and greeting duties.

And here is some of her work ……………..

Check out Jo’s website which is currently being developed by her husband, Rob, www.tigdesigns.co.uk .

Other members of the group exhibited fabric work full of textures and patterns. I was tempted to take these close-up photos.

Talented bunch!!

Tags craft shows, crafts, fabric work, jewelry, Ludlow

jewelry Land Art

Jo’s Jewelry

In a couple of earlier posts I featured some jewelery made by my daughter, Jo and the land art she created as stimuli for her creations.

This month saw her finish her work towards a “City and Guilds” award, which she has been studying for at Westhope College in South Shropshire. The culmination of the course was an exhibition at the college when each faculty at the college displayed the work of their students. The displays were put together by the students themselves.

Here are two of the land art creations.

The other major influence on her work was finding a skeletal poppy-seed heads and a skeletal bract of an eryngium in the garden. She studied structures in nature such as the mathematics of spirals and the Fibonacci sequence. The photo below is of one of her final pieces based on progression of spirals. Most of her current pieces are of silver some with touches of copper.

Setting up the exhibition was great fun. We loaded my car to the gunwales with all the course work and materials needed to put the work up in as effective a way as possible. To get to the college we drove through narrow lanes which ran with rainwater flooding off the fields and creating rivulets for us to drive through. When we arrived at the college it took several shunts to get the car through the narrow gates off the narrow lane, but once through we reversed up to the doorway to unload.

Once inside we saw we had our work cut out. The display boards were hard and staple guns banned and there was a window right in the middle of the area! Nevertheless we set to work covering the boards with fabrics to prepare suitable backgrounds for the displays.

With the preparation complete we got on with the task of showing Jo’s work, the development sheets, ideas books, designs and final pieces.

As the photo below shows it was all worthwhile as Jo was awarded a Distinction for her work and received a cup a “Best Student of the Year”. To see more of Jo’s work go to her website which is in the process of being set up so is still unfinished. www.tigdesigns.co.uk

Tags jewelry, land art

garden photography jewelry Land Art outdoor sculpture photography

Jewelry in our Garden

I have written in the past about creating land art in our garden with our daughter Jo and showed photos of her work. She is using this land art as starting points for making jewelry.

More recently she visited to take photos of some of the jewelry she has already made, using textures in the garden as backgrounds for the pieces. We used pieces of driftwood and other beach combing treasures from beaches in Devon and Anglesey, in our seaside garden as these contrasted so well with the materials used in the jewelry, both colour and texture.

So here is a small selection of the pics we took. The intention is that Jo’s husband Rob will use the photos in the website he is currently designing and creating to showcase her jewelry.