To follow the first 4 things about me, here are another few:
1. Materials and techniques are my special interest
I interrogate every material that’s fallen into my hands. How malleable are you? Brittle? Springy? Can I carve, melt, sand, glue, weld you? How about colour, frost or polish?
When faced with a new problem to solve or solution to build, I love going through my mental index of materials to find just the right thing for the job. Often what’s an excruciating problem in one medium will be trivial in another, but best of all is combining materials to create something really new.
2. I love solving problems by making things
There is a saying when you’ve got a hammer everything looks like a nail… but I have a lot more tools than just hammers! My home is full of small DIY creations that make life easier or a little bit more beautiful. If you want to make me really happy, bring me a small, self-contained problem that I can solve by making something!
It’s also why I love to take commissioned work, be it jewellery, sculpture or fabrication. Every commission is a self-contained project with its own brief, constraints and wonderful conclusion – delivering something I made into a happy customer’s hands.
3. I don’t “see” pictures in my head
I’m never more than a pace or two from a sketchbook (I built one into my wallet) because I need paper to think. Imagination for me is like running my hands over something in the dark – I’m aware of the bits I’m touching for moment, but when I move on they’re gone… so I pin them down with a pen.
It really comes in handy when I’m trying to work things out with someone – being able to sketch what I think they mean lets us figure out where confusions and ambiguities lie, and build a picture together.
I plan to write more about my projects than myself on this blog, but feel free to ask me anything in the comments. Thanks for reading!
