Being on both side of the camera…. the making of new images for my Essex Crystals

Picture of a woman sat in a small white photo tent wearing jeans and a cream top and wearing a large cast glass, engraved and enamelled essex crystal brooch

So recent days found me in the garden inside my light tent (a small white tent shaped like a cube with an opening to stick your camera), covered in makeup, dressed up to the nines (from the waist up anyway) attempting to be on both sides of the camera at once. I am pleased with …

From flowers to faces and flat to forms: behind the scenes of my year of creative adventure

Memento Mori skull crystals. Engraved, cast and enamel painted glass, gilded on the reverse with coloured silver leaf

For a few years, I've been trying to understand and recreate a historic gem often know as the Essex Crystal. In 2020 I was awarded an Arts Council 'Developing Your Creative Practice' Grant to really get to grips with it. I was interested in adapting modern glass casting techniques, glass engraving, enamel painting and gilding …

Keeping it unreal

When I started out with my Essex Crystal Project, a few people, whose opinion I really value, said that I should concentrate on making the figures more convincingly naive. Even though I value what these people think, I found myself absolutely not wanting to make my figures more naive, and it's taken me a while …

Lost in translation

Reverse intaglio crystals painted with enamel

I've been working on translating the engraving and painting skills I've learned recently into my Essex Crystal Project. It's been quite a journey, and at every stage has made me more appreciative of the skills of the artists who work in these techniques. Thanks to my Developing Your Creative Practice Award, earlier this year I …

%d bloggers like this: