Rock inspired resin ring

I’ve been smitten with working with metal since the moment, a few years ago, that I walked into a jewellery class at my local college in Bath, and started plaiting copper wire to make a bangle. I’m still studying Jewellery Design now, through the City and Guilds scheme, as it gives me the opportunity to use alternative materials, try new techniques and explore art and design. The tutors are so encouraging and my fellow students are great too. What I enjoy the most about the course is taking a seed of inspiration and developing it through drawings and sketches, and applying the techniques I’ve learned to produce a finished piece of work that I’m proud of.

It was an introduction at college to the very modern world of resin casting that altered the direction of my own jewellery development two years ago. Resin is a lightweight material, so it allows me to play with scale and shapes as well as adding lots of lovely colour to my work. I find it very satisfying to mix ancient metal working techniques and precious metals with modern materials like resin expressed in simple, bold sculptural designs.

I travelled and lived abroad for a long while before settling in Bath with my family. I have a workshop in my garden and feel very lucky to be doing something I love in such a fine corner of the country. I’ve been running my business, Quercus Silver, from here for nearly two years and I’m enjoying everything to do with being my own boss, even setting up my own website.

My graffiti ring developed from ideas that I formed whilst on a recent wind swept holiday in Cornwall. I photographed the interesting rock formations, like the pavement at Godrevy, quoits and standing stones. I confess to a mini obsession with Ben Nicholson’s paintings, his lovely subtle colours and abstract shapes also influenced this piece. Then, of course, there is the amazing and beautiful garden at Barbara Hepworth’s studio in St Ives which I visited whilst I was there. My drawing skills are minimal but I find sketching helps me really focus on my subject. It also allows me to think about how I could interpret it for jewellery.

I’m known for bold geometric shapes, sculptural forms, strong colours and the ring featured here is typical of my style of jewellery. Once I’ve hand made the setting, polished and nearly finished it, I add the resin. I use a liquid polyester resin as it is ideal for casting. I just add a catalyst to set it and my own hand ground pigments, often something as simple as pastels to colour it. For this piece, keeping the pigment a little rough gave the stone-like, almost concrete, texture I wanted. I engraved my design and poured over another layer of resin, in a gorgeous indigo blue. When I filed back the surface it revealed my inlayed pattern. The resulting effect makes it look as though the design is sketched on with a pencil.