New Improved Blog Challenge Day 1
OK, day 1 of my new blog challenge rules - how I got to where I am now..........
I’ve always been interested in all things “arty” for as long as I can remember. At primary school, I told my teachers that when I grew up I was going to be an artist and although I’m not sure they believed the five year old standing in front of them, I continued to follow my dream all the way through school, taking up residence in the art room and producing numerous drawings, paintings and three dimensional masterpieces. Outside school, I would take sketch books and coloured pencils everywhere and draw the things that I saw around me.
At age 16, my parents took me to a careers fair, probably hoping that I'd see sense and choose a proper job, but here I discovered that I could study for a degree in Jewellery and Silversmithing, and from this point on, I decided that this was going to be my chosen path.
However, even then, my teachers at school didn't seem to think that being an artist was an acceptable career and I was “advised”, or perhaps rather forcibly persuaded that I shouldn't narrow my options. So, I started at six-form college, studying A-Levels in Art, Music and Economics.
I then did an Art Foundation course, because that’s what you had to do to get onto the degree, still knowing that all I really wanted to do was make jewellery.
So in 1997 I finally got to begin my degree in Jewellery and Silversmithing at the prestigious Birmingham School of Jewellery (now part of Birmingham City University). I got “a bit” more sensible in my third year and realised that very soon I would need to be able to support myself financially, so I continued my eduction for one more year, gaining a PGCE and spending a few years working as a Design and Technology teacher before finally making the decision to set up as a designer/maker in 2006.
My work has changed and evolved a great deal over my creative career. I started off mainly working in wire making items that I didn't need a workshop for. Then I made myself a tiny fold down bench in the side passageway of my house before converting a section of my garage to become more of a proper workshop. Today, I’ve progressed a little more to a log cabin in the very beautiful Malvern Hills, but I’m now thinking about upgrading this to possibly a whole new location! Watch this space on that one......
