10am to 6pm Thursday & Friday 9am to 6pm Saturday & Sunday 10am to 5pm Monday Craft Fair entry included in normal garden admission charges Free entry for RHS Members and Family Guest
“This event, one of our largest, will be held mainly in floored marquees within the beautiful surroundings of RHS Garden Wisley, the historic home of the RHS and houses one of the largest plant collections in the world. Visitors will be able to view and purchase contemporary craft and art whilst also enjoying the beautiful spring garden. Once again, alongside the marquees displaying and selling the work of some of the UK’s finest designer makers, the event will incorporate demonstrating artists, a food village and live music!”
Artists Open Houses May festival: Weekends, 6th –28th May
“AOH offers the opportunity to see work in nearly 200 artists’ homes and studios. Several venues are also showing work in their gardens, providing a great day out viewing art indoors and out. Visiting artists in their homes and studios, viewing art in domestic settings, meeting the artists and makers, hearing about how the work is made and what motivates its makers, is always inspirational.The Artists Open Houses has evolved to be not only the original, but the largest, most respected event of its kind, now encompassing the entire city, reaching out to the surrounding villages.”
The Jewellery Workshop is like a cabinet of curiosity. Discover jewellers’ benches, the tools of the trade, drawings, paintings that feed the designs… Imaginarium Atelier fuses the worlds of traditional goldsmithing and art jewellery. By joining forces and sharing a different set of skills, the makers create sculptural pieces that feel timeless and one-of-a-kind.
Discuss bespoke commissions and discover a range of precious jewellery, elegant and bold designs that hold a subtle touch of magic.
This summer, I will be taking part in three events in beautiful venues in the Sussex countryside with the Guild members. Exhibiting as Imaginarium Atelier
– JUNE 24th & 25th: Borde Hill Borde Hill Lane, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 1XP
– JULY 28th to 30th: Michelham Priory & Gardens Upper Dicker, Near Hailsham BN27 3QS
-AUGUST 26th to 28th Pashley Manor Gardens Ticehurst, Near Wadhurst, East Sussex TN5 7HE
Craft Festival Cheltenham returns for its fourth event on 11-13 March 2022, with a hundred of the finest designer makers from across the UK exhibiting at Cheltenham Town Hall. Buy directly from designer makers of jewellery, ceramics, furniture, textile artists, glass and many more.
I recently created this unique commission as a special gift from a husband to his wife. She fell in love with a large painting I did a few years ago, « The World upside down », as it was on display in a local café. She, later on, visited the workshop during the Brighton Open Houses Festival, where I had a few Jewel-Objects on display. For her special birthday gift, his partner wanted a unique Jewel-Object on this theme so we decided to do a miniature replica of the large painting.
I enjoy painting on wood, it is a completely different experience from painting on a blank canvas. There is a challenge to match the beautiful natural pattern of the yew wood with an equally beautiful and subtle design. Each piece is sculpted and sanded to a smooth finish, the curvy and smooth surface is very tactile and just a perfect surface for painting. The wooden piece is inspiring in itself and I like to leave it unpainted for a while before I decide to go for it and progressively cover the surface with acrylic paint, section by section. It’s a slow process, I feel there is an expanded awareness when working with a natural material. It enhances the meditating feeling and flow in my work when I cover the subtle patterns and golden colours of the wood with my own colourful patterns, it tests my use of colour. The drawing lines are guided by the wood grain behind them, it’s like a conversation between me and the wood.
I created a first Jewel-Object version of “The world upside down” years ago with a more minimalist design so it was a great challenge to scale down the large acrylic painting, keeping the same colour palette and mood and translate most of the original details onto such a tiny surface.
I made my first Jewel-Object back in 2010 to combine my 2 passions: illustration and jewellery. This concept gives life to a jewel when it’s not being worn; the piece ( pendant, ring, brooch or earrings) is embedded in its painted wooden display and becomes the heart of a colourful world or supplies the missing fragment of the story… It’s a way to add meaning to a piece of jewellery. It also adds a sense of wonder. A lot of symblols can be incorporated into a piece for a unique personalised gift.
The reversible pendant is handmade is silver with wood inlays. The display is carved in a block of yew. Its painted with acrylic and ink, covered with a matt varnish.
Here is my latest commission ! A Mermaid chilling on a bloc of amber. traditionally made by hand using the lost wax casting process, working around a piece of amber. The design idea came from the customer who asked me to give a new life to this beautiful piece of amber for his partner. He imagined a mermaid lying on a rock. It was great to work on a slightly bigger scale and build this one of a kind piece like a mini sculpture.
Here is a 4 minutes video of the making process and A few more pictures of the pendant from different angles by Marek Machlowski.
This locket was a commission holding many secrets. The customer wrote down some anecdotes that had special meanings in her life, she wanted to have a locket made especially for her. It would hold pictures of her children with family members’ names and dates on the inside. I first did sketches with the shape of the locket I had in mind and a couple of illustrations translating her stories, these would be engraved on either side so the pendant would be reversible.
I enjoyed designing and making this piece very much because of the story hidden behind every aspect of the design. It is a very special experience to create a piece for someone who shared glimpses of her intimate life for me to translate into a unique piece.
This design is completely unique and handmade from scratch in sterling silver. Discover every step of the making process below.
These days my drawing desk is filled with miniature gouache paintings, jewellery renderings. Some paintings are imaginary pieces that will probably never come to life, some are projects for @imaginarium atelier. It’s way to develop the rough pencil drawings scattered in my sketchbooks.
I feel lucky to still have access to my jewellery bench and being able to carry on working on a few commissions. Back home, I felt the need to go back to one of my unfinished projects. I decided to dig for those jewellery rendering sketchbook and keep creating. This project is kind of meditative because it requires all my attention.
It’s a nice challenge to try and reproduce the materials I work with at my jewellery bench. But mostly, it’s a way to dream bigger and open designs possibilities without the constraint of time and cost of material. All I need is a few sheets of grey or black paper, a dozen of gouache tubes and a couple of tiny brushes.
Last year, I re-discovered charcoal drawing. I was drawn to create bigger to break with the tiny scale I usually work with at the bench. Charcoal is a bit of a messy technique but what I like about is that no lines are definitive. The image is in a constant movement, it evolves progressively.
Green Man sketches, see the 2 brooches miniature painting on Instagram (Sketch A, Sketch B)
I focus first on the composition, then it’s a play with light and shadows to bring life and depth to the drawing. The rubber is constantly in use to bring back the light or adjust the lines that define the contours. I enjoy the room for mistakes and the progressive improvement of the image, The result is always different from what I had in mind but it’s part of the game!
