Three's a crowd?

After my last post, I thought, hmmm, I'll look up Thoreau, find out more about this quote.
Turns out, in 1884, he and his friend Edward Hoar "accidentally set a fire that consumed 300 acres of Walden Woods" !! I guess fire thought three was a crowd...

Hope

For many years I kept this Klee picture on the wall above my bed.

There is something hopeful about it. 

Somethings don't make sense, but you understand them anyway.

That's how I've always felt about Klee. I don't know what he's about, 

but my heart reads his language quite naturally.

I cant remember the title of this drawing- do you know it? 

What Is a Goldsmith Without a Flame?

There weren't so many posts here in March, as you may have noticed.

I was in hospital again...again. 

I wasn't going to write about it, because I want this to be about Goldsmithing, happy happy Goldsmithing.

But, really, having an operation on my lung has everything to do with my Goldsmithing.

And will change things very significantly.

Simply put, I had a kind of hole in my lung which was leaking and causing recurrent collapse.

So, finally, I had surgery to fix that up... hopefully. 

Fairly hurty! 

And not a great deal of Goldsmithing (well, none actually) has been done!

It is likely that the smoke, fumes and dusts that are typical to Goldsmithing haven't helped me, 

and so...

It seemed that I would have to give it away, and find another way to feed the family.

But now that the fog is lifting a little, perhaps it is that I can solve this problem-

by being more of a Goldsmith than ever.

I am going to make jewellery 

without smoke, fume or dust.

Quite a trick!

This is going to limit my repertoire of techniques.

~What is a Goldsmith with out a flame?~

Much of my present work requires soldering (perhaps my best-honed skill :-( ), and filing, and polishing- so for now, I will get help from other goldsmiths to complete these tasks. 

Looking ahead, 

I will make things with a hammer.

I will make things with a hammer.

How will I make things that are good with that limitation?

It is scary. It is exciting. 

Book Worm

 Robyn Boyd Houses here of course

                        

Reading about two endeavours that need to be undertaken without destroying the Earth.

NOTE- David Neale Jewellery is now made with recycled silver*

*except cast items- I'm currently looking for a casting operator that uses recycled material. 

Anyone out there?

Seen

Excerpt from Ant and Bee and Kind Dog- Angela Banner

Bright / Night

N73

"N73" is a Bee-Keeper's registration number. It appears neatly-chiselled, in that curveless, lazy, runic font, on the face of every one of my Dad's self-made beehives. Awhile back, many of Dad's bees died of an infectious bee disease, and so all the nicely finger-jointed boxes had to be burned.  As a nod to the pater, I put "N73"on any kind of box I make. This one: c.1999. 

Moth

The smallest Warwick Freeman piece you can get (?)
If you're not familiar with his jewellery- he often cuts out the shape of things.
This one is, to my eye, a moth, and it nimbly treads that line between a cheap butterfly trinket and, well, something more mysterious and significant. Quite a feat.
Even at this scale (≈10mm across), there is the pleasing execution and great function you come to expect in a Freeman piece. I've noticed that this little badge is the one that Warwick wears himself, on the roll of his black beanie- discreet like a little logo...

Elefun

George's Organic Biffer

Hello again!
My Dad brought us a box of his apples-
I call this variety George's Organic Biffer.
( hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT)
And the taste?
Well... like home.