OTHER ARTWORK

I  graduated from Nottingham Trent university in 1992 with a furniture and product design degree, so included on this page are examples of other work and projects I have undertaken in the past as well as present day teaching and personal design projects. The mosaic is a recently completed piece and has just sold after being on display in Focus Gallery ,Derby road, Nottingham. I like to create things using different mediums as it means I am constantly learning something new it also helps to keep me employed in areas of teaching that I enjoy. I'm working on a mural at the moment  with a group of people who are all making individual ceramic pieces that fit together to form an overall picture, its a  bit nerve racking as I've designed it but my experience in using different glazes , firing techniques as well as tools ,adhesives and other materials should go some way to achieving a successful result. The finished article can be seen in the 'MISCELLAENOUS' section of the 'CERAMICS TODAY' page.

I'd had this shop mannequin hanging around my flat for the past couple of years and had always intended to do something with it, but wasn't quite sure what.

A couple of events came together to inspire me, one being employed to teach some mosaic classes, another being a visit to the Vivienne Westwood retrospective at the V&A.

After about 50 hours and a lot of tile nibbling, this is the result. I'm pleased with the way it turned out, I think the dress is quite Westwood and the hair very Tiffany lampshade.

I've used a brickwork formation for the flesh on the manikin I cut all the pieces individally from full size ceramic wall tiles, these were particularly good for the flesh tones as they have a mottled finish to them. The colouring itself reminds me of a Lucien Freud painting.

This is a full size manikin that I had hanging around so I just had to have a go at completing it.This took hours and hours and was a helluva job to grout. I would love to wear a dress like this one, preferably in fabric though not ceramic!

The manikin is obviously a 1950's figure with the nipped inwaist and high heels, so designed the dress with this in mind. The pink elbow length gloves complete the look although doing the fingers was extremely tricky, on the whole I think it works though and is a gloriously Kitsch object.

A friend of mine created this statue from reconstituted stone, using a souvenir I had bought in South America as a guide. I made the metal work to turn it into a clothes rail and shoe rack at a creative welding class and had the glass shelf specially cut at LEE GLASS in Bulwell Nottingham.

I really enjoyed painting this rug design on my floor. The design is very much influenced by my travels in South America. I marked out the outline then filled in with emulsions and acrylics, a good coat of industrial style floor laquer preserved the design from wear and tear.

I designed this mosaic for a group of four parents to make at a local school in Nottingham, it was to mark the schools 40th birthday and depicts the school shield and the dates. Each parent made a quarter using the indirect method of mosaicing (upside down onto paper)This was then pieced together and framed for the final result.

This sofa was also one of my final projects, I made it while on my work placement at Relyon in Somerset, it is actually a sofa bed. I originally wanted it to be black velvet but the fabric was too pricey, the grey is probably a more practical choice anyway.

Something I really enjoy is creating patterns that link together and can be repeated, this door was done with one square tile stencil repeated many times.   

Glass and Sycamore display stand.This is a piece of the Furniture I created on my degree course, it actually looked quite radical at the time but I suppose it was 13 years ago, it was shown at New Designers in london in1992.

Looking for an alternative window dressing, I bought some sea grass matting from IKEA cut one in half for the two small windows, the full size one was exactly the right size for the large window, bound the raw edges using black and white upholstery webbing. They roll up using very long nylon cord threaded through screw eyes at the top of the window.

A bit of mural painting here for a young nephew with a love of the jungle book. Used emulsions and acrylics and a bit of varnish on the lightswitch.

Experimenting in a friends bathroom I was trying to create a paul Klee type painting using multi colored emulsions as a base with black printing ink brushed over the surface and scraped through to create the aquatic scene. This actually created quite a tough waterproof finish and is standing up well to all the steam/moisture in the bathroom.

If you can get hold of some reclaimed floorboards they make wonderful pcture or mirror frames.Try and be acurate when cutting your 45degree mitres so you get a nice tight fit, the character in the wood after years of being walked on can't really be faked.

I made this table from steel sheet on a creative welding course, the glass top is reinforced with steel mesh, the tray underneath filled with white sand and displays rocks and stones collected on walks.

Made this corner cabinet for my bathroom using plywood and a jigsaw to cut the doors.I deorated the doors using emulsion and acrylics with glass paint and gold outlining paste for the scales on the fish and the details, a good coat of varnish protects the design against moisture.