Pinning Our Hopes | Insights

Like all of us, I have emerged blinking into the light after lockdown, wondering what kind of world we live in now, and considering what has changed and what remains relevant to us now.

I feel that we all need and deserve some joy and indulgence in our lives. This had prompted a new focus in my work, which recently has been rather textural and simple in form, informed by natural forms such as shells or plants.

I have found myself returning to some early inspirations – Indian jewellery and textiles, Iznik ceramics and Islamic carpets, as well as the forms and structures of plants in my garden. So, this pin is a tiny celebration of what seems right to me now, a combination of the lushness of curves and the richness of assembled forms and surfaces.

This brooch represents a carpet of Snowdrops; as the first flowers to bloom at the end of the Winter and the beginning of Spring, Snowdrops are symbolic of hope.

I realise that beneath it all, I am a collector, drawn to collation and curation, a way of gaining quiet contemplation from the chaos. The innate desire to collect, to arrange in cabinets and draw the eye to detail. We trip the light fantastic, dance with our objects, fill our spaces with certain order, take joy from intense focus.
This is a challenging time. As I did in my childhood, I find solace and peace in retreating to the detail, the beauty of small things, the overlooked and disregarded. In doing this I hope to share with others, and draw the viewer into this fragile world. There is a power in quiet observation; detail can encompass the monumental and a moment represent eternity.

The past year has been particularly challenging for me, but no matter how bad things felt, colour still brought me joy.

I recently visited Kakadu in the Northern Territory, the land of the traditional Aboriginal custodians - The Bininj and Mungguy people.

Enjoying the diversity of the rich green tropical north, I relished our daily walks, visits to rock pools and Billabongs to experience the incredible bird and plant life. As I walked I noticed the patterns from nature, the fallen leaves, the insects trials, the random rock formations, and the rich colours along the way. This was the inspiration for my pin ‘Leaf Fall’ . I enjoy capturing ephemeral plants and glimpses of nature and translating these images into a brooch.

Being out in the open space is an incredible feeling of lightness and openness. Its’ uplifting and invigorating and, endlessly inspiring.

For this pin I combined 3 of the happiest colours

It's just supposed to be a bit of fun - something you can play and fidget with, to bring joy or soothe the mind.

All around the world people have experienced hardship and suffering. In the distance we can see a flickering light of hope. The movement of this pearl represents that light.

A burr is the result of the tree responding to external stress, this growth tends to feature particularly wild and beautiful grain and serves to protect the tree from any further damage in that area. We thought it rather poignant that something so beautiful could be born out of suffering, a definite reason for hope!

My aim in making this brooch was a burst of colour to raise spirits after the long and dreary days of covid, and also has references to the vast universe of which we are a small part, to open out our horizons and think more globally to cherish our planet.

My pin celebrates the first discovery of a black hole. A triumph of curiosity, international scientific collaboration and Scotland’s key contribution to the first detection of gravitational waves. 100 years after Einstein’s prediction, the ground-breaking discovery of gravitational waves provided the first direct evidence of Black Holes and birthed a new branch of astronomy known as Gravitational Astronomy. Parts of the intricate apparatus that detected the newly discovered gravitational waves were created at The University of Glasgow’s Physics and Astronomy Laboratories, where they have been building gravitational wave detectors for over half a century. This expertise played a key role in this exciting discovery and is providing new ways of observing the cosmos, a triumph of dedication, international knowledge sharing and collaboration to further our understanding of the most fundamental aspects of our universe.

We often take our surroundings for granted but one of the aspects I have most enjoyed over the last few months is being able to find more time to get back in touch with nature and the sense of freedom this has restored in me because there has been plenty of time for walking, meditating and being outdoors. I have really savoured immersing myself in nature, hiking in the countryside and birdwatching, so I wanted to make a very rudimentary pin regarding what the last 2 years have meant for me and although my work is normally abstract, I wanted to simplify and celebrate nature in a very spontaneous but figurative way. A friend, this summer, sent me the poem “hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson, so I decided that I really wanted to make something relating to birds which have always been a symbol of fortune, freedom, strength, hope and joy.

The story of the pin: The writing is done in silver oxidising solution. I filled a fountain pen with the solution and wrote directly onto the silver. The idea is that naturally occurring tarnish will eventually engulf the silver and the message will be lost.

Gaudium is the Latin for joy/ delight/ happiness. I wanted to make something with this celebratory essence as I think we all need some of this right now following the last 18 months. My aim was to make something quirky, happy and almost alive. I have landed up with this little, slightly oriental feeling creature of a pin with moving dangles of glinting hammered gold and tiny compressed coral beads.