bike badge

Jonnie from my local scrap yard let me rummage through his selection of old bikes a while ago, I stumbled across countless gems and was spoilt for choice. Eventually, I settled on a 1980's Viscount, assembled in England from parts made all over. As I disassembled it for repainting, I noticed that fortunately, all the chrome was covered either in tape or grease and in perfect condition. The Viscount badge however, was neither of prestige, (as far as I knew) or acceptable to my self-professed 'sophisticated design pallet'. So I decided to machine my own...   

down state.  ring collection

down state. is a series of unisex rings, made for an exhibition in 2010. The inspiration for the show was 'New York'. Modernist Sculptor David Smith who worked out of upstate NY, is a colossal influence to my sculptural principles.

Just as my sculptures do, the designs of down state. owe a lot to the processes that make them. The Brass plate is cut, carved, drilled and smoothed by hand. The designs reflect the abilities and limitations of these industrial processes.

This has served as a great lesson in working with other metals, in a more 'engineering' manner. The care and planning that is needed is different to the way I work with steel, and more like the way I plan a concrete mould. I really enjoy the way brass behaves when it is worked and I know I will apply the skills and knowledge learned here, in future design.