Yesterday I had my Zoom meeting with Iris, I had been putting it off because the work was not flowing. As those of you who were at the masterclass this year will know, she sees into your very jewellery soul, which is at once disconcerting and a relief.
These meetings reflect aspects of yourself that perhaps you would rather not see but this is the process we have embarked on by agreeing to be part of Handshake. It’s more like brain shake where everything you thought you knew about making and concepts and yourself gets shaken about until something gets thrown out that works…. for you.
Iris asked me what I wanted from my work, what would make me feel content when I looked at it. The answer I gave was only partial and I have been mulling it over since we spoke. I want to see something that is extruded from my interior, something foreign yet familiar, I need to be my own Julia Kristeva! You know it works the moment its completed and in my experience that is rare. However, it is that piece, that moment, that makes you go back inside yourself for more.
I’m still tying and untying knots, it would seem it’s not a new thing; the title picture is a drawing of mine from 5 years ago, sits in plain view and its taken till now for me to realise its current significance!
I have had a slight shift in my focus, concerning myself more with the ties that bind us, the knots we use to link ourselves to each other rather than the internal knots created by our thinking and reactions to life. This work, and others using fabric and metal by Deganit Stern Schocken has caught my attention recently. 
I’m also experimenting with hand carving kauri, a new experience as previously I have only worked with ebony which requires a pendant drill it’s so dense hard. The kauri feels like balsa wood in comparison.
I have been told to ‘muck around’ more, even cut up everything I’ve made so far and reconstruct them…. A truly terrifying thought…. I see my part in the upcoming October exhibition looking like an exploded mass of bits at this rate.