Natural Elements: The Four Seasons, working in Silver

In my life as an artist silversmith, I really love looking at new inspiration. I often go on walks in the rural countryside around my workshop. I'm really inspired by the details and the leaves and the flowers that I see on my walks. Often I take my camera just to document the shapes and forms and work them back into my designs. Often I can spend hours working on one piece, chasing and engraving for what seems like most of the day. So I really enjoy taking breaks, walking in the countryside with my dog and just stopping to observe nature. Over the years I've been working with silver, I really love how iridescent it is and how almost phosphorescent the surface is. It picks up colours around it and it also picks up textures in a really tactile way. And just working with silver as a material is enough to inspire me. My designing process starts with looking at the natural form or the inspiration. Flowers, leaves, waves, whatever the client who's commissioning me is inspired by or wants to get across in the design. Within my work I try to capture the essence of movement in nature. Whether it's the movement of water and waves or botanical forms like leaves and flowers swirling around. And also within snowflakes, frost, the way things grow and expand in their movement. I really love the fact that silver is an immortal material and even though it might change its form it will always be there for centuries to come. I think it's really important to keep passing on silversmithing skills to inspire future generations and preserve the tradition of handcrafted silver.