A journey with granite - exploring texture and connection.

In West Penwith and on Dartmoor, I have been exploring textures and forms of granite and searching out the best places for me to find beautiful seams and interesting surfaces to work with.

It is a bit like sketching, working with the boulders and tors to imprint the unique quality of each carefully selected granite form. I try out a small area to see if I like the marks left in the silver surface then hammer a length of sheet metal to use at a later date.

Some pieces work well as rings or longer pieces as bangles, I particularly like the seams of quartz which come out as shining smooth areas running around the circumference.

As I am acquiring more marks, I am learning what to look for in the stone surfaces I choose to work on. Granite smoothed by the sea has little hollows all over its surface where softer minerals have worn away and seams in the stone show up as raised smooth areas in the silver. It’s a bit like learning which paintbrushes give you the effect you want and which paints your prefer. I love the notion that I am painting with silver and granite and hammers, building a catalogue of textures and mark making. Tracing time.

Imprints taken from various boulders at Cape Cornwall.

My next exploration is going to be into making a whole collection from this catalogue of textured silver so I can create a series of work which is a journey with granite from West Penwith and Dartmoor and will be the beginnings of a body of work made in collaboration with Rebecca Walklett and Anita Reynolds. We have plans afoot for an exciting exhibition at a prestigious gallery in Devon but that is a long way off just yet and gives me time to explore texture and connection through granite and fellow artists.