Fire & Form

04/06/2018

Hello,
It has been a long time since I last wrote and I am sorry for that. 2017 was an awful year and I simply fell off the social calendar ,my life was put on hold as I dealt with the fact that my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and nursed her through the transition for her last nine months. It was an awful time in many respects, but also a privilege.

Our mothers are responsible for bringing us into this world and do their best to care for us throughout life’s many trials, heartbreak, disappointments, divorce, illness....everything that you think as a child will break your world apart.
But then, the tables turn and suddenly you have to be the grown up. The person you have relied on as your emotional support, to make you feel better and wipe away your tears suddenly becomes vulnerable and scared, mortal, and it is now your turn to step up and be the support they need. To give back all the love , make them feel supported and ease them through the most difficult time you will both have to face.....it becomes time to grow up and let them go.

She died in January and I miss her every day but I am glad I was able to be there for her and am so thankful for all the support that was given to me by my friends and colleagues over that time and still to this day.

So, it has felt like a very long , dark winter and I am truly grateful to feel the sun once again on my face. The garden has gone wild as I have not had time to tend it, but that has resulted in a burgeoning of birds moving into every hedge, climbing shrub, tree and gap in the guttering where they are now busy raising noisy broods. I am awoken every morning between 4&5am with an absolute cacophony of tiered birdsong outside my windows and spend many hours standing at the kitchen sink watching the blackbirds who have boldly chosen to raise a family just to the left of the window in a nest precariously sited in the dense clematis my mum bought me because she liked the name “freckles”, which I planted five years ago to grow up the back of the house.....I always hated my freckles as a child and tried many “cures” including a lot of lemon juice which I used to rub into my face in an attempt to bleach them away, I have long since learnt to love them and as I have got older they have merely multiplied anyway so resistance would be futile.

So, things , like the weather have started to improve. I am now back at work, have a studio full of new and exciting projects which my long-suffering clients have been good enough to continue to provide me with , business is doing well again and Fire and Form are opening their doors again and forging forwards. In March we ran our first workshop of the year, a special three day course for the Conservation department of the Wallace Collection. My old boss and his team,who came to us for a skills top-up and to flex their bench skills and learn a few more tricks of the trade. We had a lot of fun playing with different casting techniques, we used cuttlefish, aeroply, centrifugal casting, had a go at different types of mould making and casting materials and making masters. I cooked some amazing food and the sun shone down on us all in the beautiful gardens that Chris had tended, the peacocks were vocal and everyone went away having learnt something new.

It is good to get back into the swing of things and to feel the pull of life again. If you are interested in joining us for a course or have a project you think we could help you with, please feel free to get in touch. I am not posting firm course dates, I will see what people want and will build a course around peoples needs. We have a metals workshop, a wood working studio, a design space and a conservation studio being built so I can transfer some more of my conservation work up to Sandy. So if you are interested in metals, silversmithing, restoration , casting, mould making or need help bringing to life a project you have in mind, get in touch and we will see if we can help.

Enjoy the weather, take time to see the world around you and make the most of those you love.

Will post again soon

Deborah

21/05/2016

Hello everyone, sorry for the long abscence, realise i have not written for a while but i have been really busy since i last wrote in April.

May has been a month where i have not stopped rushing around, as the earth warmed to Spring and the garden began to come alive with a flood of bluebells and early roses, so i sprang into life and suddenly got really busy.

Fire and Form were busy, we had a wonderful time with students who had little or no experience of metal work but had in their minds eye a piece of jewellry or a project they wanted to bring to life. So we helped them give birth to their creations , we all learnt a lot along the way and they went home happy and proud of what they had achieved.

Our Spring courses are over now , but if there is a particular project or piece that you are wanting to make and need a bit of help with, or use of our studio workshop, then please get in touch. We will not be running formal courses for a while but will be around over the summer to help you make your project come alive if you need us. Just either phone or email and one of us will be happy to talk to you and see what we can do to help.

Other reasons that i was busy were that i got called out to Jodhpur on short notice. I have been working alongside Mehrangargh Fort in Jodhpur, Rajasthan for some years now, working as their Metals Conservation Specialist and training some Indian Conservators and this time i was called out to spend 10 days there in the beautiful Fort, doing a conservation assessment on some antique fi****ms, prior to an upcoming exhibition.

It was , as ever, a wonderful experience to be living in the Fort and this time was especially good as i am begininng a collaboration on this project with the local Crafstmen who I will work with to help conserve the pieces i was looking at. It will be a wonderful oppertunity to learn from these amazing craftsmen how they produce such beautifully crafted work including Indian Goldsmith workers whose families have worked for centuries to make objects of immense skill and beauty for the Indian Royals and Nobels....it will be a real treat and i am very much looking forward to the Autumn to get back out there and get the project off the ground.

But in the meantime, as i said, Fire and Form will be around, hopefully enjoying the English summer in our beautiful garden and workshop and if you want to come and join us and have a play, then you would all be most welcome.

Enjoy the full moon tonight and may it usher in a summer of warmth and happiness for us all.

Deborah

20/03/2016

Hi Everyone,
Happy Equinox. Today is officialy the first day of Spring and I will welcome the longer, brighter days to come. Spring fills us with the hope of renewed life and energy. It becomes a joy to sit at the kitchen table in the mornings, hands wrapped around a tea cup and listen to the increased activity of the birds as their song swells each morning and the constant chitter chatter of the hedge sparrows increases in volume and intensity.
It drives us on at a primal level to move things forward and propel us into sunlight and activity.....it is a busy time!

With this in mind, I am happy to say that the long-awaited leaflets for the first Fire and Form courses of the year have arrived and I am pleased to show you a copy of them. I will be putting some up over town, but for all those who dont live in Whitstable, here is a glimpse of the courses , what we are doing , and when we are doing it. We will be running 3 courses between now and the end of May, so please have a look and see which ones you would be interested in attending. Places are limited to 4 per class, so please book early to avoid dissappointment. If we cant fit you on to the courses advertised we will do our best to accomodate you on a future course.

If you are interested in applying for a course, please leave me a message on this page, or telephione either Chris or myself to reserve your place, all info is on the leaflet.

Really looking forward to meeting some of you , please dont hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have, we will do our best to help.

Enjoy the Spring !

Deborah

04/02/2016

Hello everyone, am sitting at my desk in my studio looking out of the window at the grey, leaden skies and contemplating the ever-growing pile of work on my work bench. And it occurs to me that here i am promoting Fire and Form courses, but a lot of you probably have no idea who i am and what else i do for a living. So i thought a little bit of background information might be useful in giving you some idea of the hands in which you will be placing yourself if you sign up for a course.

My interest in metalwork stems from the fact that back in 1996 i signed up for a BSc degree course at what was then, London City and Guilds University, part of the Sir John Cass school of jewellry and goldsmithing and the London College of Furniture.

My degree was a three year exploration of the conservation and repair of decorative surfaces. Which was great, it was a brilliant combination of hands on practical crafts like wood carving, gilding and frames conservation, egg tempura painting and iconography, Japanese lacquer work, upholstery and metalwork, coupled with physics, chemistry, wood science, art history and museum and conservation practice.

It was here that i fell in love with a practical approach to art and combined it with my love of history and realised that my dream job really did exist and that it was called being a Conservator. It was here also that i met Chris Browning, my collegue in Fire and Form and the man who taught me practical metalwork.....and if he can teach me, then that is testament on his ability to teach just about anyone, i had no practical experience at all in working with metal and it is down to him that i persued it and stopped being frightened of it.

I was lucky after graduating to be offered a place as the Arms, Armour and Metalwork Conservator at the Wallace Collection in London, a post i really enjoyed and where i stayed for nearly 10 years,here i learned a huge amount about both Oriental and European arms and armour and metalwork and was lucky enough to be largely responsable for conserving virtually all the European metalwork, ready for the very swanky Wallace Collection arms and armour catalogue which was published after i left in 2009. The best CV portfolio ever!

I left the Wallace in 2008 to pursue a career on my own as a Freelance Conservator , still largely in decorative metalwork, but working from my purpose-built studio in Kent. This meant i could be more flexible and spend time with my small son and expand the boundries of what i conserved a bit.

Since then i have been lucky, i have been able to travel to some amazing places to work on some wonderful collections and gained a huge amount of experience.

Fire and Form came about because of an ever increasing need i could see for there to be more access for people to learn practical skills. It seems to me that the world has for a long time been moving away from craft skills, and practical applications, becoming ever more dependant on technology and more removed from using their head and hands to make things or express themselves.

So, thats why we decided to launch Fire and Form and see if we can help plug the gap and re-introduce people to the simple joy of being able to make something.

I still continue with my Conservation work and Chris still continues to teach in a school, but we are both hoping that Fire and Form will provide a happy, supporting space for the exploration of working with metals in many ways, so will use this page as a blog to keep you all abreast of the story as it unfolds.

In the meantime, please see the pictures for examples of the other side of my work, the Conservation, and perhaps you will see why i love working with metal, it can be so beautiful .

Look forward to seeing you in Sandy one weekend. Just drop me a line with what it is you are interestd in doing, and i will get back to you. Thanks

Deborah

02/02/2016

Hello everyone, happy Imbolc! Today is the Celtic festival of Imbolc, a pivotal point in the year which ushers in the begining of spring and is dedicated to the triple goddess Brigid, Goddess of the hearth and sacred to metalworkers, she is often depited with an anvil and a burning fire or forge, so is an appropriate person to bring you up to date with whats going on at Fire and Form and to help inspire you with your own ideas for starting to learn about metalworking techniques.

A couple of weeks ago now, we ran the first etching course which was a great success, despite the snow, which just made everything look beautiful. It is a total beginners course and Polly and Clare, who were our students for the weekend, had no previous experience. But they both enjoyed it and manged to produce some great pieces of work between them of which they can be proud.

Etching is a great technique for decorating metal and can produce, with practice, some beautiful effects. In this course we show you how to do two basic types of etching and we only use ferric chloride as an etchant, so you dont have to worry about working with nasty acids which can be a bit daunting if you are unused to working with them.It is a safe, fun way to learn etching and good results can be achieved.

We are already having enquiries for when courses are available, so i will give you the basic information now. I apoplogise for the lack of website at the moment, but i am working on it!

Courses offered are ; 1.Basic metal working skills.
In this course you will learn the basics of how to work with metal including using a piercing saw, how to shape metal and how to join pieces together to form shapes or attach one piece to another to give you a form.

2. Casting, using pewter and cuttlefish.
In this course you will learn the ancient technique of cuttlefish casting. We will use pewter to make simple sculpural forms, rings or pendants which you will then be able to decorate.

3. Decorative etching.
In this course you will learn how to create an etched design on a metal surface. This technique is fascinating and can be used in a myriad of ways. But on this weekend you will be introduced to the art of etching and learn the basic techniques which you can explore at a much deeper level over time.

We will be offering more courses in time, where we can explore much deeper into the art of the metalsmith and the possibilities that it can give us both in a practical way and as a means of expressing ourselves creatively. But we will start with these three simple building blocks.

Cost - £200 for a weekend, this includes tea/coffee, light lunch, nibbles and all tuition and course notes. If you decide to work in silver or do a large piece of etching, then materials will be extra and paid for by weight. Supper will be extra, or we can eat out at one of the pubs or restaurants or have an outdoor supper in the garden if the weather permits, that can be arranged.

Where to stay?- Fire and Form is based in Sandy, Bedfordshire, just down the lane from the RSPB headquarters and, consequently, there are several bed and breakfast options and Air B&B as well as travel lodges in both Sandy or Potton or surrounding villages.
I will publish a list on the website when i finally get it finished.

When are we running the courses? - Courses will run weekends from March until October. If you are interested in attending any (or all!) of the courses, please contact me with details of the courses you are interested in and your availability and i will put together the neccessary details and schedule it in.

You can contact me here on the Fire and Form page, or by email at [email protected].

Look forward to hearing from you with any questions you may have. All the best

Deborah.

12/01/2016

Hi everybody, greetings from a cold and sleet-blown whitstable. It is Tuesday evening and I have just finished typing up notes taken at the weekend at the workshop in Sandy where Chris and I prepared the upcoming etching course for next weekend.

It was a good weekend and we worked through a lot of stuff, prepared the workshop and made sure we had all the supplies needed. I didn't get a chance to start etching my door plates, but at least now have a clear idea of what will work and can't wait to get started next weekend.

In the meantime here are some pictures of plates Chris has done using the same techniques we will be exploring for the course, so have a look and enjoy and get your thinking caps on for any ideas you might want to see become a reality, and together we can work it out to become a reality.

Cheers, Deborah.

02/01/2016

Hi Everyone, and Happy New Year. Hope you all had a great Christmas and that the New Year brings you joy and health and the fruition of dreams.
Traditionally, for me, winter is the time for snatching moments of clear bright weather and taking the oppertunity to go out for muddy walks across the Kent countryside or along the seafront with the dog , looking into clear white-blue skies and letting my thoughts soar up into the heights or into the distant choppy horizons over leaden grey seas.
It is a time for sitting in front of crackling fires late at night and watching the flames play over glowing wood....a time of winter dreaming and introspection.
This year is no different and the focus for a lot of my introspection is plans for new work projects , including Fire and Form, and what i am hoping will be an interesting and exciting time ahead once the courses start happening in earnest and we start rolling out the programmes to the public.

Next week I will be in Sandy finalising the content for the metals etching course. It will be good to get back into work mode after all the over indulgence of Christmas, although my time off has not been entirely idle as i have spent a good amount of it thinking up designs for etchings that i personally want to do. I have long coveted a set of brass door finger plates for my house and have been thinking up designs based on the environment around me, so it will be good to put those to the test next week and see if my designs translate into good etched plates.

I will keep you posted with my success (or not!) and look forward to sharing with you how it all went, with the hope that some of you will be inspired to think up your own designs and sign up to one of the courses where Chris and I can help you bring it to fruition.

So, heres to the year ahead, may it be a good one for all of us and bring us all peace and joy.

All the best, Deborah.

14/12/2015

Hi everyone, hope you all had a good week last week.
Mine was a busy one, with a lot of it spent in London either wandering around the V&A giving my head a holiday and my eyes a feast, or collecting more conservation work from clients for me to do into the New Year.

I also had the pleasure of being invited to an independent art colleges' Conservation Chrismas Party. Where i could meet the students and have a chat with them about their course, the world of objects and arts conservation, and admire the beautiful course work they had produced throughout their degree.

It made me remember why i wanted to become a conservator in the first place, a deep love of hand crafted works of art, an interest in history and the joy of working with my hands as well as my brain. It was also the perfect excuse to handle, touch and examine upclose beautiful pieces of art-crafted metals, which is a great privilage and a real treat.

I have enjoyed my time working at the bench, either in a museum or in my studio, enjoyed the luxery and responsability of cleaning an object from a musuem or private collection and being able to really look at it and appreciate it. So it was good to meet young conservation students, just finishing their degrees and about to start on their own careers, listen to their own aspirations and see if I could be of any help to them as they start on their own paths.

But it also made me realise the real need for more craft classes and specialist courses. I was lucky when i was at University, we had good, well-equipt workshops and skilled, exprienced teachers to help us. But these courses are expensive to run, take up a lot of expensive floorspace in evermore crowded universities which are more and more like busnessess themselves, so practical aspects of education get pared down.

Which i suppose, brings me back to Fire and Form, it will be great to be able to provide that to some small degree. Chris has made a fantastic work space, well equipt and nice to be in. A good learning environment where it will be fun to teach small groups of people the joy of working with metals. We will be able to provide quite a range of classes ultimately and we will see how it unfolds. We have tried and tested simple casting techniques and the next one we are running will be about decorative etching.

We will run the etching cours at the end of January hopefully and will have it ready to take bookings beginning March 2016.
I will keep you updated as to dates and times of subsequant classes and will be posting up news as it unfolds.

Hope to see some of you then!

All the best , Deborah.

06/12/2015

Hi Everyone, here is a collection of some of the pictures from my new venture, Fire& Form which will be launching in the spring. It is a series of workshops i will be hosting along with a friend of mine, Chris, a talented silversmith, metal-worker and designer. We will be running workshops for 4 people at a time. We will be teaching basic metal-working techniques, how to shape and form metal, how to do casting and model-making. Etching, piercing and decorative techniques. We will also do workshops for people in the fields of metals restoration and conservation, which can act as CPD courses for those already working in the fireld and also for those who are just interested in learning.
You dont need to have any experience, courses are tailored to suit student needs. It is more important to us that you come, experience working with metals, have some fun, and if you go away feeling you have learned a new skill and want to explore further, then that is a weekend well spent.
Feel free to contact me with any questions and i would be happy to help.
Thanks.

06/12/2015