Petit Plats des Feuilles
*NEW Collection
Petit Plats des Feuilles gathers silver, gold and found materials into brooches, lariats, and earrings that distil botanical forms into small plate-like forms.
The collection sits alongside years of practice as a printmaker and more recently work in porcelain, where the idea of the 'small dish' returned as both vessel and platform. Walking beside a canal in autumn, I noticed how leaves drift, settle, and hold presence on water. That image of both delicate and certain became poignant, compositions that appear slight, but float in their place.
Like earlier print and ceramic work, these pieces hold an attentiveness to mark, edge and impression. They are not decorative in the traditional sense, though they value beauty. They are more like field notes from the studio, carried forward in metal and other materials.
Reclaimed silver and sovereign gold, Whitby jet, sub-fossil oak, engraved mother-of-pearl, vintage bone and gemstones are combined with care. Many were found, gifted, or long kept aside, and re-surface with their traces still visible.
Fine silver sheet is embossed using heavy cotton printmaking paper, creating textured surfaces reminiscent of drypoint or carborundum plates. Repoussé and foot-rings lift brooches and lariats slightly, echoing the presence of small ceramic dishes. Billet-fused gold and silver are drawn into bar elements; fragments are added almost like chine-collé on a printmaking plate. Each piece is fabricated by hand, with emphasis on refined craftsmanship and surface.
At the heart of Petit Plats des Feuilles is quiet modularity. Studs can carry detachable drops. Lariats are strung with beads in jades, jaspers, mother-of-pearl or jet, shifting between lighter and darker moods. Brooches are composed as one-of-a-kind tableaux, each an arrangement of fragments suspended in its own frame.
The collection resists finality: pared back, elongated, suspended, or gathered close — shifting like the natural and floral arrangements that first inspired it.
Each work is made in my Yorkshire studio, one-of-a-kinds or in very limited editions. Anticipated prices range from £150–£1500, depending on scale and materials. Please enquire for current availability.
For a deeper dive into the inspiration and processes behind this collection, read the full essay here...