Accretions

I've been quietly experimenting with pumice over the past month or so, exploring ideas that might eventually find their way into a larger body of work.

Pumice fascinates me because it is essentially a type of volcanic glass. During an eruption, molten rock becomes filled with gas bubbles and expands into a lightweight, porous material. It feels strange to think of it as glass, but in many ways it is.

I've been combining pumice with pâte de verre, a traditional French glass technique that involves grinding glass into a fine powder, mixing it with a binder and applying it to a surface before firing. I'm using it almost like paint, building up layers of glass on the pumice and firing them repeatedly in the kiln.

At the moment I'm experimenting with different firing schedules and layers to see how the materials respond. The surfaces that emerge look a little like mould, lichen, coral or some other organic growth slowly spreading across the stone.

Alongside this, I've been making long chains of hand-formed borosilicate glass links. I'm interested in bringing these two elements together as contemporary jewellery. The chains introduce ideas of adornment and connection, while the pumice feels more like a collected specimen or geological fragment.

I'm not entirely sure where this work is heading yet, which is part of the excitement. At the moment, it sits somewhere between jewellery, sculpture and natural history object. I'm enjoying letting the materials lead the way and seeing what emerges through the process.