Nothing nicer than my first morning coffee in the cafe situated on the ground floor of the Mitchell Library with its floor to ceiling glass windows. This is a place where I spend quite a bit of time when I want a change of scenery from my studio. It’s a wonderful place to research new and exciting idea’s as well as exploring new artists and designers. On the fourth floor is where you’ll find a fantastic selection of reference books on some of my favourite designers, artist’s and sculptors.
It’s here where I spent quite a bit of time studying Alessandro Castellani who is famed for introducing us to granulation in the late 18th and early 19th century. Granulation is a process that has been around since the Etruscan era, while excavations were being carried out in the early 1800’s in both Rome and southern Russia Etruscan and Greek jewellery was discovered that had been decorated in granulation.
This is a technique were the surface of the precious metal which was usually a high carat gold was adorned by fusing small balls called granules in complex patterns to the golds smooth surface which resulted in intricate patterns of varying degrees of decoration adorning bracelets, cuffs, necklaces and earrings.
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