QEST Scholarship - Working with Tony Bedford

I first met Tony Bedford when I was exhibiting at Goldsmiths’ Fair, maybe in 2004, when he was a Director at Asprey, and he invited me to present some ideas. I’ll never forget nervously arriving (at the Tradesman’s door down a side street, not the grand Bond Street entrance!). My biggest commission to date resulted, the ‘Undersea’ Candelabra (pic below), and my younger self never would have believed that we would become friends and end up spending loads of time hanging out in my workshop together. Tony is an incredibly generous person, brilliant mentor, exacting teacher.

For my QEST Scholarship we spent a week in my workshop solely dedicated to Flat hammering and Tray sinking. I had previously learned tray making with Christopher Lawrence, a peerless master of the technique, and I wanted to freshen up and develop my skills further, and find ways of using them creatively. Alongside all the experimental pieces, he had me doing some basic exercises where he deliberately warped a large flat sheet (very easy) then I had to hammer it flat (very hard!)

I experimented with graduating and blending the levels and soon after I designed and created the Betula platter.

Undersea Candelabra made for Asprey, commissioned by Tony Bedford when he was a Director