Now Exhibition Journal Cafe 253 Flinders St 14-29 Sept 2019

---

Jewellery incorporating detritus “mudlarked” from the banks of the Thames during a trip to London in 2018, and collected locally from the recycling bin in my flats in Melbourne

Cast silver with mudlarked sherd, the prongs are cast from a nail also found at the river. ‘Mudlarks would search the muddy shores of the River Thames at low tide for anything that could be sold; . recently... individuals searching the foreshore for historic artefacts have described themselves as "mudlarks”’ Wikipedia

Cast and formed silver, pearl, scavenged pipe-stem and food lid. 

Pipes are one of the most common things found Mudlarking on the Thames, kind of like the cigarette butts of their day (from the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 20th). I have integrated the piece with current “rubbish“ the kind of thing that if there are future archaeologists they might find

Gold plated sterling silver and medieval sherd mudlarked on the river Thames
The prongs are cast from a nail also found on the river. .

For this piece I wanted to cast a bit of the scrap of Tudor leather I had found mudlarking last year.I wanted to make a rubber mould of some of the leather then cast the wax from that into silver. On my way to the mouldmaking business in the Manchester Unity building I realised that the leather was flat and I wanted it to be curved, and it would be easier to curve the leather before it was moulded. When I took out my scrap from the little matchbox I had brought it in I realised it was too dry to curve straight away, without thought I put it in my mouth to moisten it and OMG it was disgusting, the taste so vile, so strong, so overwhelmingly awful.
I immediately took it out of my mouth smiled at Melissa and said I would be back the next day and with thoughts of the revolting Thames mud that it had been in for hundreds of years, the germs and the plague I made my way as quickly as possible down Little Collins St.
I was heading for @thecharlesdickenstavern but coming down Block Place saw that the cafe on the corner had bottles on the wall; I asked “can you serve alcohol yet?“ the waiter replied “it’s 10:05 so yes” I said “I’ll have a vodka shot thanks”. I rolled it around in my mouth for a bit and thank goodness have had no repercussions. I took the scrap home soaked in water, when I took it curved to the mould maker they said “oh this would be much easier if it were flat” 

One Persons Rubbish
Ring
Gilt, pearl, medieval and Stuart/Tudor pottery sherd collected on the Thames 2018  The prongs are cast from handmade pins also found on the riverbank.