Exhibitions

Court Barn Museum, Chipping Campden  12 April till late August
London Craft Week  at Fortnam & Mason's  9 May till mid June
Goldsmith's Fair  (not yet confirmed)
Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh  opens 3 Oct
Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge Mass  March 2019 (dates to be confirmed)

April 2018
An extraordinary commission

See Gallery for enlargements

The customer has a collection of very rare books  - one of which was written in Amsterdam in 1650 by Menasseh Ben Israel. The text is part of petition written to Oliver Cromwell seeking readmission for the Jews to return to England. (They were banished from England by King John in 1291). I was asked to make a silver cover for the book.

Thus began a voyage of discovery and research via the British Library, the Bodleian Library and the V&A to look closely at their books with silver bindings. 

I went to the Bevis Marks Synagogue (the first, and oldest synagogue in Britain) which resulted from this petition, and is a smaller replica of the Amsterdam synagogue that Menassa Ben Israel attended, also where from my customer's family descend. I talked to a Jewish historian and theologian. 

For practical reasons the cover became more of a container: a book box.