Cabinet of Curiosities: Influences
Many things and people have influenced me. This is a completely
non-exhaustive list, jotted down in no order whatsoever.
- Wilf Lunn: English eccentric, builder of strange
machines with spurious uses, cyclist and one of my childhood heroes.
- Stig of the Dump: a book in which a boy falls
down into a rubbish dump and discovers a caveman living there. The
caveman builds all his modern conveniences from the discarded waste of
everyone else. I still love this book, which I read again recently. (Stig
of the Dump, Clive King, pub. Puffin Modern
Classics, 1993. ISBN: 0140364501)
- John Cage: too well known to need any
biographical comment from me. His use of "things" stuck into a piano's
strings to modify the sounds is an idea which has gripped and compelled
me since I first heard about it as a child.
- Tim McCreight: writer of the finest technical
manuals on jewellery. His books are brilliant and written in such a way
that he makes you want to try out the techniques he describes. The
techniques are also described accurately, which is more than can be
said for some jewellery "manuals".
- Frank Gehry: the early works made in the
shanty-style. His later work is wonderful, but doesn't excite me like
the earlier stuff.
- Childrens' TV in the 70's: not that I was a TV
addict or anything, but there was something innately creative about
1970's childrens' TV, something that encouraged you to get out there
and try making stuff, even if it might not work too well. All that
sticky-backed plastic...
- Ramona Solberg: the first example I saw of fine,
contemporary jewellery made from recycled junk was by this woman. I
never looked back.
- Rob Jackson: An article by Mr Jackson set me off
on the course of working with rusty steel, thus onto the current
series.
- Jan Svankmeyer
- Bob Ebendorf
- Renaissance Jewellery
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