Latest / The Downing Arts Podcast / MT26.4 Building in miniature

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MT26.4 Building in miniature · The Downing Arts Podcast

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Welcome to the Downing Arts Podcast.
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It's been a busy time for the chapel choir as they sang the university sermon
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on Sunday, as well as the first evening song of the year. And elsewhere in
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college, there's been autumn flower arranging and the Howard foundation lecture with our very own
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Professor Frank Savin. I'm delighted
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to have here with me today silversmith and jeweller Vicki. Welcome.
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Vicki, hi. Hi, Louisa. Hello. It's lovely to see you.
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Before we get started, do you want to just explain your very special connection
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to Downing? Well, for five years, my husband was master
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of Downing, Allen bookbinder, from 2017,
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I think it was, till 2023.
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So I had very privileged position of
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being part of the college. Although I couldn't work
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there, I spent a lot of time there getting involved in drama
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society and the Hyeon Gallery and all the wonderful things about the
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college. Alan had the hard work. I had the pleasure
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of the gardens and everything else. Yeah, well, of course, we are very
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lucky with the gardens here. So you're a silversmith
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and jeweller and I know you've expressed frustration at
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the fact that people often think that they're very similar things or the same thing.
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Want to just explain what you do?
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Jewellery tend to be smaller,
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more intricate items that are wearable, whether they're made
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of silver, gold, platinum, plastic, whatever. That's jewelry.
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And silversmithing is small objects,
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tableware, boxes, gifts, presentation things,
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napkin rings and trophies, things like that. So silversmithing
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is objects rather than the wearable jewelry.
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But I do a combination of both. Well, not a combination.
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Sounds like it's wearable silversmithing. I don't mean that.
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I mean I make wearable things, but also I make small objects
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and tableware. Brilliant. And we're sitting in your
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amazing studio. Could you just explain a
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little bit about what the things are in it? Because there's all sorts of equipment
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and creative stuff. It's basically very traditional.
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I think you'd say that the tools that I use and the
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bench that I use haven't changed for centuries. I mean,
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maybe even millennia, for some of the tools. I once had a visit
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from the Victorian society and from the
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mid 20th century society and, you know, it just. It's all
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the same equipment. Of course, since I've been doing this
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for over 40 years and tools and
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equipment have changed along the way with new things coming along like 3D
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printing and laser welding, all of which is very useful.
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I can go to places to have those things done. I don't do them myself,
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but basically it's all very traditional and all within the
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top room of our house. I'm very lucky to have room
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in the house with views over London from my workshop.
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Do you have a preference like is there something you prefer doing like
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jewellery or silversworth? Well, I certainly
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like making. Well, I should say that all my things
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are inspired by and based on architecture and that might sound
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twee orchid but I hope it isn't.
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I don't think it is in the end but representational.
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So I started out making pieces that were kind of recognizably
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but rather generic architecture and as I've gone along they've got
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much more specific and the pieces I really enjoy
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working on are commissions for somebody for a special occasion
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based on a particular place for a special occasion.
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And it doesn't get more personal than that. Is it just a
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real honor and very humbling. I can tell you about some
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of the stories of the commissions if you like.
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Sounds really, really interesting. Do you have a. Is there one
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that particularly stands out? Well, something I've just finished
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was, I suppose you might say a table piece.
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It sits on a square base, only 8cm square,
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so quite small. But this is a piece based on the
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tower and the front of St. Luke's Church
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in Chelsea and my client got married there 30 years
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ago. So this was a very special wedding anniversary
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gift to his wife. And the way commission
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starts, starts off with pictures or perhaps I'll go and see the real
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building. Most often though, I control the Internet and find pictures of
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what I want and then talk to the customer about what kind
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of item he might like and the all important deadline. So I know
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how long I have to work towards and there's nothing like a
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deadline. It's always a good thing if somebody says no hurry, no hurry,
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well, you know, you put it aside and well, other things take
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space. So I make a cardmaquette
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of what I'm suggesting by way of informing the customer
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of what I'm going to make before I start in silver
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and perhaps gold because expensive materials
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and you don't want to start off on the wrong track but
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also to completely and closely manage the customer's
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expectation so in this case he knows what
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he's going to get. I don't want to beaver away hammer and tongs and
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then the customer say oh, that's not quite what I had in mind. That would
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be terrible. So we don't let that happen by preparing
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in every way, lots and lots of preparation. And the card
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model helps me work out how this thing is going to
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be made and how it'll look from different angles. So I beaved away
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on the model and got the go ahead. He was super
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excited about it and included all sorts of
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details about it. That the tower should come apart in different compartments.
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One of the compartments would contain a Pearl because
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30th anniversary is Pearl and anniversary.
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That would be a nice surprise for his wife.
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And then when it was done with about only
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a week in advance, but a whole week in advance of the wedding anniversary,
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he came to collect it and he just completely
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welled up. He was so overcome. I mean, it was fantastic for
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me in a way that's kind of the reaction I want, but in a.
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In a happy way. Not necessarily. It just was very
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emotional and it was wonderful. It was everything and
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perhaps even exceeded his expectations. So that's how personal
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things get. And I really like that connection.
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It sounds like an awful lot of skills needed for
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the whole process right from the beginning to the end. I mean, how long does
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it take to produce, well, a piece like that?
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It took a good couple of months to do.
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Once I'd started, got the go ahead from making
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the card model. It took a long time.
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It was a tricky piece.
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And often as a reaction to doing something really tricky,
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I'll choose to do something much more straightforward, simple.
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In reaction to that, or if I've been doing something very
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small and intricate, then I want to do something larger. When I say large,
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I mean about the size of a regular jam jar
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or a mug that's as big as I can get. Anything bigger than that and
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I start to panic.
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How did you get into this in the first place? I mean, was it something
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you always wanted to do? Well, yes,
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though I suppose I didn't know I always wanted to do it. And except
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for starting out at art school, I grew
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up, dare I say, in Oxford. And.
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Sorry, I did Oxford foundation
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course in art there at what's now Oxford
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Brookes one year course. And during that year on a
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good foundation course, and this one was brilliant, you'd do
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some drawing, technical drawing, life drawing, color theory,
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art history and different projects.
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So theater design, shoe design, furniture design,
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photography and jewelry. So the point of the year is to
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find out whether your interest or abilities
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lie in large scale or small scale,
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3D or 2 dimensions. And it's a real year of
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discovery. And so my discovery was that
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small scale 3D was my thing.
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So I think it's small sculpture, not jewelry per
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se. It's not diamonds and pearls for that anniversary,
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but yes, small 3D pieces and
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then three years at the, well,
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the famous or infamous Hornsey School of Art.
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Infamous because there were student riots and things there just before,
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before I was there. But nevertheless that's very exciting.
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Well by the time I'd got there politically it was really
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apathetic sadly. But it had been
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a great big student sit in a few years before
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I was there. However, the whole college has gone now,
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sadly nothing of it remains, it's all closed down.
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But it was tremendous at the time and
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I've been doing this silverware and jewelry ever since.
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Did it take time to sort of acquire equipment and
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build things up? Yes,
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I started with a part time job at John Lewis.
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Can tell you anything you want to know about curtains and pattern
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repeats and measuring curtain drops and stuff.
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Very useful part time job and alongside
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that getting tools, getting a workshop, getting set
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up for exhibitions and at
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that time supplying craft galleries
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and one or two commissions. But early
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on that didn't happen so much as it increasingly did as I got
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more established I also had a grant
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from the Craft Council,
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a new craftsman's grant and that helped
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me acquire lots more tools which I still have, use them every day.
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So yes, I got going that way. And is there a reason,
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is there a story behind the architecture aspect?
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Well, one thing at Hornsey
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Art School, which I should say became Middlesex
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Poly, while I was there we were taught
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to do visual research two
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days a week and technical side of making things three
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days a week. On the two days you could go and draw,
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just find whatever interested you, photograph, model in Plasticine,
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anything. But go away and look, look at things,
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observe things and then extract
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ideas for a jewelry design from that.
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And I hadn't appreciated how good that was except
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for an experience. I had a student exchange
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scheme to a small town in southern Germany,
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Schwebisch Mundt, which is historically
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known for its jewelry making and silverware. And her
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professor at the college there just wanted everybody to
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look at his designs and come up with variations
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on his style. So I came back really
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appreciating what we had. But when I finished
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in in Germany I went to Salzburg for a few days
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and started drawing. And I thought well,
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Salzburg kind of reminds me of home.
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It's similar kind of architecture, it's baroque and so
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on. And that's how the theme got going
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more as a just light hearted,
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not specifically architectural,
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deriving from specific buildings, thinking well that's
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somebody else's work, they designed that I should do something quite different.
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But I soon got over that thinking well I'm
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not designing buildings. I'm doing something very different with
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the shapes that I'm looking at. So,
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yeah, that's how it got going. And I suppose was very resonant
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with my hometown. Yeah, absolutely.
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Wow. Cool.
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I know. Just coming back to Downing, I mean, we have very striking
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architecture and people often comment on the
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pillars and the whole kind of feel of the place.
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Did anything. Were you sort of inspired to do
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anything relating to Downing? Of course.
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I've made cufflinks and brooches.
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I've made several pairs of cufflinks for the alumni association.
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And mostly they come in handy for the wedding season because,
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well, a groom has to have some cufflinks. Absolutely.
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And I think most often they're given as a gift either
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from the bride or the other groom or parent.
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But quite often the cufflinks come into
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it for occasions like that. So, yes,
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I've made several pairs of. Of cufflinks based on the portico.
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And the main kind of portico, like outside the
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dining room or the master's lodge, lends itself very nicely
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to classical colonnade brooch. So, yes, I have
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done Downing places. Other colleges too,
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but particularly Downing.
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Yes. Cool. And I know there was another.
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I don't know if you want to call it, probably not a legacy, but there
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was a kind of lasting impression you made on tanning. Oh,
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well, over the
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five years at the college, of course, I've been to lots of lovely dinners,
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wonderful occasions, and the food is just great.
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So always very interesting company. And then you just know at
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the end of the meal, there's going to be this cacophonous sound of everybody standing
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up at once with the scrape of. Of their chairs on that stone floor.
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And I just thought, this is ear splitting. And I began to almost
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dread it, thinking this horrible noise is coming any minute. And I mentioned along
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the while, you know, why don't they put feet on these stools, these chairs?
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There must be something could be done about that then.
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Nicely timed for our very last dinner there,
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Alan's farewell. They said, we've done it for you
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just in time. So, Louisa, tell me, has that been
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a worthwhile legacy? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, every.
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Every time I stand up in hall, I think of you and the
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little things on the bottom of the chairs. No, it's made a huge difference.
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I hope the chairs don't shoot across the room.
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No, I think. I think they're fine.
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Well, thanks ever so much. It's been really lovely to hear a bit more
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about what you do because obviously when you were at Downing,
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you were the Master's wife and you know, we knew you did other stuff,
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but it's really nice to hear a bit more about it. Thank you. So,
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yeah, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you very much Louisa. And of course
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we miss the college madly, but thank you so
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much. It's very nice to keep this connection.
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This week in College. Tonight at 6:30 in the
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chapel, the Griffin Singers are meeting for the first session of the term. Everyone is
17:00
very welcome to come along for an hour and enjoy singing a range of music.
17:03
Later tonight at 9:30, the first choral compline of the
17:07
year takes place in the chapel followed by Port and Hot Chocolate. On Saturday
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in the Howard Theatre, DCMS are hosting Big Band Roulette, the theme for
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which is the Blues Brothers. Ticket information is in the show notes.
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On Sunday, CoralieSong features music by Wood and Dawson. All welcome
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6 o'. Clock. And on Tuesday at 6:30pm in East Staircase,
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the Music Society are hosting the Freshers recital. Information on how
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to sign up to perform is in the show notes.
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Coming up on Tuesday, 3rd November is a very special concert by
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the Ukrainian pianist Lubovo Melnyk. And next week's episode will be
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a chance to hear from Nathan Adlam about what makes him so special and what
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to expect from the performance. Have a great week. Thanks for listening.