Roundwood Fort at Trelissick

You may be surprised to know that despite the challenges of the season I find winter a deeply inspiring time. I especially enjoy seeing the trees in all their naked glory!

To my mind, the beauty of winter trees is one of the blessings of this cold and weary season. When the leaves fall the landscape through the trees is revealed, allowing the low winter light to filter through. I love to see bare branches which seem to allow the character of the trees to shine forth, suggesting limbs and a sentient life inside.

I spent yesterday morning surrounded by the beautiful trees of Roundwood Quay. This is a special place in Cornwall where several creeks meet making it a favourite spot for water babies as well as tree huggers. My interest in the area is further enhanced by Roundwood Fort. The panorama of trees above is a 360 degree shot of trees in the middle of this ancient Iron Age fort. The built up earth walls of the fort are still clear to see. Its impossible to walk through this area without imagining what it might have been like to have lived here during the Iron Age. Even though those ancient people didn’t have the advantages of modern life they had the most beautiful sylvan setting in which to live. I imagine it was a busy and thriving settlement. Did those ancient people love the trees too?

Trelissick tree

Tree climbers!

Roundwood trees

Mylor Oak

sunny birches

Scottish winter trees

Snowy conifers

As a child I played for hours in a huge beech tree in the woods near my family home. One of my earliest memories was of climbing up into this tree with great excitement, then getting stuck. I bawled my eyes out until my dad came and rescued me! On a recent trip back to the Old Country I took a walk down memory lane to see the old tree. To my great delight a fellow tree lover had built the most amazing tree house high up in the canopy. Turns out it was built in 2020 by my mum’s neighbours as a lockdown project. What a fabulous thing to do when there’s no school! I’m so pleased that the same tree I played in with my friends is providing fun and joy to a new generation.

Lockdown Treehouse

No surprise then that trees often feature in my work. Being amongst trees or making them is always a pleasure. I make fully abundant summer style trees and more delicately leaved winter versions. Copper lends itself so well to the aesthetics of trees, its natural colours echoing the warm tones of tree bark. The patinated Verdigris I use captures the verdant foliage particularly well too. A marriage made in heaven!

Click on the images above for ordering details.

Next time I’ll share photos and film of the making process…

Phew! January is in the bag and lighter days with spring bulbs are making an appearance.

As a jeweller its impossible to welcome February in without thinking of St Valentine’s Day. Such a problematic festival. All very well if you’re loved up but awful if you’re in the throws of unrequited love!

I did a bit of research to figure out where all this forced romance comes from. I’d been under the impression that its one of the Christian festivals that was tagged on to a much older Pagan rite. I expected to read about boxing spring hares, fertility rites and ‘Wicker Man’ style shenanigans. It turns out there are possible links to the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia which occurred in mid February. But it seems any link to St Valentines Day is tenuous. Lupercalia was rooted with an order of monks called the Luperci, so named because of their connections to Romulus and Remus and their wolf mother. The story itself is wild, involving animal sacrifice, blood and fertility rites. Good old Romans! Its a far cry from the hearts and flowers of our familiar St Valentine’s Day but may provide inspiration for a wolfie automata in the future…

So who was St Valentine? Again, there are different stories and at least 3 different Christian Saints named Valentine - all martyred! The one we’re probably after was put to death by Roman Emperor Claudius II when he was caught illicitly marrying young couples. The problem was that only single men could be drafted into the Roman army so a hasty marriage was often sought to avoid the ravages of a soldier’s life. Charming old Claudius outlawed marriage for young men and good old Saint Valentine took pity and did the honours in secret. His reward was to be put to death, poor chap.

Whatever the roots of this festival of romance its very much part of our culture now which makes it the perfect time to share a pictorial explanation of romantic automata making.

This heart inspired automata was one of my earliest designs. It's cut out of sheet copper and brass, with bits of tube and wire. The whole lot is heat treated, soldered and formed into an open box with a revolving heart (oh yes, be still my beating heart!) The base is an offcut of oak reclaimed from a local woodworking business (more on that another time). The brass box is treated with copper nitrate to give a dark base to a top layer of golden leaf. The mechanism is made of a cam cut from copper and soldered to the central winding tube. The cam sits below a follower, also made from a disc of copper. The movement relies on plain old friction to spin the heart around.

I also made a slightly different version based on an old childhood favourite - the Loveheart. Might be making more of these. Any ideas for text? I seem to remember ‘Oh Boy’ as well as the usual ‘Kiss Me’ and ‘Be Mine’. Did you know that Lovehearts now have emojis on them? Oh how times change!

Its been a while since I’ve added to my blog, apologies for the absence but its been for good reason. I’ve been busy working on new pieces and planning new strategies for my little micro business. You may need to bear with me whilst I organise a few changes to the website.

With the support of Cultivator Cornwall I’ve been working on a short film with film maker Florence Browne. We managed to choose a stunning day of autumn sunshine to film in my workshop and local area. Can’t wait to see the results - fingers crossed I can share the final cut on my website very soon.

On top of that I’m also making pieces for a photoshoot with fabulous photographer John Hersey. I’ll have a whole new collection of images to share with you in the not too distant future.

All these plans have got me thinking about what I do and why I do it. I’ve made an early new years resolution (yes - very early!) so I can share this with you on my blog. I’m planning on focusing on behind the scenes stories from the workshop. I do this already on Facebook and Instagram but I’ll be able to give you more detail here. Keep an eye out - you might just learn something!

Before I forget I should also let you know that I’m only doing one live Christmas event this year. I’ll be in Deveron village hall in Cornwall for Creek Arts Christmas Fair on December 4th. Hope you can make it along!

Meanwhile, orders and bespoke commissions continue coming in on the run up to Christmas. There’s a definite change in shopping habits going on with many people planning well ahead of the big day. Its gratifying to note that small businesses are being well supported in these tricky times so this is a good time to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you for showing an interest in my work. I really appreciate you reading this blog, browsing my website, following me on Instagram or Facebook (@esthersmithartist) and, of course, adding my pieces to your personal collection or your Christmas list!

Thanks for reading!