Ding-dong, bell.

Sometimes there is a sea change in the studio, 'into something rich and strange'.

THE INNER SIGHT was a big disappointment, and it caused a great deal of soul-searching and thinking back on my last few years of output.

I came to the realization that much of what I have made since my twins were born almost three years ago has suffered from a bit of an attention deficit (or should I say Traumatic Stress Disorder!). Because my studio time has been squeezed stressfully into my childcare regime, I have not had the brainspace necessary to explore the inspiring avenues that were opening to me in the wake of my Macleay Museum studies. I was also neglecting to rummage properly through my materials, and in doing so I was often on auto-pilot - this eliminated the joyful discovery process that is so central to working with found materials. No wonder I was feeling dissatisfied.

Perhaps simply stating that fact to myself broke the spell. THE INNER SIGHT out of my mind, I set my outer sights on creating the kind of work that speaks to those impulses that had consumed me before the children arrived. And out of the ashes rose "THE AERIAL OCEAN (MAY IT WATCH OVER YOU)", a double-sided swiveling neckpiece that coalesced alchemically in the studio. It was easily the most thrilling time I've had making artwork in the last three years, and will be my own personal talisman. I will be going into the studio to photograph it properly later today.

What a note to close the studio for a month on. I know that I will return after my teaching travels energized with these revelations.

(A small postscript: this is also the first piece to feature my first glass bead! It doesn't shout out, but it can be seen where the chain joins just over the top of the pendant, nestled in the 'frame' of links.)