Natalie Vardey

I’ve been trawling through boxes of transparencies, old images,  and design books in preparation for a short presentation I’m giving with 4 other Spring Fling artists under the umbrella title ‘Looking Out, Looking In. ( http://www.spring-fling.co.uk/shop/looking-in-looking-out-lectures-1-memory) The theme for our evening is Memory. I thought I could prepare for this over a couple of evenings. Ha! It’s much, much more difficult than I anticipated.  Digging further back than necessary I have, of course, got side-tracked by memories…

I’m marvelling at the range of work I made in the years when I lived on Eigg and worked here, literally at the edge of the beach, with no power (actually that wasn’t unusual as there was no mains, and not many had generators). I had a gas light and heater, and everything was hand drilled and hand polished. As with all aspects of life there, the elements dictated many things: no fiddly soldering could be done when the wind blew (the walls ‘gave’), I cooked in the sun when the wind didn’t, and swept sand off my bench regularly.  I began to really appreciate and understand the skill and patience of jewellers of the past.

This is a 3 colour 18ct gold ivy leaf wedding ring I made during that time. It had pierced- out details on the inside which were only visible to the wearer.

Eigg is a beautiful island, just celebrating 15yrs since its community buy out. It is now internationally known for being 100% self sufficient in renewable energy, amongst other progressive things. It was (and is) an amazing place to live and work.