About Helen

Hi

I have been making jewellery for many years- I studied at Loughborough College of Art back in 1975-78 for my degree and have been making jewellery ever since!

Working at home when my children were growing up and selling through craft fairs all over the country. More recently from my shop in Brixworth, Northampton that I had for 14 years.

But time catches up with us all and I decided to slow down, so I closed the shop and also moved to Scotland- where my family come from.

I now work from home in my workshop in Scotland and still love the process of creating unique pieces of jewellery. My passion is all the beautiful natural gemstones that I incorporate into my work. 

All my work is made one piece at a time, so although I have themes each piece is unique. Everyone varies a little or sometimes a lot! Designs evolve sometimes .

I hope you will like what I do, I love making it :)

Any questions please feel free to ask I am always open to ideas.

Ross was born in Loughborough, Leicestershire and grew up in a nearby village. From an early age he was a visual person, constantly looking for ways to improve the look of things from repainting his model car collection to a new colour scheme for his beloved bicycle. 

This lead to an interest in art and as a teenager spent a lot of free time drawing and experimenting with watercolours, oils, and pastels. Landscapes of rural Leicestershire became his favourite subject matter.  

Evening classes widened his abilities and at the age of 18 was taken on as an apprentice by a small commercial artwork studio in Leicester.  Here a knowledge of layout and typography were vital but accurate drawing and brushwork skills just as important (computers were yet to come). 

Having learned his trade he moved on to work in the studio of a large high street retailer where he worked on many seasonal displays destined for shop windows all over the country.  

In the 1990’s came the computer revolution which changed ways of working completely.  Having come to terms with the Apple Mac Ross became interested in combining traditional skills with the new 

technology of the day and by using photography and software to create digital art. 

Many visits over the years to the Isle of Bute where his wife’s parents lived revealed it’s fabulous landscapes, perfect for the photography and digital art he specialises in today.   .

My connection with Bute began in 1975 with a casual weekend stay.

My impression of the island was such that it started to change my outlook on life. Over the following years my wife and I returned to Bute more and more, and eventually we bought a wee holiday cottage.

I was born in Rochdale, Lancashire in 1944 and have always been very interested in art at school. Some how I always managed to come top of the art class lessons. I left school at 15 and my ambition was to become a Sign Writer. 

However, circumstances meant this was not to be, and I became an apprentice Spring Maker. At 21 a fellow apprentice and decided to leave the company and set up our own spring manufacturing facility. My time was totally directed to that business, but I always imagined some day I would make time available for my artistic 'bent'. 

After many struggles and a lot of hard work, we built a company of 150 employees and served a global market with high quality, precision springs. When I was 52 I was able to sell my share of the company and take early retirement. It was an easy decision to move to 'paradise' full time. We now reside at Battery Place and the large spring featured on our front doorstep is in memory of what helped to make it all possible. 

This property comes with an old Coach House at the rear, and my good friend, Tony Kane, and I have converted part of it into a working space for our creative aspirations and we've called it "Springtide Private Studio.

About 14 years ago, along with an old friend I met on the first day I stepped foot on the island, I started taking aerial photographs.

We did this by way of a 'kite' and a radio-controlled camera. After a few years I turned my attention to panoramic landscape photographs and produced a wide range of island scenes. I was able to produce framed pictures in various sizes in my studio at our previous  residence 'Woodlands' on Canada Hill.

Like many successful contemporary Scottish painters, Jim Wylie spent many years at the chalk face of secondary education. After graduating in Drawing and painting from Glasgow School of Art, he served as Principal teacher of Art at Kilmarnock Academy and also worked for SQA as Principal Assessor ofAdvanced Higher Art and Design. 

He resigned from teaching in 2001 to concentrate on painting, and his workmanlike, mature approach to his craft has led to an increasing demand for his superbly designed landscapes. These are
characterised by the use of strong, clean colour, and demonstrate a variety of techniques from skilfully controlled brushwork to bold palette knife application.

He takes a particular pride in the craftsmanship of his paintings, and this is apparent in the exciting compositions, in the unusual colour combinations, and in the care with which the paint is applied to the canvas.

I remember at Art School being told by my lecturer, Sinclair Thomson, that there were only five or six artists in the whole of Scotland making a living solely from painting. Certainly, it is true that most of the established artists of the 1960's were also teaching or lecturing. 

Now, affluence and changing public attitudes have made it easier for artists to prosper. Art education changed out of all recognition during my time as a teacher, introducing a high level of understanding of the visual arts while continuing to improve and develop a wide
range of skills. 

The Scottish art scene is vibrant as a result, and I am as surprised as / am delighted at my good fortune in being part of it. Wylie exhibits continually in a variety of private galleries across Scotland. He is a member of Paisley Art Institute and contributes regularly to the annual exhibition, where he has been awarded prizes on two occasions. He is also a member of the co-operative of established visual artists in the Glasgow Group, which was established in 1957, and is the oldest artists co-operative group in Scotland.