As part of our ongoing Grow At Home programme of online talks with local artists, we welcome blacksmith and creative maker, Felicity Jones for a talk and interactive Q&A afterwards.
Felicity creates organic, flowing forms that intersect with an element of danger, taking inspiration from insects, plants, symmetry in nature and man-made artefacts such as vehicle parts and machinery. She uses a mixture of traditional and contemporary techniques to form modern art works with metal and other upcycled materials.
She works in iron, steel, stainless steel, aluminium and copper, creating both functional and sculptural pieces for the home, the garden, for narrow boats, exhibitions, festivals and for the public domain.
“I love the fact you can manipulate metals into almost any form while they keep their strength”, she says, “Through a hands-on, physical process you develop an intimate relationship with the piece you're working on”.
The preservation of the environment is also important to Felicity and she enjoys working with recycled metal and upcycles whenever possible. She likes to play with the shapes of disused old tools and motor parts to create interesting textures and forms in her pieces.
She has been lucky enough to collaborate with some of the UK’s leading large-scale metal artists including the Mutoid Waste Co with whom she created pieces as large as twenty-six metres wide for the main stage at Glastonbury. She has also worked on a project for the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert and was part of the team who built the large-scale installations for London’s Paralympic closing ceremony in 2012.
This event is part of the government’s Cultural Recovery Fund 2, administered by the Arts Council.
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. By 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish, and where every one of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. Between 2018 and 2022, we will invest £1.45 billion of public money from government and an estimated £860 million from the National Lottery to help deliver this vision.
Find out more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19
About Grow, Hackney
An Experiment in Ethical and Sustainable Business.
Grow is an independent and self-organised eco-system of studios and a creative space with bars and a kitchen, created out of an old sausage factory by the River Lea in Hackney Wick. We work in partnership with artists, musicians, DJ's and community groups and host a diverse programme of events, including: live jazz and blues, open deck reggae, workshops and talks and art/film festivals. Grow pays London Living Wage, uses eco-electricity, sources ethically and locally and is free entry, wherever possible. We currently serve a seasonal menu and range of drinks, including organic wines and prosecco, cocktails, homemade Hackney Spiced Rum, cask ale and also offer a range of soft drinks including Kompassion Kombucha, Rejuce, Charitea, tea and Union Coffee..
www.growhackney.co.uk / https://www.growhackneystudios.com/