Lindsey Gallacher

Much has been written and spoken about recently on the rising cost of silver in the media; the political landscape coupled with the new industrial demands for the material has created a perfect storm.  The leap in cost crept up slowly until the middle of 2025 and then pounced on jewellers right before Christmas.  Especially those, like me who have varying requirements of silver purchases which makes it more difficult to notice the rise as each purchase is slightly different in weight.  On top of that, I personally haven’t reassessed my prices since I initially calculated the costs for me to sell wholesale, when I attended Scotland’s Trade Fair at the SECC in 2024.  To work out the costs, I had carefully timed myself making various items in the workshop, then made the assumption that I could probably make more than one item in an hour, and priced accordingly.  The mistake I made at that point was not taking in to consideration the extra time it may take to cut an...

I’ve been told many times that my scratchboard art looks very like a woodcut print, and that’s because I tend to work quickly and use thicker lines than what you’d normally associate with the fine detail of traditional scratchboard.  So for Christmas, I asked for woodcut tools to start a new medium, another tool in my belt. I already work from the light so I hoped there wasn’t going to be a huge learning curve as I have found with other new projects in the past, this causes me to delay exploration knowing of the long road ahead, but there’s nothing like the excitement of new tools and materials! I’d ordered a small set of very fine Flexcut palm engravers starting at 1mm-2.5mm which would replicate the fine lines similar to my scratchboard drawings.  Drawing on inspiration from my visit to the quarry on Brims hill, I decided for my first woodcut to work from a photo of the dramatic cliffs looking towards Dunnet head and Hoy. The wood I used was lemonwood which I was recommended...

 January has appeared and I’ve decided to utilise blogger as a means to properly record my experiments, investigations and development of work.  It’s nice to get some feedback from Instagram stories but I’ve discovered by posting work by this means, I’m closing the ‘dopamine hit’ loop and often then work comes to a grinding halt. This way, I can still post, and it becomes a record of my work stage and I'm not distracted by how many people notice it and appreciate it. So, I’ll start by showing my samples of Canadian smocking which I had the urge to try back in the autumn, it turned out to be incredibly satisfying and I was very excited to try more. Immediately I found myself thinking about creating larger and/or smaller scale pieces. Dying, dipping in paint or ink. Using unusual materials like leather, plastic and velour - the material I find most difficult to handle! (pausing to consider sensory issues and what I could do with this) But more than anything I wanted to make wall...

 I took a small group of artists out for a sketchbook class one Sunday and we settled at John O’Groats harbour. Thankfully it was unseasonably warm which made the whole experience very pleasant for outdoor drawing in March (from this photo you will see we dressed for the expected temperature but we were able to sit comfortably for 2 hours) This is the north of Scotland after all, who doesn’t come dressed with woolly hats and fingerless gloves at this time of year! A collaboration between John O’groats Mill Trust and Lyth Art Centre funded the project. The aim, to offer an architectural tour around the newly refurbished mill and surrounding area.  The project was slightly behind schedule and therefore still technically a building site so we opted to not walk over to the mill as we’d have had to view it behind a tall fence at the path. It didn’t spoil our day though as we enjoyed tackling the colourful buildings of John O’groats with boats in the foreground.  The island vie...

 I’ve been working in a new project called ‘More Than A Half Life’ which deal with nuclear heritage and I have until the end of May to have it completed. One of the main strands I’m concentrating on is the route to work. Dounreay workers not only travel from all over the county but also travel up and down from the south every week. Last week I took my bike out to cover the last ten miles of the route to photograph aspects of the view that many had mentioned to be their favourite part of their journey to work. Below is a link where you can purchase many of my photographs https://lindseygallacher.shootproof.com/gallery/24080380/

 Having a studio open to the public and a workshop teaching jewellery making classes, I often have conversations with ladies who find it hard to get the right ring to fit over their knuckles, in most cases due to arthritis.  I had taken on commissions in the past when asked to make wide or chunky rings that fit over bigger knuckles, with stones on top, and found that due to the ring having to be bigger to go over the knuckle, coupled with the fact that you need to go up at least half a size for wider rings, the stone on top would never stay put and roll back and forth. These days, having learned from this, I now recommend that if you want to wear wider rings, you buy stacking rings and that way you can remove them one at a time from the finger, you can wear smaller sizes than wide bands and depending on the design you can mix and match the configuration to make it interesting. Here’s the rings I wear every day, I remade my original wedding band to incorporate a beach stone to ...

The inaugural Scottish Landscape Awards opening night at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, organised by The Scottish Arts Trust was a very special night for everyone. I for one was very proud to have two pieces shortlisted and just pleased to be included. We all felt part of something exciting and the exhibition work did not disappoint. I’m going to go back to Edinburgh to visit again, to read all the write ups for each piece which enhances the experience of such a diverse show, the catalogues are £15 and definitely worth buying.  The night was so overwhelming with a feast of creativity to absorb that I only scraped the surface and can’t wait to go back. My work ‘At The Junction To The Hill Of Forss’ was created on a handmade scratchboard using acrylic, then encaustic wax, then Indian ink, which as you can imagine is not an easy medium to cover wax. The ink had to be rubbed continuously until it ‘took’ then cured for 48 hours before scratching into it. The picture was created from ...

 It’s finally here! My creative urge that is. When lockdown happened and we had all the time in the world to be creative, I felt no desire to make or create and this continued for a long time.  My boys have flown the nest and there’s a spare room now, that helps. I have all my materials and I intend on using them, with the intention of it feeding back into my scratch art. So here are a few daily ‘sketches’ or creations that I’m excited to explore further -

 Another cancelled boat trip over to Stroma this weekend, I guess that’s to be expected at this time of year but I was hoping for a break in the weather having had tropical weather only a few weeks ago. I headed over to the east side to visit my favourite spot with friends instead. Berriedale has everything you’d want for a Sunday day out, a nice cafe, beautiful, quiet, sheltered scenery and a nice selection of stones to choose from. I took a few photos and went home to sketch them. I am trying to take real notice of what it is I like about my art and keep coming back to high contrast and monochromatic imagery. I want to add more colour into my work but having not taken art as a subject at school and had little formal tuition at Edinburgh College of Art before joining the jewellery department, I still have a lot to learn. In the meantime, drawing with small elements of colour will suffice. Another favourite image is this view, the approach to my house. My friend calls it ‘Ferm-core...