Lindsey Gallacher

 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...

 I recently started the 8 day free taster course by Louise Fletcher and it’s been a revelation for me. I don’t say this lightly, I’ve been experimenting with different medium for years now to balance the pernickety scratchboard work that I do. And what I’ve noticed is I do something, like it, don’t do it again, and then try another material. I’ve been doing this for years and not really moving forward. What Louise said yesterday in the Q&A’s was that she feels insulted that people get annoyed at themselves when they can’t do a good painting they like after a week; does that mean they think successful artists find it easy, that they don’t put the work in; would you expect a doctor to be a good doctor after studying one term? From my point of view, I think I’ve been hard on myself for not making the new art that I want, using new medium finding it tricky and just put it off until I feel the inspiration. (That hasn’t come back since before lockdown 2019!) But today, I got up befor...

Are you looking for the perfect gift to give your fiance on your wedding day? Do you have a special place that means something to your both? Where you got engaged, your first holiday, your family's garden... I've been making jewellery incorporating customers stones for many year's now and it still feels special to me when I hand over a nicely polished pair of silver and stone cufflinks, or a pendant, ring or earrings.  It doesn't need to be a fabulous colourful pebble, I've made mudstone from the bottom of a loch look nice!   If you'd like me to make you a handcrafted, bespoke piece of jewellery for your wedding day, the process is very straight forward :- -      Send me an quick email to confirm details of what you want me to make, the date it's required by           and where to post it -      Post me your stone or pebble -      Payment will be requested once I've seen the stone and am confident ...

I found all these stones in the same spot, which is weird as the beach around the corner, just 1km away has a really boring selection with very little of interest in terms of variety. All the stones are very round including the large boulders, it’s a very nice place to visit. I’m not the only person to have picked up a shiny wet stone to marvel at the delicate white lines to pop it in my pocket and take home to add to the collection, only to find it has dried and turned a dusty, pale grey. Happily, after years of working with Caithness Flagstone and now, experimenting with beach and river pebbles, I have figured out a way to create a fine pendant that looks contemporary and isn’t just a stone with a hole in it. I can polish them up to regain their lustre that initially enticed me to pick it up.  Click here to buy I feel privileged to be tasked with the job or creating jewellery, whether it be cufflinks or pendants and stud earrings, from stone that holds such importance to my clien...

Minature pictures all for sale at Caithness Horizons christmas exhibition opening on thursday night 7th december at 5-7pm. All mounted and wrapped in a clear sleeve. Inly £15! For a special christmas gift from me to you.

This picture was created from a photo from The Johnston Collection in Wick. The famous photographer took many images over the years of various local people and scenes in Wick. I absolutely love the photos of female gutters at work. Just imagining the job they did cutting the salty herring in all weathers, I imagine they had to have a good sense of humour and good work ethics to put up with the discomfort. I find myself looking more to local history and wanting to develop a narrative in my work. It seems a good way to get value for money as a customer if you find and buy a picture that not only looks good but makes you think aswell.  Having something to go back to when you next look at the picture on your wall, giving you food for thought and an emotional connection, it makes you feel good about your purchase. It has been mentioned that my style of mark making is reminiscent of the old woodcut and illustrative work of the past. As I have said in past posts, my initial influe...

It's been a fantastic and busy year with Emergent Makers based in Inverness.  I applied for mentorship from them having spent so long away from the goings on in the contemporary craft world, I really needed some help to be pointed in the right direction, and this is exactly what I got. Friendly help, support and advice from a number of experts who came and helped us with various issues we were experiencing at different times of the year. This is the advert for our end of project exhibition now on at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery.  Me, Lucy Dunnachie, Jane McLeod, Lucy Macdonald, Rebecca Brown and Rebecca Cotton all live in the far reaching corners of the Highlands and Islands. We all have the same concerns about isolation in terms of access to contemporary craft groups, support and inspiration from other workers. We have all found our way this year through different routes, getting together in Inverness, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and at the end 4 out of the 6 met with...

I've always loved raising metal, some of my favourites pieces of work from college are vessels made of copper and silver, but I never went down the route of making pieces to sell as I felt that the initial expense of buying large amounts of silver was a real gamble when speculating whether there were buyers out there. I mean, there is always a jewellery buyer looking to purchase a present, but silver collectors are few and far between. So the other day I had an idea, which meant purchasing a very expensive drill bit and my first silversmithing stake. A real gamble on my part but I'm really glad I did. It just shows you how your gut feelings never let you down.

I've recently started using stratchboards to create artwork and have found them to be excellent for my way of working. I imagine after a while it would be easy to develop some kind of hand strain due to the method of using the tools, it would be good to know how to counteract this kind of problem. The top picture is of my Great Granny picking Groatie buckies after church at the harbour in John O'Groats in Caithness. The second is of an old Caithness croft with flagstone fencing in the foreground.

 I have been experimenting with the concept of using lichen covered stone.  It has been noted that lichen is a living thing and I've contemplated the problem with using it for my work for a while now.  This particular lichen is actually the very common Crabs Eye Lichen (Ochrolechia parella) It covers every piece of stone that exists in Caithness, there is as much of this lichen as heather on the hills or moss on the ground.  To protect the lichen from flaking off I have chosen to put a thin coating of resin over it and this has turned the white an interesting orangey yellow. What is of importance to me is that I don't go removing vital stones from the walls that surround the fields.  These walls have been here for hundreds of years, and the more I look at them the more I marvel at the shear scale of man power that went into building them. Hard graft and skill.  The walls have survived hundreds of years of powerful storms and sadly many of them are slowl...

I have been working super hard on creating a website that says this is me! So please take a look, you'll find pictures of Caithness in Scotland and my inspirations for my jewellery using Caithness stone   Lindsey Gallacher

This bracelet is not for the faint hearted but still very nice to wear.