Week 3 - They see me rolling ~~~
Whilst I was back home, I came up with lots of ideas that I wanted to do as soon as I arrived in Athens. One of them was a play on the Möbius concept and seemed like the easiest one to start and to get back into the swing of things. I did a ring and bangle design and decided to anticlastic-ly raise for the bangle. To look at, I think it looks great. To wear, well, I have tiny wrists, and I made it with the average wrist size in mind. And the finish, so much fire stain!! 😭😭 I was really proud when I got it all nice and shiny using the polishing machine, but then all the dark areas appeared. So yeah…the start of the week wasn’t great.
We had a lot of visitors in the museum - because of school holidays - and so many people were interested in my argentium experiments, which I haven’t shown here yet, but I will soon. And it got me thinking about what piece I’ll donate to ILJM to commemorate my residency. It definitely has to be memorable, start the conversation and instantly connectable to me, and I think an argentium piece ticks all the boxes. Before I left Bishopsland, I made ingots with the argentium that I was gifted as a runner-up for the Jane Goodman Award. And since being at home, I haven’t been able to refine them as I don’t own the proper tools, but here at the metalsmithing workshop, there is an electric rolling mill. I have fallen in love 😍. It literally takes all the hard work out of it and saves so much time. I am going to miss it so much when I leave. So yes, I have something with argentium in mind, and it made for a positive note to end the week.
This week, there is a holiday called Clean Monday, which follows the Greek Carnival season and is the start of the 40 days before Easter, and people celebrate by only eating seafood, no meat. I went to Piraeus, which is east of Athens and is a harbour town, and I personally had a reset by chilling by the water, breathing in the fresh sea air and basking in the sun. As well as eating typical foods for Clean Monday, such as lagana (a flat bread coated in sesame seeds), fava (a yellow split pea puree and topped with caramelised onions and sundried tomatoes), marinated octopus, and halva, which is a nutty dessert.
24 Feb 2026
