I recently got involved with a creative exchange with artists in Fife - it's been organised by Fife Contemporary Art & Craft and at the artists forum that they ran earlier this year we all had to bring a shoebox of scrap from our studios. We handed them in and got someone else's shoebox in exchange.

The plan is that we all go back to our respective studios and create something wonderful from what we've recieved. My shoebox was full of coloured acrylic - rods of orange and green and flat pieces as well. There were also some dried clay pieces that looked like flowers and some sort of hinge.

I took all this on board and have gone down the route of using the flower and hing to influence the pieces I made - which ended up as daisy chain kind of structures. I cut discs from the coloured rods and made these into buttons [I didn't realise the obvious when I was doing this - I'm so button obsessed!]. The connections between the buttons were made from thin hammered and balled silver wire. I've just finished two separate neckalces, but thinking of exhibiting them as one pieces as they work really well together. All I need to do next is make some earrings to match. I'd love to make a bracelet too, but I've run out of coloured rods and also run out of time too.

Here are some pics:
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It's been a great project and I've really enjoyed it and I've learnt so much and really moved on with my skills I think. I can't wait to make some of these with vintage buttons.
You can find outmore by reading the related posts on my blog: http://www.milomade.co.uk/blog/tag/creative-exchange/