We are Jim and Irini

Self employed, freelance artists; working together for the past forty years. Our mission – to bring a sense of organic creativity into the regular daily life; both of our own and of the lives of others.

Our work is essentially sculptural; our subject focus the fusion of artwork with utility, and our primary challenge is to create functional items of an exceptional quality that serve to connect people with the world they live in: unique objects that have a life of their own, a value that goes beyond monetary, and will be treasured accordingly.

We are specialists in hand working techniques and have studied and practiced technologies relating to a spectrum of materials that range from precious metals through to basic materials like wood, leather, stone and plain earth.

We don’t do ‘cookie cutter’. Everything we make is a personalised and ‘one off’ product customised to practical needs and personality and we enjoy working closely with our clients knowing that the one on one relationship adds a very special dimension to the transaction, as much as to the finished product itself.

Living in the Garden

Through the last twenty years our efforts have been towards a project encompassing the concept of  ‘Creative Living Space’. This was ‘Living in the Garden’ and  involved the designing and building of a collection of houses in a remote and peaceful place, fit to offer an ideal environment for the purposes of creative retreat. This project has now reached fruition and is functioning as a residential arts center for artists, both amateur and professional, who now come from all over the world looking to find focus and inspiration in their writing, painting, composing, making………

Mostly everything in this series of pictures is an example of our own work in what was once an empty field. – Stone, salvaged wood, concrete, plants etc.

In the light of our many years of experience we now offer consultancy in organic house and landscape design on request. (Excavation Procedures – Building Materials – Landscape friendly building design- Sewage and Greywater systems-Biological gardening-)

Turning the page

The creation of ‘Living space’  has proved to be an enormously absorbing, if not sometimes exhausting medium and thankfully, the momentum has carried us to the point where we are now able to get up in the morning without having to think about building a wall, installing a floor or designing an extension.

Irini is happy, at least for the time being, with her hands full; caring for her animals and the needs of the visiting artists.

I on the other hand, am casting around for new projects. I am looking closely at the growing trends of online marketing and what it might all mean to any artist such as myself, whose work is rooted in traditional hand based technologies. Online i can talk directly with a potential customer anywhere in the world and arrange a one off commission, customised to  particular needs and specifications; payments are secure, shipping is trackable and there are guarrantees in place on both sides.

This is a radical new setting for an age old transaction and could turn out to be no less than a major ‘mould-breaker’, with far reaching implications for the world of arts and crafts.

No longer  dependent on middlemen, my profits can be maximised considerably, allowing me to devote far more time on a piece of work in hand without necessarily driving up the selling price. The result is that i am enabled to use techniques that were previously too time consuming to be cost effective; therefore presenting a new range of possibilities that in turn widen the scope of imagination. 

As a metalsmith, i am now less likely to cast my components in bulk and can afford the time to hand forge them as needed; adding extra dimension to the individual qualities of the finished piece.

This presents far reaching consequences for the evolution of handwork in general as traditional practices, eclipsed by the machine age and in danger of being swallowed by the resulting mass production, find an opportunity for revival; offering those who would value a different standard of quality, a solid alternative to cookie cutter consumerism and ephemeral fashion trends.

 It is no less than the answer to every artists dream of being able to work according to his natural capacity, without being oppressively limited by the marketplace. Added to which; the direct exchange of communication with the customer, the challenge of satisfying his particular desires and ultimately reaping his gratitude, contributes to a dimension far more valuable than simply ‘doing business’.