Frances Stachl 'Scuttle' - 25 July - 15 August 2020

Scuttle
Frances Stachl
25 July - 15 August 2020

Some of my first memories of jewellery are some spider and bug brooches my maternal grandmother had. I’ve always been mildly arachnophobic, but I loved those brooches. Perhaps because they were a static predictable well-behaved abstract spider. My agoraphobia is mostly limited to uncontrolled unexpected spiders, and I always worry I will squash their legs.

My spider brooches are different from Grandma’s, her ones were fabricated and had large jewelled bodies.
A couple of years ago a friend gave me the gift of a small antique bee/insect brooch.

Like my grandmother’s brooches, it enchanted me.
The idea of wearing a small friend at my collar line, or sometimes on my sleeve delighted me. My arachnophobia is about real live unpredictable spiders and doesn’t extend to jewelled representations.
 
I didn’t want to make copies of what I remembered my grandmother having, I wanted to make something that honoured that memory, but using my own visual language.
 
Wax is a good medium for this, it is a process I enjoy. I tend to be much more relaxed when I play with wax, it is a bit like plasticine.
I make lots of models and then select the ones that talk to me the most for casting.
 
The flies started out as a bit of a joke and became a short obsession. At one point they turned into mosquitos.
Frances Stachl, 2020

Join us to celebrate Frances latest exhibition this Saturday 25th July from 1-4pm.
Contact the gallery for further information and acquisitions.