At the start of a new year, here is my very personal look back to 2016. My favourite exhibition last year was the ‘The Boldness of Alexander Calder’ at the Louisa Guinness Gallery in Conduit Street. The gallery exclusively deals in jewellery designed by artists, rather than jewellers.

Calder’s jewellery are large, expressive and mobile pieces, mostly made of cheap metals such as brass. He did some soldering but preferred using cold connections. I sketched a wire hook used on one of the very large pieces shown in the exhibition. All Calder did was drill a few holes, feed wire through the holes and form the wire into a hook and loop. Simplicity itself but very effective.

In 2017, I shall use Calder’s work as inspiration and work large – and with cold connections.