Inspirational Artisans
A WELL
CRAFTED LIFE...
'A Well Crafted Life' looks at the lives of Inspirational Artisans as they talk about their passion for their craft and the things that inspire them.
Suffolk based, multi award winning enameller and engraver, Phil Barnes (1952-2019), is the first Inspirational Artisan to appear in this feature. Here were his thoughts on his life and his craft…
wHAT SPARKED YOUR INITIAL INTEREST IN YOUR CRAFT?
My Dad, quite as simple as that. He was an enameller and engraver, more of a commercial enameller than I have become, but seeing him work, watching him in the workshop left its mark, so by the time it came to make a decision on a future career it didn’t take much thinking about. It would have always been something with my hands, along the creative line, being a stonemason went through my head for a while, but there again, carving and modelling stone isn’t a million miles away from carving and modelling silver.
wHERE DO YOU DRAW YOUR INSPIRATION FROM?
It is no one thing, it is everywhere. Who knows, it may be a piece of packaging in a supermarket or, like one of my most recent pieces, while walking the dog along a beach near my home in Suffolk.
Another very productive time always seems to come when you are asleep or in bed! You often wake up and seem to have an idea or a way of solving a problem, a good excuse to stay in bed!
wHAT's a typical day for you?
I’m not the fastest of people to wake up, never have been, so a slow cup of tea to start the day, often in front of the computer looking at emails. One good thing about having the workshop at home is there’s no travelling. A lot of my life
had been getting up, crossing London, driving to and from work, but now a
quick walk down the stairs is as about as far as I have to go.
I try and work to a plan, not to the clock, but I will give myself an amount of work I would like to achieve that day, or reach a certain point that is a good place to stop. When enamelling a piece it will mean early starts and late nights while I still have my colours prepared.
Time is flexible, another good point about working from home, but I do stop around lunch time, the main reason is to walk my dog Alfie. Not only is this good for him, but good for me too, it makes me stop work for a while get out, stretch the legs, and eyes! Some people I know have problems with working from home, I don’t find that, on the contrary, often it’s a case of stopping. It’s very easy to “Just do a little bit more”.
Generally I start work around 8:30 and aim to finish by about 6:30/7:00 and work often goes into the weekend, well if it’s pouring with rain outside, what’s better than to be in a nice warm studio just playing!
wHAT ASPECT OF YOUR CRAFT GIVES YOU MOST PLEASURE?
It’s that time when the piece just comes out of the kiln, the kiln is running at a temperature of 1000°C so all you see is that rich ruby glow with the colours bearing no relation to what you expect, but as it cools, the piece changes in front of your eyes and eventually transforms into what you imagined. I must have fired thousands and thousands of times but it still gets me.
wHAT has been your most exciting moment since becoming a craftsman?
Winning the Jacques Cartier 'Craftsman of the Year' was pretty good, but I was nineteen then and that was quite a time ago!
wHAT has been your most CHALLENGING COMMISSION?
A lot of my working life was spent as a freelance enameller, it has only been in the last few years that I have concentrated solely on my own work. Over the years I have worked on some very intricate pieces, from restoring Fabergé pieces to working on pieces for our Queen and many other heads of state throughout the world. Often the challenging thing is to interpret the designer’s idea and get across exactly what they want and echo their style, larger pieces are often sold on the design only, so there is no room for interpretation and meeting those requirements can be a challenge.
wHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE PIECE?
Probably the one I’m going to start next! Pieces are a bit like your children, can you say you like one more than the other? There are pieces that you think have worked better, have got closer to your original idea, closer to that picture in your head, but I don’t think I have a favourite. The next piece you are going to start is that new clean blank piece of paper, this could be the piece that you will be 100% happy with, something we all want to achieve, but there is always that “Could have got that section a bit better” syndrome hanging over all of us, waiting to pounce!
do you think your craft has a secure future in the coming decades?
I’m sorry to say I don’t. My training came through as an apprentice, serving time and learning my craft, today those workshops do not exist, or at least if they do they are becoming very thin on the ground and probably in time will disappear.
There are enamellers coming through, but more the self-taught, or college based type. What gets missed out on is that passing on of generations of experience which has developed over many, many years. I have had three apprentices go through my workshop and only one to date is still involved with enamelling.
wHICH ARTISAN/ARTIST DO YOU MOST ADMIRE?
To pick one individual artist or craftsman is hard, but the ones I do admire are the ones from back in history. We take most things for- granted, just phone up a supplier, drop into a tool shop and pick up some more saw blades or a couple of drills, maybe a new file, just think what it must have been like having to make those before you could even start! As an enameller I work with a clean electric kiln, thermostatically controlled with amazing insulation, I can’t imagine the problems enamellers of the past would have had to deal with, but still they came up with some excellent pieces. Next time you visit a museum bear this in mind when you take in their work and give them a thought.
what advice would you give to someone considering starting a career as a designer maker?
My advice would be split, on one side, go for it, doing a job that hopefully you will love is not work, I believe I get paid for playing every day! If you are creative, there is no substitute.
The other side to my answer would be it can be tough, we will never be paid fortunes for our labours (granted there will always be the odd exception) so don’t go into it if money is your main aim. Also what we have to sell is one of those commodities that people don’t really need, we just make pretty things, but we do make things that make people happy, things that satisfy something in people and that can’t be a bad thing.
We may not be the wealthiest of people in the world but we do leave behind our mark, and if you look around any museum, what is left by previous generations is their art, their creations, so we are just a continuation of that line.