Val Muddyman

Val Muddyman’s body of work entitled ‘Tidelines’ is inspired by the seaweed she collects. She captures the textures of the organic material and the resulting jewellery is delicate and beautiful. She collects seaweed from the strandline around Devil’s Point or Wembury Point, near her home and she makes a point of only using materials that she has collected herself. This has become a key factor for change in her working practices as her environmental awareness has grown.

Val now works in a sustainable way using only recycled silver and her own glass ‘gems’ made by reworking sea glass. The glass had a former life, but now attains a different level of preciousness and beauty - the process creating droplets of colour which are either set or cast directly into the metal. Sometimes tiny glass elements escape the casting or wear away in use and this adds to the eroded ‘buried treasure’ look that Val so loves.

Val works in seaweed and wax, skilfully carving and constructing before sending items off to be cast or casting in sand in her studio. Val Muddyman graduated from Plymouth College of Art with a first in 2017.