Meet the maker Pip Robinson

It all began with a pack of Bronze Clay, I was fascinated by the idea that a 'clay' could be fired and actually become a solid metal. I was equally as fascinated (or should that be perplexed) by the fact that things weren't always as simple as they sounded and after a lot of experimentation and failed firings, I finally had a firing schedule that gave me repeatable success with bronze, after which I started all over again with Copper Clays before adding Silver in the forms of PMC fine and sterling silver and Art Clay Silver.

I am inspired by nature, the seasons, the unexpected. I love working with mixed metals, I adore the warmth of copper set against fine .999 or sterling .925 silver. Organic forms, colour and texture delight me and I love the possibilities that shimmering metals, semi precious stones and even stones or small shells picked up from the beach, or the fen around where I live, can bring to my work.

I have no set format to the way I work, I am completely random, eclectic and free form in the way I do things. I tend to draw my designs only after I have completed them and this only so I can remind myself what went into a piece. I've tried drawing designs before I start working on a piece but my creative mind will not work to that kind of standardisation; it is not until I get the clay or a piece of wire in my hand that things start to take on a form and it's usually at that point that I decide what will become of it and what will go into it.

All my work is done in my cabin that sits looking onto our orchard on our farm in Norfolk, UK. We have a keen interest in creating biodiversity within the farmed environment and have busied ourselves in the past few years with reinstating hedgerows, woods and creating an 80 tree orchard of apples, pears and gage's on our farm in the fens, on the Norfolk/Cambridge border.