Magpie Mobile

MAGPIE MOBILE #1 (2023) – Belgium, France

In 2020 i did a (motionless) residence in the garden (here if you want to see), working with natural element present there and beginning a new set of exploration: in situ jewellery.
This spring 2023, i did a mobile residency, with a small version of my studio in a car: The Magpie Mobile. (see also next step in 2024 and 2025)
I shared my time between working in organic farm or garden and doing some jewellery project, between hands in the dirt and in the metal. And I did few interventions for places where i stayed.

Here some of my studio spaces, meet and greet material and a snapshot of the Mobile Magpie:

And what come out of it?

Grafiti / Pendant for a tree
The Girl and the Magpie | Pendant for a tree (wild intervention in Domaine de Chaumont sur Loire (Center for Arts and Nature / France)) | 2023 | brass and dry teasel flower | +/_ 47cmx15cm | Bench by Pablo Reinoso

A wild spontaneous intervention, graffiti style, in a park where arts and nature met: Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire.
An incredible place with a « three-fold identity » comprises a major historic and heritage site (the Château), new trends in global landscape design (the International Garden Festival) and in contemporary design (the Centre of Arts and Nature) as well as special commissions created on site.
The estate invites the world’s most renowned artists to explore and highlight the unique link between art and nature.

So I’m adding my unsolicited intervention among them, a small poetic piece that respects the environment where it’s included.

It is a brass setting for 3 dry teasel flowers that I’ve hooked on a plane tree in the middle of the Pré Goualoup. A precious setting for a unexpected fruit for this tree, for any fruit at all at this time of the year. A double and discreet shift. An ennobelement of a weed (teasel) now pendant of a noble tree.
I chose a tree in the middle of this part of the park: with no official access but plenty of paths cut through the wild grass. Discreet and connected, he stands alone in a meadow.

And next to him, a bench created by the sculptor Pablo Reinoso, who also designs some jewellery.
Still there? How long will it stay? if it stays there, how will it evolve? if you’re passing by, take a look for me and let me know…

Bird Steering (jewellery for a windows)

I’m welcomed by Piquemouche’s Farm (a farm of aromatic & medicinal plants and incredible people). Piquemouche is the nickname of a bird, perfect place for a Magpie to land…

First babies are the result of a request (making « something » to avoid the birds to bump in the glass – reflection sometimes deceiving them): a perfect job again for a Magpie …

When I arrive there, i fall in love with the dry Teasle (Dipsacus / Cardère in French), survivor from last year in the middle of exploding spring, full of possible with his (few) leftover seeds. From there I observed all these plants still there from last summer.
Also, the Teasle reflect the spirit of Piquemouche, growing in zone let more or less untouched to favorise the biodiversity. On the top, his name in english translated litteraly in french means herbal tea, what is one of the incredible products from the farm.
The first window jewellery is a solar structure (in his shape) where we can add any plant on it. First try was of course with Cardère/Taesel

The second version celebrate spring and use one of the bottle of the sweet natural cosmetic products of the Piquemouche farm.

And then just a wink to Piquemouche Farm who welcomed me: a precious container for bad weed…
A triple vase, planted in the middle of the aromatic garden and containing wild plants, usually considered as bad weed (needle, daisy, wild carot).
These plants, full of benefits for the health are used in the farm for cosmetic and culinair products (but collected in the wild, not allowed in the garden ).
The 3 glass containers used for cosmetic are here containing directly the plant
1 for each of the human who create these respectful place and one for the project, each of them with its gold halo.

Teasel Ring

One more piece done with this beautiful plant: the teasel (Dipsacus) called also Birds’ Cabaret in French.
An ephemeral ring, playing with the natural protective shape of the plant and the contrast of the temporality of materials. The central jewel will have to be re-emplace, knowing the plant is a biennial one…
The ring is a « togetherness » one (a double fingers one).

Travel Journal Jewel (Work in progress)

During this Magpie Mobile Residence, i begon a travel diary, a jewel one.
As you know maybe, the magpie of my name evokes the collection of shiny but not always precious things, a process at the base of my work. So i continue to do that, collecting what seems « shiny » to me in the places where I stayed, being a day or being a week…
They are memories of shared moments, nature, connecting vibes, most of all of people… Thanks to each and all of them.
And this is the work in progress of this piece, which didn’t found it’s final form yet. Maybe because the travel is not totally done?

Cosmic portal
The Girl and the Magpie | Cosmic portal in La Porte (France) (Work in progress) | 2023 | Brass, local clay | variable dimension

My last stop was in La Porte (meaning « the door » in French), a small hamelet in France. I went there already years ago and made a mold, then a cast of a piece of the door of a barn of La Porte, a family transmission of one of my long time friend.
Now the door is re-emplaced but the beautiful old oak wood is still there. This year i brough it back, with the intention to include it back somewhere someway in the « house in the making » it’s coming from.
But that was not yet the moment.
So, instead, I include a small unpretentious symbolic tribute/ souvenir for my friends living there: a cosmic portal, to go directly in the stars or travel anywhere needed… a constellation of brass bubbles in the door embrasure, fixed with local clay traditionnally used for masonry.
Another door in La Porte.

MAGPIE MOBILE #2 (2024) – Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal

From a place to a piece: Magpie Mobile Saison 2, On the road again for the second year, little mobile residence…

A project from the mobile studio: 3 months on the road in Europe, (Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal), some kilometers, incredible places, great encounters (human and non-human), a lot of inspiration, a big break, some collects, only few visible works

Nomadic love to you

(You want to see precedent and next step? Saison #1 – 2023 // Saison #3 – 2025)

MAGPIE MOBILE #3 (2025) – Belgium, France, Ireland

The third step of my mobile studio bring me to Ireland. My idea, based on last year experience, was to settle the studio on the collect spot to work there, in the landscape. Irish weather forced me to adapt along the way…

Perhaps after living in Jamaica for so long, I forgot what changing weather is like. Above all, I didn’t understood what people meant when they told me that the weather changes quickly in Ireland, because they say the same thing about Belgium. It’s just 2 very different riddims.
In Ireland, the weather doesn’t change changes every half day but every 15 minutes (and that’s not just a figure of speech): the wind blows hard on the coast, calms down, comes back, the rain (real rain) comes and goes, with a lot of magical rainbows. Difficult to work outside with a torch.

Since I couldn’t set up my workshop in the incredible Irish landscapes, the coastal landscape became the workshop for ephemeral pieces: necklaces for mermaids, made on the beach to let them come and collect them at high tide.

Here some of them …

See Magpie Mobile #1 (2023) and Magpie Mobile #2 (2024)