Claire Malet’s work is inspired by her surroundings, living and working in the British countryside. The details of the Herefordshire landscape and how they change throughout the year are reflected in the work.

That’s apparent in the seeming fragility of the pieces and her use of materials and colour and shows up in visual references to seed pods, twigs, bark, bare branches, shadows and shell fragments.

But what is even more interesting, and not so obvious, is what many of those materials actually are derived from and what using them represents. Claire is a metal artist and silversmith and while many of her pieces involve precious metals many are created from found items such as old steel food cans which she cuts, works, pierces and gilds.

She focuses on how people perceive value, especially in materials, by mixing precious silver and old steel cans in her work and yet treating both materials in the same way. And highlights the importance of considering transformation and re-use in an increasingly consumer-driven, throwaway society by taking a mass produced, discarded food can and turning it into something precious.

All images: © Claire Malet