My hollyhock came as a surprise even to me, because I should really have been making other things; but the idea came to me, and I needed a break to make something new… and then couldn’t stop until I’d finished it! There is a great deal of detail here, when you look at it closely. 170cm tall, it has buds of flowers to come, the bold open trumpets of the current blooms, and the folded-in past flowers beginning to form their seed-fruit. The leaves are big leathery hands, a new shape for me. Overall, I’m very pleased with the result.

The strong colour is not any sort of surface coating; it is caused by heating the copper to particular temperatures and then quenching. The piece is then lacquered, excluding air, so that the colours will remain as you see them.

£2,850