Jess Wheeler’s small stone farmhouse sits beyond the tiny village of Llansilin, tucked between ‘English foothills to the south, and Welsh Berwyn Mountains to the north’. The remoteness is somehow liberating, and nature’s omnipresence artistically powerful. ‘Living remotely breeds a kind of eccentric maker; craftspeople with a deep connection to their surroundings,’ explains metalsmith, Jess, who joins an artistic throng of local carpenters, painters, illustrators, fabric dyers and natural-dye printmakers inspired by the landscape’s beauty.
Taking a leaf, literally, out of nature, Jess crafts foliage and flowers from sheet-ribbon brass, deftly arranging them to create decorative and durable
