This has been one hell of a project that seems more and more incredible the more I look back on it. The initial brief was fundamentally to sculpt one of Johnny Depp’s dreams. This is something I never would have dreamt I’d have the opportunity to do.

It started with someone buying some rings from me as gifts for Johnny. I’d recommended one of my dog rings as he had recently lost a dog who looked like my staffy ring, and I thought the sentimental touch would be more meaningful than one of my skull rings, which I guessed was the sort of thing people gave him all the time.

He liked the rings a lot, and I was asked to have a go at making a painting of his into a pendant. They were struggling to find someone who could get the vibe of the painting, which combined a figure with an incredibly confident posture, with the deliberately confused detailing of a half remembered dream, and freeform mark making that made me think of the expressionists. These are all things I’ve explored myself in my own art work, so I felt well placed to bring them into the project.

The dream itself is of a bunnyman that both Johnny and his son have dreamt of, and that he sees as a guardian spirit watching over them.

With only a weeks notice. So I had very little time to think about the prototypes, which I think was actually a huge help. They showed me some examples of things other people had designed as interpretations, but they seemed to be focussing far too much on crispness and not enough on character. I dove into the job without thinking too much and tried to use techniques that followed the style of the painting, deliberately leaving saw marks as I carved the figure from a hastily beaten out lump of silver. I used different gravers for each type of mark and kept everything in the exact shape and position of the painting, but kept my marks crude, and kept things ambiguous where needed. I also had to interpret the back, which led me to have to ask myself what kind of trousers Johnny Depp’s dream would wear.

When I finally met him I got to thank him for inspiring my facial hair, and he hugged me! Not many people get hugged by twice voted world’s sexiest man!

The art company Patheon went on to sell my design and I’ve since done a few more designs for Johnny.

I’d felt the figure needed some context and having him looking down on us from the never changing moon seemed appropriate for a guardian spirit. Johnny wears one with an oval diamond in the place of the largest crater at the base of the moon. I had a very surreal moment sending diamond positioning sketches to him through one of his managers that I was doing on my phone while at Rock Choir learning “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go”, which pushed my multitasking abilities.

It’s based on the Badge of the Order of the Holy Spirit worn by Louis XV, but with the dove replaced with “XV” in Johnny’s handwriting and a personal message stamped on the back.

He then commissioned me to make some gold ones for some close friends and family of Jeff’s. I hand engraved the original from a thick silver sheet. I got to push myself in terms of using gravers to relief sculpt a portrait, rather than just cutting lines. It became something between engraving, carving and portraiture, combining three of my favourite disciplines.

The design Johnny chose was of organic concentric circles, with a personalised message on the back. The pendant had to have a crude, beaten feel like a very old silver coin.

It has been an absolute joy and a fantastic opportunity to work with such a unique and creative artist.