David Clarke is often cited as one of Britain's most highly innovative metalworkers. Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1997, Clarke has produced a wealth of covetable objects that have proven pivotal in the renaissance of contemporary British silversmithing. Clarke has a well-earned reputation for producing engaging, intelligent and challenging domestic objects. The aesthetic most often associated with Clarke's work relates to the subversive nature in which he responds to the entrenched traditions of metalworking, often taking it to surprising extremes. This willingness to experiment and play sets Clarke apart.

Alongside his own practice, Clarke has also been associate lecturer at Konstfack, Sweden, South-Carelian Polytechnic Lappeenranta, Finland, Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Norway, Pforzheim School of Design, Germany, The Royal College of Art, London, the Birmingham School of Jewellery, UK and the Rhode Island School of Design, USA. Clarke was awarded the Diploma of Excellence during Scmuck Germany 1998, was a short listed finalist of the Jerwood Prize for Metals in 2005. He received the Sotheby's Award in 2007 and in 2010 a winner of the Jerwood Contemporary Makers Prize.

Small Blue Budgies are part of a series of works that sees him combine pewter and porcelain to create very different versions of traditional porcelain figurines. Clarke typically purchases his figurines from eBay and these budgies were made by the Karl Ens Porcelain Factory in Thuringia, Germany. The slip cast ceramics act as a mould for Clarke and he pours molten pewter directly into the hollow form of the budgies. Due to the heat the ceramics rupture and crack, and aluminium foil packed around the ceramic ‘catches’ the explosion. What emerges from this uncontrollable process is a collision of molten metal and ceramic, creating unique and surprising results.