Posts Tagged ‘craft’
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Craft overload?
September has been so jam packed with events, I felt it best to chart them from the beginning and work my way through!
From Skye to London via Inverness, I have seen work that has ranged from community knitting to dresses made from 20,000 pins, from exquisitely crafted jewellery to automata made from scrap.
Deirdre Nelson
Starting off in Portree in early September, the Bàta Brèagha / Bonnie Boat event and the Fish Exchange project saw the community create hundreds of knitted fish with Deirdre Nelson to raise funds for the RNLI; shop windows were filled with shoals for colourful silver darlings and £350 was raised at the auction on the 10th September. Visit the ATLAS Facebook page to see lots of the silver darlings which were produced as part of the Fish Exchange: www.facebook.com/atlasartpeopleplace
As Deirdre is also one of our mentors on Making Progress we took the opportunity to host a catch up meeting and exhibit work from some of our mentored makers in shop windows during a week which culminated in the Bonnie Boat event on the Saturday.
Craft Spotlight window in Portree, Sep 2011
Avril and I were then off to Helmsdale for 2 days of workshops with the Cultural Enterprise Office. Starting Out and Costing your Work gave us a chance to meet new makers and catch up with some established ones all in the inspiring setting of Timespan. It is always good at these events to network and make contacts and sometimes it feels that this is really what it is all about as we all know that being a maker in the Highlands can make you feel very isolated.
The noise level at lunchtime is always a good indication that things are going well!
No chance of peace and quiet at my next stop – London! Last year Origin relocated to Spitalfields market with a new date to coincide with the London Design Festival. Many makers were hesitant about the move and felt that the venue was not ideal. Not only that, the current economic climate makes taking on shows such as this a huge undertaking financially. In the good old days, makers could be confident that when they were selected for Origin they would go home having made lots of contacts, a full order book and having more than covered their costs.
Gilly Langton at Origin
Not any more, so it was with some trepidation that Gilly Langton and Eileen Gatt made the long journey on the sleeper train laden with work. Luckily for them it proved worthwhile and it was a real pleasure to see that their hard work had paid off. They both proved that having good images of your pieces, exquisitely crafted work and a beautifully designed stand are worth it – both were featured in the catalogue with Gilly’s image on the front cover and on all the posters!
Whilst in London I took the opportunity to visit Tent and 100% Design, both shows on a large scale featuring work that covered product design from small makers to large businesses.
Eileen Gatt at Origin
A real treat was to see the Power of Making at the V&A. I always love going to the V&A even when there are not large exhibitions on and this time I could only fit in the one visit.
45 minutes waiting in a queue to get in tested my patience but I consoled myself that it was really impressive that so many people were interested in seeing a craft exhibition! The 100 pieces celebrate the role of making in our lives and present an eclectic range from a life sized crochet bear, dry stone walling to new technologies.
Entrance to the V & A
I would like to go back when it was hopefully quieter as being herded round in a crowd was not ideal but at least I got the chance to view this inspirational show!
To complete my London trip I managed to go to the Royal Academy to see the stunning Degas exhibition, just to immerse oneself in the colour and line was a tonic after all the running around.
Home to the Highlands (always the best bit about going to London no matter what I have been to see!) and the change in weather was a shock but there was no let up in my travelling.
The Ganseyfest was an international celebration of the fishing heritage and gansey, the beautifully crafted patterned sweaters worn by fishermen. The Moray Firth Partnership is running a three year project focusing on the tradition of hand knitting in fishing communities and researching ways to introduce the craft to new audiences. This has included showing work at London Fashion Week and to forming a cooperative knitting group.
The two day event took place in Inverness on the 1st and 2nd October and was feast for both the enthusiast and the general public.
Helen Lockhart at Ganseyfest
Ganseyfest
Finally, Inverness Museum and Art Gallery completed my month by showing part of Lizzie Farey’s beautiful Spirit of Air exhibition alongside the amazing Sharmanka show of automata.
Work by Lizzie Farey
So 4 weeks of inspiration, innovation, exhaustion, many miles and many words.
Seeing such a range of work in such a short space of time really brings home the amazing work that can be called Craft by no other name. Craft overload? There is no such thing!
Enjoy it all when you can, here or further afield!
Pamela Conacher
5th October 2011 -
Selling the Sizzle
On the first hot and sunny day for several weeks makers came from far and wide to listen to inspirational speakers for our summer event in Inverness.
‘Selling the Sizzle’ was Tina Rose’s suggestion for a title and it seemed very appropriate,and all the more so, as the day progressed and each speaker had another tale to tell about how they go about selling work. We were certainly feeling the sizzle by the end of the day!
To get things started our keynote speakers were Professor Georgina Follet and Dr Louise Valentine who outlined the exciting plans for the V&A at Dundee and what this will mean to makers and designers. To have this amazing resource in Scotland as soon as 2015 is a huge undertaking but with support, funding and the drive of a focused team is seems it will happen – I for one can’t wait.
Selling the Sizzle, Dr Louise Valentine and Melanie Muir
Deirdre Neilson is a name that is familiar to many of us -as artist in resident, mentor and textile artist extraordinaire but her talk was about how she has completely embraced all the new Social Media to promote her work. If everyone was not Tweeting by the end of the day they should be!
Then to get everyone talking we had a first – Speedcraft! The brainchild of Tina with assistance from Carol, it was a brilliant way to get people talking about their work, making new contacts and exchanging ideas.
In the afternoon we continued our theme with four speakers each with a different approach to retailing.
Maggie Broadly from West Kilbride and Craft Town Scotland, Steph Marsden from Edinburgh’s Craft House Concept, Emma Blain from the Shetland group Text- Isles and finally Carrie and Clare from Made in the Shade in Glasgow.
The day was aimed at getting makers and retailers to look at new ways of selling, to inspire and enthuse! We certainly did that and I don’t think I have seen such an animated group of makers in one place for a long time.
Selling the Sizzle
Our event was another of HI-Arts Crafts promotions to support the sector in developing their work and to assist them to find new markets.
Through our Mentoring to Market programme makers have researched shows from Origin to Country Living.We took a group to London and Craft Central in May to showcase their work and then another group headed to Germany and EU-inqe trade and retail show. All have come back with similar tales of declining sales, the huge costs of exhibiting and all through no fault of the organisers or the quality of work on show. The public seem to love their work but very few are buying.
So where do we go from here? Are the days of trade and retail shows over as makers are getting less and less keen to commit to the outlay with no guarantee of sales?
I personally feel that the time is ripe to look at new ways of selling and to be creative with your approach.
Use social media to promote, think local and niche events, look at new customers in areas you may not have considered, get together with like minded makers for pop up shops and party events, be as imaginative as you can. And when the economic storm has passed – as it eventually will – you will be ready to take on the world!
Whatever you do, if your work means anything to you, you must not give up but see change as a new and exciting opportunity.
Pamela Conacher 8th June 2011
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Time Out
Cove Park
Time Out
This is the time of year when many of us try to take a break and escape from our usual routine by relaxing with family and friends, hoping to return refreshed and inspired.
How many of us devote that same attention to our working practice and take time away to consider the direction we are going, the work we are creating and engage in conversations that push our ideas?
Many consider this an indulgence that we are too busy to address and this is understandable when bills need to be paid, families cared for and life to be pursued.
Having the luxury of spending time to reflect alone or with like minded people, to assess and develop your work and to really take time away from daily life (including family!) can be so beneficial.
We are delighted to be offering two Highland Craft residencies at Cove Park this year (through Rural Innovation Funding) and hope to do the same next year. We will watch and wait to see how our makers enjoy and benefit from the experience but I am confident that they will return inspired!
Cove Park is an international arts residency centre that allows artists working in all forms to undertake research, develop new project and take time away from ‘normal’ life.
All the artists I have spoken with who have participated in Cove’s unique programme say that it is an incredible experience and one they look back on as a defining moment in their creative practice.
Places like this are so important and should be an essential part of any professional creative person’s development!
Perhaps those who are not so fortunate to be able to visit Cove Park should take note and build in time their diaries to take a break away from the day to day and to take time in a new location to concentrate on how their work is progressing.
A sort of business and creative health check!
Even events like Makers Days, exhibitions and trips to conferences can have the same effect – we are still counting the benefits from our Makers trip to Orkney last year, our visit to Stroud and countless makers’ visits through our Go and See and Makers Awards funding.
So please don’t make it an indulgence and make it essential! I look forward to hearing from you with your success stories.
Pamela
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Assemble
AssembleOn Tuesday I was in a very hot London for the Craft Council Conference, Assemble. Set in the lovely surroundings of LSO St Lukes, I had high expectations for the day, hoping to come home inspired and informed!
The Craft Council used the conference to launch research papers as well as the giving us opportunity to debate economic innovation and the social value of craft in the new economy.
I was fortunate to have Gilly Langton from Plockton with me (she had been funded through our Go and See programme, see her report http://www.hi-arts.co.uk/Crafts/go-and-see-visits-reports.htm) as I did not spot many other familiar faces. It is a pity, as one of the reasons for going to conferences is the opportunity to catch up with colleagues as well as making new connections!
Although the Craft Council is billed as the national development agency for contemporary craft in the UK, I do find the London- centric slant of their programmes irritating. Every time they say that they are rolling out a programme for the UK I feel like saying ‘but not Scotland’ as whenever I have approached them about projects I would think could benefit our makers I have been told that they are only for England. Fair enough, as they are funded by Art Council England, but they should not say the UK when it is clearly not the case!
Saying that, we do benefit from some of their programmes such as the work we have borrowed from their Collection for our exhibition, Made it – but it is very unusual for this to happen and certainly the first time work from their collection has been in the Highlands.
As the day progressed I tried to make sense of what was being discussed and how it relates to the work we do here in the Highlands. So much talk of digital media and making sure we embrace it or we will be left behind! Possibly all true, but I do worry about the time and energy all this takes and how we are in danger of moving away from what craftspeople do –making beautiful objects with their hands- and hope we will not be left with makers with amazing skills in digital media who can throw a wonderful virtual pot but when faced with real clay are unable to do anything with it!
I trust not and do have faith that makers are practical, realistic and love what they do, realising the huge importance of creating with your hands especially in these difficult economic times.
By the end of the day I felt frustrated that I had heard so much before and that no clear idea of a way forward was being suggested, perhaps it was the heat but I felt the audience was not really engaging with the conversation and that it was a missed opportunity.
However, as always it is important to go to events such as this, especially when you live in the Highlands, as it is too easy to get complacent about the work you do and forget about the rest of the world. Even if one comes away feeling slightly disappointed, there will still be benefits, even if they are just to confirm that we are on the right track here!
As Gilly and I agreed on the train home, the best bit about going to London is getting the sleeper and waking up the next morning in the Highlands knowing that what we are doing is right for us in our area and that we are so privileged to be able to do this in such an inspirational place!
Pamela Conacher
24th June 2010
www.assemble.org.uk www.craftscouncil.org.uk
http://craftresearch.blogspot.com/2010/06/assemble-london-session-1.html
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Making Progress
Eileen Gatt, beaker
On the 4th June we had our afternoon event to Celebrate Craft and our Mentoring Project, Making Progress. It also saw the opening of our exhibitions, Made It! and Laura West’s Spotlight.
As promised, the sun shone, tasty food, refreshing fizz and good conversation was in order!
As part of the mentoring project makers have to curate their own spotlight exhibition and Laura was our second maker to go through this process.
Our Spotlight makers have very rarely experienced installing an exhibition, so it can be a daunting prospect. However, the pleasure in seeing your work as a whole, having positive comment on it from the public and breathing a sigh of relief as you realise that you really are making progress should make it all worth it!
For the public who view exhibitions, few have any idea of the huge amount of work that goes into getting an exhibition to the Private View stage.
From the initial idea, selecting work (and making it when you are the maker), getting it safely to the gallery, planning the layout, designing plinths and display material, making sure everything is all delivered on time and in the correct condition, labels, invites and posters designed- printed and sent out, lighting, security, Private view refreshments and finally installing it all and you then have to be in a fit condition to speak to your guests when it all opens!
With the short changeover time in galleries, you very rarely have the luxury of days of time and more likely it is 24 frantic hours of painting plinths, unpacking and hanging work. It always gets done in time, thought sometimes floors are being brushed as the visitors arrived!
Our exhibitions last week were no exception and we had the added stress of dealing with work from the Crafts Council Collection that had very stringent installation and handling requirements. Highland Council Exhibitions Unit have worked incredible hard to ensure that this exhibition has been given a professional and classy display that does the work justice. No easy task with limited resources and no access to the work until the last minute!
As the work was unpacked, the excitement mounted as one of the great joys of pulling an exhibition together where the work is of this calibre is seeing it insitu and realising that it is going to look amazing!
The Craft Council Collection work was selected by our makers and their mentors as work that has influenced them and seeing their work displayed alongside it, you can see this journey clearly.
For me, the greatest pleasure is seeing that our makers work sits on a level footing with the top makers work. A true indication of the quality here in the Highlands!
If you have not already been, please go and see for yourself. And as you view the exhibitions, remember the months of preparation that has gone into making it all look so wonderful!
Pamela Conacher
June 2010
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Travelling Makers
Our makers at Stroud, with Hazel and Pamela
Travelling Makers
From Shetland, Westray, Iona, Lochaber and Inverness, we arrived by trains, ferries, buses, taxis, planes and in some cases, all five!
Organising Highland invasions like this seems to be an integral part of my job and one I relish. By the very nature of our location, we usually work in isolation and although this can be wonderful a lot of the time, sometimes we need to get out of our comfort zone and look at the rest of the world. The chance to meet with like minded people, to discuss and plan, inspire and enthuse and then to return home exhausted with a head filled with new ideas, friendships and contacts is essential for those of us who live here.
Our group to attend the Stroud International Textile Festival was such a visit – all makers who were exhibiting as part of this year’s festival plus Hazel Hughson from Shetland Arts, Avril and myself from HI-Arts.
We were also going to see how we could be involved in the festival in coming years and to look at ways we could translate this to the Highlands.
Attending the festival was a great way to get our band of well travelled makers together and then to watch what happens as they realise that they are not alone in their struggles, that they have all to leave and organise their workshops, families and life. That wherever we live, we have similar needs and demands.
Where the Highland and Islands are different from most of the rest of the country is that we have serious transport issues to address; getting supplies, organising exhibitions, meeting other makers and organisations take on a whole new dimension when you have to deal with ferries,planes, weather and single track roads.
Our Stroud trip confirmed that this is something that people in other parts of the country have really no idea about. I heard one comment at our networking supper that seemed to sum this up, ‘Shetland, is that where they make Harris Tweed?!
Hazel usually takes out her map at this point and then shows the bemused person where Shetland sits in relation to the rest of the country, and when they also realise that the Highlands are a huge area geographically and I tell them that my commute to Inverness is a 5 hour round trip, they get some idea of the scale of the area we cover!
Perhaps this is why our makers work really demonstrates such a sense of place. Looking at our groups work at Made in the Highlands at Made in Stroud you are struck by the way the colours reflect our area, the quality is outstanding and the designs are contemporary but still retain the essence of our heritage, something that was commented on by so many people.
I hope by taking groups to other areas, our makers go home feeling less isolated and that the places and people they visit have a better understanding of where we come from and what we do. And best of all, I look forward to makers getting back in touch to tell me about their new plans and projects as a result of their trip!
Next week we are off to London and Collect with a new group, so watch this space for my update on that visit!
Pamela
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Taking Time
Tree in a vegetable garden by Paul Scott. Image Richard Batty
Taking Time
Taking the West Highland train home from Edinburgh takes around 6 hours compared to 3 ½ hours in the car. It is a spectacular journey in daylight and one I have done numerous times since childhood but more often I drive because taking 6 hours out of my life somehow seems wasteful. But sometimes you need a train journey to ponder, think and plan!
This week I travelled the journey at night so the views could not distract me and I had precious time to reflect. It seemed appropriate that I had just been to Innovative Craft and the Dovecot studios to view Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution. The exhibition considers how contemporary craft practice embraces similar values to those supported by the Slow Movement. Both think through where things are made and by whom and ask us to slow down, philosophically if not necessarily literally and to reflect on a more thoughtful way of doing things.
The work of the nineteen international makers in the exhibition invites you to question time and to perhaps try to forget about it for a while. Through their work and thinking they offer the chance to interact with and become immersed in time.
As David Gates says in the catalogue to accompany the exhibition ‘..time to think and reflect and to take thoughts on to the next piece, not necessarily slowly but as a mark in a continuum.’
Perhaps here in the Highlands we already embrace many of the values of taking time to make, having time to reflect and the sense and importance of place. Before it had the name of the Slow Movement, I always used to believe that this way of working was crucial to being a maker here! It takes time and commitment to live here, to travel to outside markets and events, to reflect on work and to develop it to a new level and direction. None of this can be hurried and it all happens in its own time.
A word on the work of IC: Innovative Craft and the exhibitions at the Dovecote Studios. Over the past year I have visited many times and encouraged others to do the same.
I am constantly amazed to be able to see exhibitions of such high calibre in Scotland and value their approach to challenging preconceptions about the boundaries between arts, craft, music and performance.
Showing at the same time as Taking Time is an outstanding show of contemporary silvermaking from Bishoplands, a centre for silversmithing which gives makers the time and space to become true professionals. As well as world renowned makers such as Malcolm Appleby and Adrian Hope the display has work from silversmiths now beginning to establish their careers such as Lin Cheung and Angela Cork.
The breadth and the standard of work is stunning.
So taking time out is important too; taking time to go to see exhibitions, to reflect and to come home inspired and enthused and ready for the next challenge. And taking the slow train can sometime be the best way to get home!
www.innovativecraft.co.uk www.dovecotstudios.com
Topics
Crafts Links
- Bishoplands Educational Trust
- Craft Central
- Craft Council
- CraftScotland
- Craftspace
- Dovecot Studios
- HI-Arts Crafts Development
- HI-Arts Making Progress Mentoring Scheme
- Innovative Crafts
- Stroud International Textile Festival
- Taking Time
- www.text-isles.com