The initial chairs or aboriginal chairs as  like the call them were finished some time in early February, and since then the have been cut in half, sanded, dyed, coated in rubber and upholstered.

…all I need to sort out now is the layout for the exhibition.

Many of our projects address the need for our makers to get together; sometimes in a formal way through events such as Makers Days and at other times it just happens that the people involved hit it off and before we know it an informal group has emerged with very little intervention on our part!

Feeling isolated can be a real problem when you live and work in a remote area and anything that can be done to help with this is a really positive and essential aspect of the work we do.

Informal groups have sprung up from Makers Days, our visit to Stroud International Textile Festival, from our Making Progress mentoring project and many of the research visits we have arranged.

Emails and social networking go a long way but sometimes you can’t beat a good blether over tea (and cakes!).

Our latest visit to London and Craft Central brought this home once more.

Members of Craft Central are part of a network of UK makers who can rent studio space in two wonderful buildings in Clerkenwell and participate in many of the events organised there including Open Studio selling days and exhibitions as well as business support and workshops. For obvious reasons a large number of the makers live and work in London but some (and that includes several from Scotland) use the organisation as their London studio, giving them an affordable way of reaching new markets but also the opportunity to meet other members.

Makers that I spoke with said that having the support system of the others in studios near by is one of the most important aspects of membership.

Our makers don’t often have such a luxury so we need to do all we can to put our own systems in place.

Through our Mentoring to Market programme we are delighted to be able to now have the opportunity for our makers to become members of  Craft Central and to benefit from a London base, new contacts and networks.

We will be featuring more on this development on the website but it is one positive way of increasing our profile and gives our makers a chance to work together and with a new group of people.

As we stopped to take a break at the end of a hectic day – and yes more tea and cakes were involved – we reflected on how to make the very best of our London connections.

We are so fortunate to be based in an area that inspires and gives our makers’ work such a strong identity and now we can dip into city life and all the new opportunities that this will bring.

Throughout the next few months we will be strengthening our London links and in May 2011 we will be showing our makers work to this new audience with our Highland Showcase.

I can’t wait to see the results!

After such an inspiring trip it was back to battling snow, delayed trains, flights and the cold road home and the reality of the distances involved between  London and the Highlands. Hopefully we can do something to make this less even if we can’t control the travel aspect!

Pamela Conacher

November 2010

www.craftcentral.org.uk

On the 4^th 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

Collect

Our group visit last week was for makers who aspire to participate at Collect in the future. It was good to have a group who, once more spent time together catching up, discussing their own practice and wonderful to see them realise that their work is on a level with much that is on show.

Collect is very much about selling to a high end market and to be able to see work from all over the world in one place is a rare opportunity. As usual, after a day or night of travel much of the first day is spent absorbing the atmosphere, people watching, forgetting to eat, resting weary feet and being amazed by all that is on display and the prices people are happy to pay!

Visiting London is always hectic as you want to cram in as many exhibitions and gallery visits as you can in a short space of time, take that experience home with you and then digest it all in the relative peace and tranquillity of the Highlands!

Collect is constantly inspiring, sometimes amusing and occasionally disappointing. The majority of the work is exquisitely made and pushes the boundaries of what is perceived as Craft, reflected in the fact that the show is called the International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects.

To see work by makers who you have long admired is a real treat and one of my favourite occupations is to go round picking the work I would buy if I had unlimited funds. You find new makers, new work by makers you know and work that you do wonder ‘how on earth did that get in’! But generally the quality is of the very highest and the gallery stands beautifully displayed.

 Many red dots had appeared by the end of the Private View which goes to show that people are still buying; indeed both the Scottish Gallery and the National Craft Gallery, Ireland had sold most of their work by the end of the first day.

As well as our visit to Collect, our group visited several other galleries including the V&A and work at Fortnum and Mason ‘Handmade’. This display was really interesting as it was a selling exhibition in a very well known retail shop. Work from 50 makers was of the highest level and featured work for the home and in particular, food and dining. Many displays were on old tables so you could see and touch the work and it took away the gallery feel making it all more accessible.

It was a pleasure to see work by Tain based Glasstorm included as well as several makers from Cornwall that I had not come across before. I will be doing some more research as it is a wonderful way of retailing craft to an upmarket audience and an approach that is to be commended.

Once more, it struck me that so much can be achieved by getting makers together at events such as this. I personally value the time I get to discuss makers practice and problems as well as feel that relationships are strengthened and anything is possible with such strong and creative people working in the sector in the Highlands!

Pamela Conacher

17/05/10

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

www.bishoplands.co.uk       www.craftspace.co.uk

www.takingtime.org              www.tweave.co.uk