Posts Tagged ‘makers day’

  • A Proper Job

    Date: 2009.09.29 | Category: Crafts, Orkney | Response: 1

    The Orkney Ferry

    The Orkney Ferry

    Orkney has always been a place I hold dear and when we were planning a Makers’ Day that would bring together craftspeople from different areas of the Highlands and Islands I could think of nowhere better to hold it.

    With the wonderful Pier Art Centre in Stromness, the range of craft studios, trails and shops as well as the consistently high standard of work, the landscape and heritage, I felt that makers could only go home inspired.

    I also wanted makers to realise that location should be no deterrent to making and retailing and indeed, can be used as a selling point and should inspire your creating. The makers in Orkney have long proved this with a first class reputation for work that really takes advantage of the place that is their home.

    With makers such as Jenna and Lizza Hume returning back to their roots on Westray (1 ½ hours by ferry from Kirkwall on a calm day) and building an internationally known company that really sells their location, I felt that by speaking with and visiting the islands our makers based in other areas would have no excuse to say that where they stay is holding them back!

    Like all good plans, this one grew and we finally ended up with over 50 makers coming from the Highlands, Shetland, the Western Isles -as well as Orkney- to gather at the Pier and then disperse to workshops and shops all over the islands.

    The weather proved a challenge as it can often do here, so gales and driving rain added an extra dimension to the ferry and plane travel of many of the participants!

    Makers Days are all about networking or rather; catching up, exchanging ideas, making new friends and contacts, developing plans and this one was no exception – the noise level was particularly high and you could feel the buzz and excitement!

    Many people work in isolation so events like this really help with connecting you to the wider craft community.
    Being a maker in a remote area is essentially a life style choice with many parts making up the whole; family, animals, homes, community all having to fit in with the thing that really drives you -that all essential part that makes you tick and comes from your heart – creating your work.

    To be able to do that in a place that is truly Home is a privilege that many aspire to and the lucky ones can realise.
    Eoin Leonard put it so well when he talked on the Makers Day, ‘after 27 years doing a so called ‘proper job’, I feel that this is really my first Proper Job and I want to do it for as long as I can!’ No talk of early retirement and pension plans for Eoin and his wife Jane, just the wish that they can continue doing what they love, in their home for as long as they are physically capable.

    Lizza Hume said something similar when she recalled a visitor who asked her why there were so many craftspeople in Orkney and they then suggested that perhaps it was because there was no ‘real jobs’here!
    The makers we meet are certainly doing real and proper jobs and fitting them in with all the other things that make up their lives in a place that shapes and guides their choices and work.

    Many of us in the Highlands know only too well the difficulties and issues we have to face in choosing to live here – travel, weather, isolation to mention three!

    After my 2 hours on a stormy ferry followed by 6 hours of night time driving to get home from Orkney, it is something I know only too well!

    I love this excerpt from a poem by Andrew Greig, as it seems to sum it all up, especially after spending time in Orkney.

    Orkney/This Life

    This is where I want to live, close to where the heart gives out, ruined, perfected, an empty arch against the sky
    where birds fly through instead of prayers
    while in Hoy Sound the ferry’s engines thrum
    this life this life this life.

    Pamela Conacher
    29th September 2009

  • HI-Arts invasion of Mull

    Date: 2009.05.08 | Category: Argyll and the Islands, Crafts | Response: 0

    Frock Coat by Isle of Mull Weavers

    Frock Coat by Isle of Mull Weavers

    In the depth of winter, we planned a Makers Day with An Tobar on Mull.

    May would be lovely we agreed, as we battled against snow and gales and thought of spring, sunshine and calm seas! Little did we know that the Highland weather would do us proud, and yesterday we once more faced snow, gales and disrupted ferries!

    Not deterred, over 35 makers gathered in the comfortable surroundings of AnTobar and enjoyed a day of good company, delicious food, inspiring stories and enough information to keep everybody planning and thinking for many weeks to come.

    Mull has been a popular destination for HI-Arts staff this year. Indeed, if you have not been to Mull enquiries are made to your holiday plans with ‘are you going to Mull then?’ On Thursday both Avril and myself were there, John Saich came along as he is writing a feature for the website and Fiona Fisher just happened to be there on holiday with her parents so, in exchange for her lunch, she helped out – and on the drive in I passed Iain in the Screen Machine!

    This group approach obviously worked as participants at the makers day were left in no doubt as to what and who HI-Arts are – and putting faces to names always helps!

    Our Makers Days are a great opportunity for people who live in isolation and rarely meet up to do the all important networking – or blethering! I think we will need to extend our lunch break to two hours as the noise level just keeps on rising as people find out what friends and colleagues have been up to. I always think that this is really the essence of what the days are about and love it when people get back and let me know that, without the opportunity, they would never have heard about this exhibition, that supplier and a new retail outlet!

    Our Argyll day really was inspirational as our range of speakers brought home what it is to be a maker and live in this area – and why, despite the odds, we keep on doing it!

    Two talks by representatives of Art Map Argyll and Cowal Open Studios started the day off on a really positive note and is was so good to see groups using their own initiative and skills to really make a difference with very little outside intervention.

    Mhairi Killin’s very moving talk about how her life came full circle and brought her back to weaving silver and metal on Iona was a fitting end to the first half of the day.

    A practical workshop about setting up a website from Nicola Henderson followed the very tasty lunch and many participants benefited from hearing about how to successfully sell online.

    Alex from Mull Weavers really inspired us all by showing how chance meetings and journeys can lead to great things – and he had us all wanting to save up our money and buy a gorgeous coat made from organic tweed!(please see photo above)

    On the ferry back both Avril and I felt that the day was a tremendous success and the combination of wonderful surroundings, positive people- and Mull- was a winner! We will be back – and more than likely for our holidays too!

    Pamela
    8th May 2009

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