Banks' Mill Open Studios Weekend

Well I have finally made it to a Banks' Mill open studios weekend....it's taken me four years, but it was well worth the few hours we spent exploring the four floors of creative businesses.

Highlights for me included:
David Booth's paintings and sculpture, especially ones made using thousands of balloons, working with balloons myself. Rebecca Morledge's detailed illustrations of local places and last but not least Rachel Emmerson's enameled jewellery, which has a particular significance for me as she made our wedding rings......one of which is to be made again after finding a new home at the bottom of the ocean.

Other purchases included:a print from Karate Grafika Ltd and a great necklace from Lisa Gibson. Keep this quiet though, because they are Chrissie pressies...

New Blog

Have you noticed the slight change to my blog? I have decided to use blogger so that my blog is more searchable. You may notice all of the previous posts are dated close together. This is because I have copied the content from my old blog to this one. The previous posts are from the past seven months. Now I just need to place it on my website....fingers crossed.

Hopefully know, I will be able to blog a little more often than I have previously....watch this space.

Commission Piece

Have been busy completing a commission piece that was needed for last weekend. The piece was to be a wedding present and the customer wanted the happy couple to be in the background image. I used the photograph I was given to create the background and a piece of the driftwood that I brought back from Greece. The sculpture is a new form I've not used before, but the customer felt it reminded them of a seagull, so this fitted in well with the harbour scene. This is the first real commission I have had to do and was a good experience. It highlighted some things to consider for the future. The finished piece is below, hope they liked it.

Temporary Stop

Wanted to have some prints or sketches ready for Bakewell Craft and Gift Fair this weekend, so have been going back to the drawing board so to speak. While it's been too wet for me to work outside today, I thought I'd do some studies of my work to date. These are a few sketches from 'Temporary Stop.' More coming soon.

 

   

'Temporary Stop' studies in pastel and charcoal

2 exhibitions, a first class degree and a bird perched in a treetop!

Well, it's been a busy month (and a bit) since my last post. Following a relatively quiet week at the degree show, it was straight back to work preparing for Earth and Fire (Rufford) and New Designers. Having only made two pieces of work in ceramic for my degree show, it meant a hectic couple of weeks getting work ready for Rufford, but I managed it and was pleased with the new work I made. A few examples below.

                    

'Perched in the Treetops'

'The Walker'

    
   'Perching in the Landscape'
       

I really enjoyed Earth and Fire and received some good feedback, but no time to stop and think, the following day we were loading the van for new designers. It was a long week, but good practice for standing on a stall for several days. I again had some nice feedback and got a couple of good leads. These included an application for the Xmas Market at The Harley Gallery, Worksop and interest from the RBSA Gallery, Birmingham who are having an exhbition around the theme of Birds in the spring.
So things were going well, then finally comfirmation of our final grades and degree....I got a first class, yippeee! Still hasn't sunk in. By this time I was ready for a holiday...two weeks in Greece did the trick. Now even though I thought I had totally switched off, when I came across this great beech full of driftwood ( and a whole load of other rubbish) I felt like I'd found hidden treasure. But how was I going to get it back to the UK? Well, my suitcase was full to the brim and I'm look forward to using it in my new work.

    
'driftwood galore on a secluded beach in Lesbos'

So watch this space as I start to prepare for Bakewell Craft and Gift fair over the Bank Holiday weekend. Then I will be exhibiting at the Melbourne Festival in September, which I'm really looking forward to. I am exhibiting along with artist Stuart Hill in one of the host venues.

Degree Show June 2010

Well the degree show private view has come and gone. All the hard work was worth it though. It was great to see so many friends and family, so thank you to them for their support. The feedback I recieved from my work was very useful and I will be taking this on board as I start preparing new work next week in preparation for new designers at the end of this month. However, before that I am just waiting to see the external examiner who's here to moderate our grades.

The images below are of my degree show display. There are nine boxed sculptures with print backgrounds which are inspired by walks in Derbyshire; two small boxed sculptures with white backgrounds and one large boxed collection of biomorthic forms. On the plinth are a range tabletop sculptures.

Visiting Lambs

When I complete my degree in a few weeks time I will be on the hunt again for studio space. In the meantime I will be working out of what is effectively our garden shed. It's small but has a nice view of the field and the occasional visitor. These two cheeky lambs came to check out what I was up to today....well i think they were more interested in the herb patch!

A nibble on a log,

 
then a trot round the garden,


before making a quick exit.

New Boxed Sculpture

For the last week I have been busy making the white boxes for my boxed sculptures. After about five coats of paint, a lot of sanding and elbow grease, they are finally coming together. Now I can get on with deciding which sculptures to put with which printed background.....how long to the degree show? Here are a couple I'm considering making into final pieces.

  

"A walk along Froggatt Edge"

'A Walk From Holbrook'

Lucy Kinsella

Recently spent an afternoon with sculptor Lucy Kinsella. Lucy is a sculptor of animals, whose work ranges from table-top to large scale sculptures. Working predominantly in bronze, she first creates her maquettes in wax, which are then cast in bronze using the lost-wax process. Larger work is first made in clay. Her work captures the movement and individul character of her subjects.

Boxing Hares

Cape Baffalo (4' x 5')

You can see more of Lucy's work by visiting her website here