Home from Home?

Well, maybe not quite!

I've been down at Shed 2 Studios for nearly two months now, and as it's getting colder, the more we need to get the stove going.  It's a bit stubborn sometimes, although I am not sure it's meant to do this!  But that's what you get if you let boys loose near things you can set on fire.  Oops. Sorry, I meant men (who act like boys near an open flame).  Mind you, once it's going (and it was here!), it's lovely and cosy.

So, the last couple of months I have been finding my feet again, experimenting, and preparing for the coming few weeks.  You'll be able to see some of my work at our forthcoming OPEN STUDIOS EVENT on Saturday 13th November.  Please do come along and join us for mince pies and mulled wine, a look around the studios.

After that, I will be doing a few more days furiously making, finishing off, packing and preparing for three craft fairs... Long Eaton Art Room Christmas Beau Show on 20/21st November, Kedleston Hall on 27th/28th November, and Strutts Society at Belper on Saturday 4th December.  Busy few weekends ahead for me!

What we saw at the IFG

Okay, okay, I know it was ages ago. But I have to blog about something, right?

And pictures of glass are always good, even if it's not your own... apart from the samples, I really haven't got much else to blog about anyway. I am trying to make sure I am in the studio every day, but as I have not got a specific project to be working on right now, I am just doing a bit of general making, and experimenting.

So, instead, I will back track a couple of weeks, (okay, five) and show you some of my favourite photographs from Stourbridge.  But, organised as ever, I didn't photograph the labels, so whilst I can identify some artists, I am afraid some will go unnamed.  Perhaps some one would like to buy me the official Bienale 2010 catalogue, it would look very nice on my coffee table....

This piece was by one of my favourite glass artists, Keiko Mukaide - who does some wonderful work, often based on culture and family traditions.  There is a lot of depth and meaning in a lot of her work, and I have seen her use glass in a different way in a number of her pieces.  My son took the "artistic angle" photo on the right. I thought it was rather effective. Good lad.

Can't recall who this was by, but technically astonishing. And someone said it looked like a Borg cube.... (if you don't know, then you obviously are not a Trekkie.  Or should that be Trekker?)

A close up of one of Rachel Elliott's allotment pieces.  Amazing detail, fabulous work from a brilliant glass artist, who is not only extremely talented, but is also very generous with her  knowledge.  Well done, Rachel!

One of my favourites at the last Bienale, James Lethbridge.  One of my favourite places in London is the Wellcome Trust (have you ever seen Bleigiessen?), and their art meets medicine gallery - there's a James Lethbridge piece in there, a glass representation of the Aids Virus.  The Wellcome Gallery is worth a visit if you're down in London.

Okay, lets get back to a bit of colour.... and an assortment of makers...

 

Finally, this was the most amazing effect.  Originally cast from books, this was like one of those optical illusions - is it sticking outwards, or sunken inwards?  

 

Not Much to Report

Since going to the IFG (oh, I ought to post some photographs, there was some lovely glass eye candy!), I have mainly been busy moving, what seems like endless amounts of boxes and 'things' from my old space at university, to my new space at Shed 2 Studios, along with building some oversized meccano which eventually became shelving, and finally, after three years, re-claiming the room back that was once the kitchen at home!

It took a couple of weeks to get it to the point of being able to work in my space, but I have spent the last few days, basically just enjoying the space and the freedom of not having to do something to satisfy a project brief.

It's been good to get back to glass, I really haven't done much lately.  I can't spend too many weeks playing though, I DO have some craft fairs and open studio events to get ready for!

Off to the IFG this weekend - woop woop!

The what??

The International Festival of Glass 2010.

Every two years, there's a big glass festival held in Stourbridge, West Midlands - I discovered it the first time two years ago; I went with my son, and we had the most fabulous time.

The festival is set out over several sites around Stourbridge, including Broadfield House Glass Museum - always worth a visit, I loved it there.  Well, they had glass, of course I loved it!  The special exhibition two years ago was Glass dresses, here's a pic I took:



As well as street market, entertainment, a bead fair, evening goings on, a big part of the Festival is the Glass Bienale, a mahoosive exhibition at the Ruskin Glass Centre (which has lots of other happenings over the festival weekend).  The exhibition two years ago was amazing, with lots of fabulous work, but this was on of my favourites, having made it to wallpaper status on the laptop (that's high accolade to make it on my desktop!):

When I get back from this glass fest, it's time to start moving!  Yup, got the keys, space will be clear, now I just have to make several journeys back and forth from Uni to get all my stuff in the right places...

I've got the keys to the door....

Never been twenty one before...!

Go the keys to Shed 2 Studios today... now the moving operation begins....exciting.

If i remember to take the camera with me, I will take photos!

Congratulations All Round and time to start packing....

..... for a holiday?  No. I wish! 

But possibly a whole lot more exciting! I've been fairly quiet about this, but time is fast approaching, and I want to start sharing my news... I was very pleased to be offered studio space at Shed 2 Studios in Ilkeston.

This is great news for me.  Shed 2 was founded by former students on the same course as I did at Derby, everybody who is there is not only lovely, but produce great work and are all doing very well, and I know it will be a wonderful supportive environment.  I would be terrible if I worked from home - about the only time that I ever really want to do housework (as in an insatiable burning desire to do it!) is when I have a project to do... so all that remains is to pack up the three truckloads of stuff I still have at Uni and move it all in...

So, why congratulations all round?  Well, course colleagues Deborah Miles and Nicola Lidstone have both been accepted into the Design Factory, as well as along with Katie Heeks and Robyn Holgate were selected for Lustre 2010 in November at the Lakeside Art Centre, Nottingham.  Well done to you all!

A Few Photos from Rufford

At the end of June, myself, and three other students from the Crafts course at Derby had a stand at Rufford Earth & Fire.  It's a fabulous location for a ceramics fair and the weather was glorious all weekend - disappointed initially that we were in almost permanent shade, by Sunday I was really glad, as I think we would have melted in that hot sun all day!

Now, I need to have a photography session for the new ceramics wall works, but here's what I took of our stand:

This is the whole stand - my work is the square pictures at the left and right hand side, the boxed and free standing sculptural forms are by Sarah Jennings (who you can see just at the right), the wonderful animals in the middle are by Nicola Drury, who's there at the back of the stand, and the rock bowls are by Sarah Huson. 

We all plan to go on and be makers, so look out for us all (if you click on the names, it will take you to my friends' websites)

Here's my work in a bit more close up (you can click on the photos for a closer look):