Feathers of Hope: Homegrown Commission

Day 1 Hope for Clean Air
Pen on handmade paper

In the ongoing roller-coaster of emotions and experiences that is the 2020 Covid-19 crisis there are lots of glimmers of hope and positivity. Over the 10 years I've been writing this blog one of the recurring themes has been "and I would like more time for my own practice." Be careful what you wish for! In truth though the past few weeks have offered me the chance to really focus on my practice and I'm very grateful for that. I've also been finding new ways for me and my work to 'get out there,' mostly in a digital rather than a physical sense of course! In this post I'm going to share one of the ways I've been sharing my work.

Day 2. Hope for Kindness
Pen on tracing paper

The Stove Network is an artist-led organisation based in Dumfries and they believe that the creative community can and should play a key role in the development of the region. One of the ways they have been supporting their members during the pandemic is to offer micro commissions as part of their 'Homegrown' project. The key tenets of this project are open-heartedness, solidarity, perseverance and insight. The micro commissions are for small week long projects that embrace one or more of these ideas.

Day 3. Hope for Inventiveness
Coloured pencil on inside of an old envelope

I was really excited to be selected for one of these commissions for my 'Feathers of Hope' project. It was a simple idea; each day for a week I would draw a feather and share it along with one of my hopes for the future that will come after this pandemic. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about how we have the opportunity to create a fairer, happier society and so this project was a good way to focus some of those thoughts. The feathers and hopes were then shared on The Stove Network's Facebook and Instagram pages each day.

Day 4. Hope for Art Education

I was also excited about the opportunity to share work with people in my local area. As we're relatively new to the region I'm still finding my way around and it's great having organisations such as The Stove Network to help get to know what's going on. Even though we didn't move far last year we did move to a new region and indeed a new country and so it takes time to get to know what's going on and the people involved. Everyone I've come across has been so friendly and helpful and the positive arts scene in Dumfries and Galloway was one of the factors in deciding to move.

Day 5. Hope for Food Origin Awareness
Free motion embroidery on rust dyed silk organza

Taking part in this project has been such a positive experience for me. As well as being a good confidence boost it's introduced me to lots of other wonderful creatives and helped me feel more a part of my local arts community. It's also given me a good 'daily focus' and I found I very much looked forward to creating the drawings each day. Having a reason to give myself that time to be creative each day was very beneficial and led to lots of other work in the studio too, more about that another time maybe!

Day 6. Hope for Nature
Ballpoint pen on reverse of gold paper

As part of the commission I was also asked to create a short video about my practice. I'm not really that technically minded and have a fairly limited idea of what I'm doing when it comes to making videos and so on but one of the good (if also rather stressful) things about the current crisis is that it has forced me to learn how to do things. I now have a slightly less shaky grasp of video making and sound recording. These are really useful skills and as I'd been thinking about creating some online courses before the pandemic anyway I hope they're going to stand me in good stead! Making the video was also a good opportunity to think about my practice and what the really important bits are that I want to share with people.

Day 7. Hope for Positive Changes
Pen, chalk and pastel on coloured paper

As usual I've not written the post I intended; I was going to write about the actual work and the hopes for the future but writing this post has been a good opportunity to reflect on the experience as a whole so I'm going to hope (see what I did there) that the work speaks for itself and I also hope that you've enjoyed it!

Summery Summaries: Part Two: Prism Arts

I've had a very busy year at Prism Arts! As it's one of my 'proper' jobs I tend to not blog about the projects I work on which is a bit of a shame as a lot of them are really quite exciting and they do occupy a lot of my time. Continuing on from part one of my Summery Summaries (I do realise we're well and truly into Autumn now but I do like alliteration) I thought I'd do a quick re-cap of some of the projects I've worked on over the last year.

Studio Arts: Still life drawing

Studio Arts: Portraits

Studio Arts: Adding colour to drawings

My main role at Prism Arts is to lead the Studio Arts course; a visual arts programme for adults with learning disabilities and autism. We aim to enable our participants to develop as artists and gain all the different skills they'll need for that; not just practical art skills but also skills such as working to deadlines and briefs, writing artists statements and finding and applying for opportunities. We work in partnership with lots of other organisations to create and deliver exciting and rewarding projects that allow the work to be seen by a wide range of audiences.

Studio Arts: Making brushes

Studio Arts: Mark making with hand made brushes

Over the past year we've had a really busy time and since I last blogged about Studio Arts we've had two exhibitions and a commissioned project. This year we're involved with a big Heritage Lottery funded project looking at Carlisle's textile heritage and we've got two exciting curatorial projects running. We've also been trying to squeeze in some skills development workshops including brush making, different approaches to drawing and portraiture.

Here's what I've been up to over the past year:

China: Through Our Eyes at Tullie House

China Exhibition Interpretation

Following on from our very successful Gallery Trail at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery last year Studio Arts once again worked in partnership with Tullie House to create an exhibition responding to some of the museums Chinese artefacts. This was a really exciting project, it was also very challenging as due to unexpected circumstances the brief had to change part way through the project but we overcame these challenges and were able to create a thoughtful and beautiful exhibition.

Exhibition view

Exhibition view

Exhibition view

Feedback

Folk Tales at Carlisle Archives

Folk Tales interpretation panel

We have also exhibited work at Carlisle archives this year. Studio Arts were inspired by British folk tales and created work inspired by the stories and costumes they researched for this exhibition. I like to show work at the archives as being a public space it allows us to show our work to audiences who may not otherwise find us.

Textile Commission

Some of the textile pieces for Gosling Sike

Bert Badger
Applique and machine embroidery

Fox
Fabric pens and tie dye

Prism Arts have been working with Cumbria Willdlife Trust on a big five year project connected to one of the trusts newest reserves; Eycott Hill. The Trust have also recently moved in to new offices up at Gosling Sike in Houghton (on the edge of Carlisle) and they commissioned Studio Arts to create some textile pieces for their new buildings. This project gave us the opportunity to develop our textile skills and try some new ways of working.

Work in progress on Freddie Fox

Dragonfly
Applique and hand embroidery

March of the Unsung Women: Carlisle's Puppet Pageant Parade

Processions 2018 March in Edinburgh

As well as running Studio Arts I also get involved in lots of other Prism Arts projects. One of my favourite projects this year was Processions (celebrating the centenary of The Representation of the People's Act which gave the first women the vote) and this project became the inspiration for the theme of this years Carlisle Puppet Pageant. In one form or another I've been involved with the puppet pageant since it's inauguration in 2013 and this year Prism Arts were commissioned to run the puppet pageant.

Puppet body parts

Puppet faces

Making bodies

We wanted to celebrate the important but usually overlooked women of Cumbria so we created 10 larger than life puppets of ten important women from Cumbria's history. We worked with a wide range of people, schools and groups, bringing people together to create something truly memorable. I was away for the actual parade but I really enjoyed being involved in the creation of some of the puppets.

Works in progress

Mr. Tinker: A poodle not an unsung women

Work in progress

It's nice to be appreciated!

Embroidered tree pipit

A couple of weeks ago I had one of those emails that brightens your day and makes you feel all inspired again. It was from a lady who had been bought one of my embroidered bird bags from Folksy a few years ago, a damp flat had sadly ruined the bag but she liked it so much that she got in contact to ask if I could make another.

The original bag

I made a few of these bags (about 5 or 6 I think) but I didn't continue making them as although people liked them they took a lot of time and effort and I couldn't justify selling them at a price that would make it worthwhile for me. However, flattery will get you a lot of places and I was so pleased that my work had meant enough to someone that they would take the time and effort to contact me and request a replacement that I agreed straight away.

The new bag

If you've been following this blog you'll know that I've been struggling with my creative mojo recently so this little project has been great for me. It's given me a nice confidence boost (someone likes my work, can't be all bad) and given me a reason and focus to not only get into the studio but to do something more productive than sort out my threads whilst I'm in there!

Tree Pipit line drawing, pen on paper

I began as I usually do by drawing, just quick line drawings to capture the flighty nature of birds. I did this sketch of  tree pipit and really liked it and decided it would work well so I used my sketch and the photograph I did the drawing from as a basis for the embroidery. I used three shades of purple and free motion embroidery to create this little guy, I like his inquisitive look and I hope that he'll be as loved as his predecessor (and not succumb to damp!)

Detail

I really enjoy free motion embroidery, it is very like drawing and I like the quality of line. I was so inspired by working on this piece that I went straight on to another stitched bird, but more about that in another post...

Warwick on Eden Craft Fair and Two Commissions

My Stall

Close up

The craft fair I did on Sunday at Warwick on Eden went very well; it was quite quiet but I still managed to do fairly well and it was a nice, relaxed affair. I met some very nice people and one of my friends from work came down to support me and my friend Helen (I offered Helen half my table as she wanted to do a fair but hadn't done one before.) I also was asked to make two pieces for presents, I like special requests as it means people like my stuff (always a good ego boost) and it's fun to make things for specific people rather than just making a product.

Cat head brooch

Cards and frog 'phone case

Hedgehog 'phone case

Polymer clay 'lace' brooch

The first commission was for a cream cushion with a swallow on, I'd taken an aqua coloured cushion with a swallow on but the lady wanted a cream cushion with a 'proper' coloured swallow. I'm really pleased with the way it came out and may well make something similar for my next craft fair. The second commission was for a doggy doorstop. This was more of a challenge because I really don't like dogs. However, I decided to rise to the challenge and after a bit of planning and experimenting I came up with a design, made a pattern and used this to make a little hound doorstop. I hate to admit it but I think it's quite cute! I hope the recipients are pleased with their presents, I did have fun making them!

The original cushion

The commissioned cushion

Detail of the swallow



Hound doorstop

Detail