Making Things

As I write this much of my beloved Carlisle is under water. It's a strange experience and an odd mix of emotions; gratitude and relief that we are not flooded, sympathy for all those who are, sadness for all the damage and disruption. I'm finding it hard to concentrate, I keep checking the news and looking at the pictures and generally feeling a bit useless. 

I can't go into work today (usually I would be running Prism Arts Studio group) because of the floods so I've found myself with some unexpected time on my hands. Usually this would be a good thing but it's not helping with the moping so I thought it best to give myself a specific task, such as writing a blog post! If you are able to and would like to donate money to help those affected by the floods you can donate to Cumbria Community Foundation through Just Giving.

My stall at Wreay

At one time I did a lot of craft fairs but recently there have been so many other things to do that this side of things has fallen by the wayside. However, in the last weekend of November I had a stall at Wreay village hall for their Christmas Craft Fair. Despite fairly terrible weather (although nothing like as bad as this weekend) we had a good turnout and it was a friendly and well organised event, well supported by the community.

Melted plastic earrings

Owls!

My stall

Doing this craft fair helped clarify a few things for me. Firstly, I really enjoy making things. one of the reasons I haven't done many fairs is that I haven't had time to make new things to sell. When I heard about this particular fair it sounded like it would be a good thing to do and I had quite a while to get stuff ready. In the run up to the fair I really enjoyed making some new things, playing with fabrics and coming up with new ideas.

Lino prints

Blackbird lino print on a notebook

Lino print made into a card

Which leads nicely onto thing two, I don't want to do lots of craft fairs! Although I enjoyed the weekend and it was a good opportunity to hear what people thought of my stuff I don't want to spend my time selling, there are too many other things I want to do more.

Owls ready to be sewn up

Owl key-rings

Owl hot-water bottle cover

However, I did really enjoy making things for the fair so I think what I would like to do in the New Year is re-open my Folksy shop and try and sell some bits and pieces on-line. There were lots of very talented artists and crafts people at the fair and this really inspired me to get making. So, it's off to the studio I go!

Brooches

Decorations

Buttons

Bird Portraits

Grey Heron, 2015

Since January I have had some of my work on display in Gallery Artemis in Cockermouth. This has been a really good experience for me for several different reasons. Firstly it's always a good confidence boost if someone else likes your work and wants to show and sell it, secondly it's given me a good reason to get on and do more work and thirdly it's made me concentrate more on how I present my work. And of course it's always good to sell some work and make a bit of money!

Wren, 2015

Blackbird, 2015

Bluetit, 2015

Knowing that I'll need to frame my work to take to the gallery has meant that I now consider the scale I'm working on a bit more carefully. In one sense this places limitations on what I'm creating but in another way it gives me some boundaries to work within and can make me focus a bit more.

Scruffy Crow, 2015

Tree Pipit, 2015

Swallow, 2015

The first pieces of textile work that I took to the gallery were either quite large or very heavily embroidered (or both) and so as a consequence were quite expensive. I also took a small machine embroidered picture of a Black Redstart which was less expensive as it did not take me as long to create. This piece sold fairly quickly and so the gallery owner suggested I did some more smaller, quicker pieces in time for the Christmas (sorry to use the c word.) So, I took her advice and did a series of machine embroidered portraits of some of my favourite birds. This seems to have been a good move as two of the pieces have sold already!

Black Redstart (I forgot to take a photo of the finished piece!)

These pieces are a different part of my work; smaller, more controlled. I still have my ongoing interest in crows and my desire to make big drawings and layered and embroidered pieces and I will continue to develop this work but making the bird portraits helps me develop my skills, explore my love of birds and get my work out there. Everything is connected and these pieces are just one of the strands that make up my work...