More nice stuff

I haven't got anything new to show today, so here is another lovely piece of work by one of my students.



This dress is by Debz and features fab suffolk puffs (or yo-yos for Americans) made of suede. What a great idea of hers to do them in suede. Suffolk puffs were one of the most popular things I taught in this class and they appeared in many guises. It inspired me to start working on things made with them. Well, I got 3 circles drawn out, that's as far as it got! They are just the sort of traditional textile work that I love. One of my students also got experimenting with some smocking, which was great. It's something I mean to do but never quite get round to.

The market yesterday was as bad as last week.... thanks for supportive comments! It just wasn't the right place for my products - there were only two designer-makers there, the rest being mainly imported clothes and jewellery. Though I did meet Audrey who makes fabulous hats and corsages which I was looking at all day!

As it was so quiet I got plenty of knitting done - pics shortly- and more work done on the jelly bean embroidery (as it is now known).
And I got to gorge myself on blackberriess fresh from my friend's garden. I LOVE summer fruit and have been really lucky in the last few weeks - blackcurrants, rhubarb and now blackberries, as well as greengages in the shops. Happy me.

Work in progress Friday

Ok, it's Saturday, but I was busy last night!
I spent Monday - Thursday teaching a fantastic group of women on a course called Hand-constructed fabrics for fashion.




They produced some amazing work - this is just one piece in progress and there are more over here. We did applique, pleating shadow-work and trapunto, among other things and it really inspired me to get on with some of the more complex hand-worked projects I have planned. I had hoped to have loads of finished piece to show them on the course, but somehow I seem to have been really busy this last few months! But it has reinvigorated me to get on with new work, as well as promoting and developing the existing work.


So I started this piece - or rather carried on with this piece. I had the idea for this piece last summer when I was working on the V&A summer school and spent a lot of time in the Fashion Gallery. It is inspired by a dress by (I think) Nina Ricci from the early 60s. I can't find an image of it anywhere, but it has tiny embroidered chenille jelly beans in bright colours, with gold embroidery. So this piece is a massively scaled-up version, with felt jelly beans and eventually will have gold embroidery of some sort too. The backing fabric is a lovely wool mix. I think this will become a skirt - it's only a small piece.



I'm hoping to get a few hand-constructed garments made by early next year and hopefully exhibit them. Eeek. now I have said it in public, I will have to actually do it! This is how I work - admit my aspirations and then feel compelled to achieve them. The blog is so useful for that. I even said in my Arts Council funding proposal that I was going to use my blog as a self-reflective activity to evaluate my own work and business progress, with the aim that it is useful to me as record keeping, but also to other makers. So we'll see how that goes!

I started the Developing Professional Practice Course at Cockpit Arts on Friday. I think it's going to be really useful. The first session was just introductions and lots of complicated activities designed for us all to get to know each other. I'm not convinced it worked to be honest - we had to present each other's work so now I am really confused about who was who. But there are another 14 sessions, so I guess I will get to know people eventually! It was interesting though, seeing what different stages people are at. One woman had done Chelsea Craft Fair twice and had work in lots of galleries but had never done any press releases and didn't use a diary! I can't function without a diary! Talking to other people who had done real jobs before launching their creative business (like me) is always interesting. We do seem to have a very different way of working.

Today is supposed to be a day off, so I will step away from the computer and go and try some outdoors!

Sew Fantastic

Terrible pun, but there you go. I have just bought a new sewing machine - an industrial Bernina which should stand up to the heavy work better than my domestic. I am really excited about the machine, but I wont actually be able to use it for a while. I can't pick it up til next week and I doubt I can realistically fit it in at the moment, so it will go into temporary storage until I have bigger workspace. It was just too good a deal to resist, and just a few minutes away from me. Reports tomorrow from my week's teaching, and watch out for a tutorial next week on putting a zip into a handbag-lining, as promised for some students!

Tomatoes

My tomato plants are bringing me great joy this week. The rest of life is being a bit hard work, but I am delighted with these two scraggy car-boot-sale tomato plants that lived in yoghurt pots for weeks and have flourished since I finally potted them in my window box. They are growing down the front of the house, in the window, all over the other plants and generally being very boisterous. It's been years since I had a proper garden and grew lots of things. I miss it hugely, particulary in this hot weather. I miss having my breakfast outside and seeing what new things have come up, died back or just changed in the last 24 hours. So now I get to see what is going on in the window box while I have breakfast. Not quite the same, but better than nothing! The geraniums from my Grandad are just about to start their second flowering and there are weeny tomato fruits - one less as I pulled one off in my keeness to explore what was happening halfway down the front of the house... Growing things is really good for the soul.

I wish I hadn't rambled so much on Saturday about the joys of selling things. Sunday's market was deathly quiet and no buyers passed my way at all. It was a bit of a blow. It's just grim. I was going to keep quiet about it, but I am trying to be honest in this blog about how damn hard it is to run a small creative business on your own. So yes, I was miserable, but being an eternal optimist, I shall hope for better things this sunday. It's the last week of the market before the summer break, so things are slowing down generally. Finger's crossed for a better day.

On the plus side, I am teaching a class all week in London- which means a lot of travelling - but the students are lovely and it's been great fun. I am in awe of people who teach full time. I am a person with lots of energy and loves teaching but my god, I find it exhausting!
But it has been a treat to spend 2 days working with the same people and to have 2 more days with them, and to see them so inspired and excited by what they are learning. It's a lot more satisfying than one-day courses. Though a lovely woman who came to my handbag making course a few weeks ago has also come along to this and it's great to see her confidence and skills growing all the time. After the last course she was almost in tears about how much she had learned and what an amazing creative journey it was for her. That's the sort of reaction I want from my students!

Here is one pic of my stand at the market. I think it looks pretty and tempting. Shame no-one else did!

Hmm. blogger doesn't like uploading pictures tonight, so see them here

Saturday night fever

mmmm. It's a warm summer saturday night, parties are pounding and barbeques are belching smoke and I am working. As usual. This is the nature of running your own small craft business. I spent the day teaching braiding at the local arts centre, which was great fun. Then I came home to prepare for the market I am doing tomorrow. I have packed and priced the stock, loaded furniture into the car, prepared postcards, leaflets, float, display materials, new portfolio, mailing list book... the list is endless. I still have more to do and it's a very early start in the morning and a two hour drive into London. Why am I doing this??

But I had nice post this morning - notification of sales at Leeds Craft Gallery. It's always nice to sell things. Oh yes, that is why I am doing this, because selling things is FANTASTIC! Hope I'll sell lots tomorrow and that will make up for my boring Saturday night!

Finished product friday

Lots of other people blog about their work in progress on a friday. I never remember to take pictures of work in progress, mainly as my sewing room is dark and far too messy to be seen. So instead you get a finished product, because I love finishing things!

These booties are a much overdue present for my godson who is 10 months old. Which reminds me, it's his older brother's birthday any day now, so should get on the case of that too. If their mum is reading this, well, these booties wont be a surprise....

They are 100% recycled, lambswool felt and vintage ric-rac, and the wool for the pom poms was bought second hand. More pics on Flickr.

I started these weeks ago, and it's taken til the last couple of days to find the pom pom makers. Now I have these makers, I can't go back to making pom poms the old way with circles of card, much too annoying! I might well get into mass pom pom making. Once I have a small mountain of them I will decide what to do with them...

Other good news today - I have got all the luck this week and have just heard that I have also got a grant from the Arts Council! This is for more professional development including my stand at Origin and a training course at Cockpit Arts over the next year. So I am very pleased and rewarded myself with half a day off this morning and a lie in with Radio 4 and then finished a book (My Antonia, byt Willa Cather, kindly lent by my mum).

Celebrations over by lunchtime and normal service resumed with a trip to town to buy supplies for the course next week and ones the week after.. and something to show sale bits in at the market this sunday. I went for a basket and came home with this giant bowl (about 50cm diameter).



I fell in love with punched stainless steel pots when I was in India a few years ago. I couldn't carry as much home as I wanted, so it's wonderful to be able to buy them in Brighton. Still cheap but not quite as astonishingly cheap as in India. I bought a tiny one too, not sure there was any business purpose in that, but it was only 80p!

I'm teaching and selling flat out for the next 10 days, so I doubt there will be lots of blogging, but rest assured I will have something new to say / show at some point in the next week.

Productivity

One of the best things about having a blog is that it is an incentive to finish and document things, and to know that people out there are appreciating it!

So here are a few of the things I have been churning out in my sweatshop in the last few days.






Lots more on Flickr. I am rather exhausted after all this, but relieved not to have any more interfacing to apply. Steam irons are not fun in a heatwave. Now I am going to experiment with layouts for my display at the market on Sunday. And perhaps go for a bit of a walk now it's clouded over and cooled down a little!

Bracelet

I realise I haven't shown off this bracelet that I made for Heather. I kept it secret until she got it, and it arrived in Canada while I was on holiday and then forgot. So here it is. It is made from four braids hand woven using a medieval technique called fingerloop braiding.


Busy making masses of stock for the market at the weekend, so will try and get some photos before the daylight is gone.

Award Winner!

Exciting news - I have been selected for an award by Creative Brighton and British Design Innovation for business development. The award will pay for me to attend my first trade show - Design Edge - in September. I'm nervously excited about this show. I've just downloaded the manual and have to slog my way through all the regulations and requirements. But the financial and other support from the award will make the whole lot easier, and it's a great confience boost.

Last week I was at a training day for Origin, the new Chelsea Craft Fair, which I am showing at in October. I'm showing as part of a 12 person exhibition featuring 'new craft talent' in the first week of the event. There are another 12 in the second week. I've got a small space - a 70cm plinth - to show my work on. So I am debating what I can squeeze into that space and what would be my most saleable work. It always seems the way that whatever I am a bit bored with starts to sell and my newer work languishes. Maybe the world will have caught up with me by October and my newer and more exciting collections will sell like hotcakes!

Meanwhile the sweatshop (as my studio is at the moment) continues to churn out things to sell in Hampstead this weekend and samples for the course I am running next week.

As for saturday, there apparently haven't been many bookings for the braidmaking sessions, so if there are any locals reading this who fancy trying it out, then drop me a line and come along! It's only £3!

Happenings

Lots happening at the moment. Am hugely frustrated that this coincides with a stunning heatwave! I am, quite possibly, even busier than usual, but the heat just makes it hard to find the motivation to work. What is worse is that my sewing room is really hot and just turning the iron on makes it worse! But I snuck away to the beach this afternoon for a couple of hours to cool off.



This picture was taken in the spring - it was nothing like this today - hoards of people, rubbish and noise, but the sea was refreshing and the pebbles hot. And infinitely better than being indoors all day. I wish I had a garden.... But I am not going to moan about it being too hot, only to moan in a few months about it being too cold. I love the heat, just hate having to work and / or travel in it!

So yes, the many things happening. I am preparing for a course this weekend for visually impaired people, which will be braiding and plaiting and tassel-making, using textured yarns. This will be a fun challenge and will combine some of my current textiles work with my previous work. Years ago when I worked in London Transport Museum I was instrumental in setting up a programme of events for visually impaired and deaf visitors and really enjoyed putting together touch tours and events using the museum objects. I was initially really nervous, having very little experience, but a little training and a lot of thought, practice, advice and feeback and I found I really enjoyed it, and apparently, was pretty good at it. So I hope that I can delve back to that experience and make the most of it for the people I will teach this weekend.

Secondly I am preparing stock and display things for Cabbages and Frocks - a fashion and food market. This sounds a wonderful combination to me, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of my profits go straight to my stomach! It's in Hampstead, London, Sunday 23rd July 11-6 and it would be lovely to see any of you there. I'll be there on 30th July too.

And as if that wasn't enough, I am teaching this course next week. (places still available, book now!) I've got to get cracking sorting out my samples and making new ones in the next couple of days. I'm really looking forward to this course, it should be really exciting.

So I really should whizz off and get sewing again - the machine has stopped behaving quite so badly, so fingers crossed it will make it to the end of the week and go for a little TLC at Brighton Sewing Centre.

I'm back!

And I have holiday photos to show you! So here is a little photo essay of my last two weeks.
One week canal boating in Oxfordshire.



A night of thunderstorms and torrential rain.



Many sheep.




A prickly thistle.






Several sunsets.






Much quietness and stillness. A wonderful few days.

Grandad's 90th birthday! Many relatives (no pictures of these, as they were taken by my brother not me) but a picture of one of Grandad's many fine sheds.



And a greenhouse full of flowers.



A week cat sitting and garden watering.





A vist to Ann and her lovely new house and executive kitchen (thanks for dinner!)



A long and hot drive home with a rest at my favourite M25 escape-route.




It's lovely to be home - I am delighted to see my own comfy bed again, but will miss the cat and the garden and the endless supply of DVDs.