It's about time...

   It has been a while but here is a final image of the work that I created for the 'Studio O' interdisciplinary exhibition at the Victoria Mill Arts Centre in Congleton. I gained some really positive feedback from the audience who attended the exhibition and it was also a fantastic way to gain exposure in the local area. I realise that being a practicing artist within a studio environment is exactly what I wish to do when I leave education.

My work is the three heavilly embroidered pieces centred:

   The work I created was really tactile - I believe I caught the essence of the Dreadnoughts that I drew inspiration from. Generally a real learning curve as I gained my first experience of putting, planning and part-hosting a group exhibition.

   Thanks to whoever attended - feedback always welcome x

To Promote...

   I feel as an artist it is particularly daunting to promote yourself. It most certainly has been for me! A few questions I have continuously asked myself are:

• Do my photographs contain enough detail to generate interest and/or a sale?
• Is my work commercial enough to sell?
• Should I spend an obscene amount of money on fantastic business cards or wait to do this until I am a little more established?
• Do I print up postcards for my exhibition at the Victoria Mill as a form of a print for audiences that are interested in my work and make a small amount of money in the process?

   I have started the process of promoting myself my getting into the photography studio with my fantastically amazing friend and artist Adam Gruning (I now hope he reads this) and taking many photographs which emphasise the layers and shear depth of the stitch and embroidery within my work. The slant I took during this shoot was to make the audience want to see more of my work as it is quite a substantial size and appear to be contemporary, whilst still using quite traditional techniques. I want the audience to see the involvement and almost obsession I have with my work because I stitch and stitch and stitch non-stop until I feel that my work is to the standard and depth required. I want my audience to see me not only as a "Contemporary Textile Artist", but also a "Fine Artist". I consider these two disciplines to fit hand in hand, whereas others do not.  

   Also, referring to the question of whether I should get some postcards printed up for the exhibition, I have sent off for 40 postcards to be printed with 5 different images on them just for a little bit of variety. I have used the website http://www.moo.com/ to get my promotional material printed up because the quality is fantastic and the prices are not overly expensive as opposed to other printing techniques. I really liked the look of the sample pack when it was sent to me a couple of weeks ago.

   Having started to make some smaller items which tie into the themes of my main pieces of work for a more commercial purpose, I decided to photograph my first selection of commercial work being printed and embroidered buttons. Adam decided that we should go for "GAP lighting" - I wasn't sure what this was originally but from seeing the unedited images it is a little bit darker than a usual still life shoot, it is quite editorial. I am hoping to put some of these bits and pieces up for sale during the exhibition at the Victoria Mill in Congleton, but it is whether I have the time at this point to make many more so that they could be sold to more that say 10 people. Also, I wouldn't mind printing on to some linen bags or making some jewellery out of printed linen surrounding the theme of Dreadnoughts and Battleships in the First World War.

   Relating back to the images that Adam and I took in the photo studio for my business cards and postcards - here are just a few!! Obviously I don't want to broadcast too much of my work on my blog before the exhibition so these are mainly samples and part done work:

In The Process Of Things...

   Working in the Victoria Mill in Congleton last week has given me insight into what it is actually like to be a real artist who practices independently and freelance.

   I am going to start by being typically British and moan about the only problem had. I found that there was a lack of equipment which I had access to! For example, most importantly I did not have access to a heat press or a colour printer/photocopier and a photo studio if I required it. It has made me realise the type of equipment I will definitely need in the future when I go it alone. I did not take into consideration how much I rely on University facilities.

   It has made me feel really sensible for the fact that I saved my student loan last year because I am really tempted to buy a heat press after christmas because the amount of work that I can produce quickly will be astounding. I could even set up a little business whilst I am still in education by printing/designing my own T-Shirts and bags etc just to ensure I am some extra pennies to fund my projects. Also the bonus is that I will be continually gaining work based experience and I am sure that I will experiment and teach myself some new techniques in the process. I have been looking around just on ebay at the moment and I have seen heat presses at reasonable prices but they are not big enough. They are only 38cm x 38cm and I really want one to the size of around A2. I think that the best thing I can do is enquire and ask college about which suppliers are the best to use when buying such an expensive piece of equipment. Anyway, awful photograph I know but I suppose this just gives you the jist of what I want and what I don't.



http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PROFESSIONAL-QUALITY-T-SHIRT-HEAT-PRESS-38X38CM-/170554870789?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27b5dccc05

    The skills that I feel I gained last week were very beneficial. With working in only a small group of 4 I found that I worked more independently and I was confident and vocal about my ideas when I was developing them. I am coming into realisation that at this stage in my career it is all about independent learning and thinking because before I know it I will be working entirely alone. Additionally the focus that I had on the work that I was doing was much higher than I would normally have just because the environment stimulated my creativity a lot more that usual. What I loved about the space was the fact that I could be as messy or as clean as I wanted to be and I could pin up whatever I wanted to pin up. To be honest I have never worked in an environment like that due to space restrictions so I felt like I really wanted to work instead of feeling like I have to because of the amount of work I have to do before the exhibition at the Victoria Mill.

   Anyway I am going to just put some pictures up of what was going on last week and what kind of place I was working in. Rhiannon, Adam, Jack and I all made the place look fab, in fact we even had a cake stand and it was our little home for the week. It was a shame I was only there for a week because even though I did not have the same amount of support from lecturers as usual, it was still good to have a small support network available there.

 

Link To Studio O...

Just a quick link to guide you to the group exhibition that I am going to be involved with.

Exhibition opens at 7pm on the 2nd December at the Victoria Mill in Congleton until the 7th at 5pm.

http://victoriamillartcentre.com/

Exhibition will contain:-

• Photography
• Film
• Illustration
• Textiles
• Fashion
• Ceramics
• Painting

Everyone is welcome to view our work, opening times are 10am til 5pm so come and show your support!!!

http://studiooartgroup.blogspot.com

Thanks Annie.

My First Thoughts...

   From my artist statement you can see that I am quite an investigational artist, and I enjoy working in a variety of media but I can't help but wonder whether my work is Fine Art or Textiles.

   I find that my great control of the sewing machine creates wonderful results that wet and dry media could not produce when drawing and creating in depth studies. It is exciting that you can experiment on the sewing machine with such things as having multiple threads going through just one eye of the needle so that more ground can be covered when creating these really heavilly embroidered pieces. I suppose that my combinations of stitch and prints contain the same principles that a conventional drawing, illustration or painting has because I have physically drawn with the sewing machine.

   Having developed a style and method of working that I am really passionate about I am really looking forward to working in a similar way in the future. I am still learning and progressing with my skills on the sewing machine so I am most excited about the results that I am going to produce in the future. My only issues are that sometimes with using an ordinary household sewing machine I am quite restricted to the amount of space I have to work with. For example, even though I am working to a very big scale right now if I was to learn how to use an industrial sewing machine I would have the freedom and technology to work on to such a substantial size of fabric. 

   Anyway this will be a future conquest as at the moment I have 14 days to finish my current project going towards a group exhibition I am doing at the Victoria Mill in Congleton! The exhibition is called 'Studio O' which I think has quite a ring to it. The exhibition is set in such a lovely space in quite an industrial environment. In my opinion it is the perfect setting for the subject matter that I drew inspiration from in the first place, this is Dreadnoughts from the First World War. I have attempted to portray both emotions and forms yet the name of this project is abit of a pun on the subject matter - I have named it 'You Sunk My Battleship'.  

   It was my birthday yesterday and I feel really guilty for having a good time because I have mounds of preparation to do for this, in fact I still have one more piece of work to start and finish because I have decided to make 3 rather large textiles hangings as opposed to making many small pieces of work and hanging them in multiples. There will be many images to come as I just want my work to be seen by as many people as possible in the aim that one day I can make a career out of the things that I love!



   Exciting but stressful stuff!!!

A section of one embroidered piece, I don't want to reveal too much until the actual exhibition though!