My best three pieces of advice re: my work.

No 1: Not to think too commercially when creating a piece of work. Thanks Angela Atkinson for this advice, it means that I should allow myself to be creative and experimental.
No 2: To follow your heart and be focussed on what you want to achieve. Thanks Drew for this advice, after all he said,"  You are the one who has to do this day in and day out ".
No 3: To always give yourself a problem. Thanks Ollie Leggett for this. Ollie created  IE Design Consultants Ltd almost twenty years ago and he is now a leading Digital Marketing agency for Charity, Health and Education. For me this advice means that I continually strive towards creating opportunities and openings for my work. When I have got the commission or project, then and only then do I figure out how I am going to do it !

Hopes and Fears ……...

My greatest hope was always that I would be able to have my work exhibited in The Contemporary Crafts Gallery in Bloomsbury. My greatest fear is that the work I am producing does not 'count' as being handmade as it is cast and therefore is not hand built. I have wandered around this gallery for many years now fantasising about seeing Lisa Slinn….. work and how I would like to become a member of the group. I can think of Katie Almond's work and Lowri Davies perhaps , they have been sold in the CCG, they essentially cast the body of their forms and hand decorate, maybe I will be okay after all ?

On a practical level my hope is that I can successfully create a body of work that I can take to New Designers and that the V&A will come along and say 'yes of course we would love to sell some of your work in our shop' or 'we would love a piece for the Museum' that is my greatest hope. Also that I can successfully create a range of designs to put on 'whiteware' and sell them commercially. However, ultimately my hope is that I will always want to design and make and be able to do that and that nothing will ever stop me !

My greatest fear is that I cannot make work that is neat enough and perfect enough . I have a very 'loose' style with my drawing and also when it comes to creating hand built work it is not often 'finished' to a high enough standard. My fear is that I do not have enough years left in my life to be able to rectify this trait ! Another fear is that I will not have enough motivation to push myself once I have left the structure of University critique's even though this practice can drive you almost mad ….. I need enough confidence in myself and my work to overcome this and I hope that I will get this from New Designers.

The Art of saying 'hello' through an exquisite choice of stationery !

My top ten of business cards and tags from fellow makers . These have been collected over the past five years from visits to Origin, Lustre , New Designers , Newport Collective Art and The Knitting and Stitching Show. From top left , we have Rosemarie Barr - Ceramicist, below her Julie Dodd- Book artist, below her a tag from Urban Outfitters (New York branch), below that a tag from the maker Julia Jowett which had a felt broach on it, below that a tag from Poppy Treffy ( I purchased a purse), top right- Emily Notman- Textile Artist, below her Jo Hill- another textile person, below her Elke Sada- Ceramicist, below her Gale Lewis- Ceramicist and last but not least a tag from Sophie Digard (I bought a necklace ). My number one favourite card would have to be Jo Hill's. this is because of the image of her work alone ! On the back her details are clearly displayed, website, home /business address, phone numbers and name. As a business card it is simple in design but is attractive so made me want to pick it up and keep it. No 2 would be the tag from Urban Outfitters, it looks retro but right on trend, I love the string and pin. No 3, Julia Jowett's because it is great quality card and a type written font, also retro. No 4 , Sophie Digard- a copy of her water colour painting that clearly shows her inspiration for her work , i.e. textiles from 18th Century Paris. No 5, Elke Sada, this has a great, clear image of her work. No 6, Poppy Treffy, I love the bit of pink ribbon. No 7, Emily Notman, I love the detail is shows of her work. No 8, Gale Lewis - great font and clearly shows who and what she is. No 9, Rosemarie Barr, a bit brown in tone but again I love the white background. No 10, Julie Dodd, her work is clever but her business card is too dull. Again too much brown and card itself not printed on good quality card.

"Did you know I used to work at Royal Worcester "...

Sitting sketching edges of plates, images of trees, birds and floral designs I was able to listen to visitors to the sixth floor of The V&A whilst keeping my head down and busy. The auntie who was trying to find the collection for Royal Worcester that she had designed many years ago was disappointed to find it was not on display. Plenty of enthusiastic artists brought their young children to look at the brush strokes and line drawing on plates and assorted 19th century wares. I have to say it was their interest that made me feel most alive, to look at the objects in front of me through their eyes. It was the 18th century tin glazed pieces that most inspired me, trying to capture the exact way that the cobalt had moved on the plate or dish was a challenge. The boldness of an orange or a red contrasted with a cool blue in a Chinese design gave me an excuse to move away from the blue and whites that I love.
It made me think about what is classed as 'exotic' and 'other' in contemporary design now so I trotted off to Liberty's. There I found the work of Claudia Parker a ceramacist whose work is not unlike my own but had the advantage of being there on sale in the great store. Her crude plates and dishes have oxide line drawings and soft pastel earthenware glazes of figurative animals and fruit. I think it must be the 'unfinished' nature of her dishes , underneath no glaze or perfect un marked 'bottom' very much like my own and selling for £395. I guess the 'i've not had time to finish it off' look is now the new 'exotic'.

Latest work.

My latest work. Thanks for the picture Catherine Dineley ! These dishes are handmade, the body is porcelain. I used the profiling technique to create the form and they have cobalt transfers of images of 19th Century plates taken from pieces shown at The Potteries Museum. These are the for -runners for my next collection to be shown at New Designers in June 2014.

Reflective practice.

How does reflection improve my practice ? Well, as a person who tends to generally reflect and over analyse most things I do this is standard ! I tend to go look at work my peers are producing, read twitter posts by artists such as David Shrigley , who as an illustrator gives me insight into the daily working practice of life in this area of work. I intend to create a Portfolio career so illustrating forms part of my future and current work. I am also planning my trip next week to sketch in the V&A for two days where my illustrating skills will be put into action. I intend to focus on sketching trees, florals, geometric shapes and birds from various ceramic collections. This will form the basis of my surface pattern design for my final pots and also a useful collection of prints to support my project.

According to The a Design Trust February is a good month to apply for Craft and a Trade Fairs.