Make 52 – Week 52 : ‘Meet Beryl’

It’s over! 52 weeks of creativity – I have a smile on my face from ear to ear. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I thought up the idea on a whim and launched in to the project blindly with no thought about what I was doing and why.

I’m pleased it’s over, glad I did it and completed it, and fully fuelled for 2012, I can’t stop thinking about my business as a designer maker, about making it work, making it pay and being a success.

I’m nervous about the exhibition in April, the response to it and how it’s reviewed but this is good as I’m already planning what I need to do between now and then to make it the best it can be.

It’s been a 52 week artistic journey that’s flown by – counting the week’s in a year really makes the time disappear. I know I’ve filled this year to overflowing, I couldn’t have squeezed in any more than I did and for that I am proud.

I’m grateful for to many people for being so enthusiastic about the project, thank you particularly to all my friends at Walford Mill for their constant support, to Ali and Nina for being my ever supportive fans and to my boyfriend for reading every blog and giving up his handmade spoon for Beryl.

My final week’s artwork was great fun to make, Beryl, as she’s been named, has been created from 52 different items donated by friends and family and also a few bits from my workshop. I thought I’d struggle to be creative between Christmas and new year, I allowed 3 days to complete the task in case it became more difficult and challenging than I’d planned. I hadn’t originally intended to create a figure, I think I thought something sculptural that incorporated everything would be the result, but some how in the last few days leading up to making the piece, I settled that I wanted to create a person – something I’ve always avoided in the past. I’ve never felt creating a character has been my forte – I surprised myself, Beryl, is quite lovely aside from her smoking habit. An enjoyable, hilarious and fulfilling final Make that’s even inspired a children’s workshop… I’m pleased.

This morning, as I sat in the office preparing to finish my final Make and write my last blog, I received an email from a friend with a link – someone else has done a Make 52, I’m not alone, she too set about a similar task in 2011, how weird, she’s done a comprehensive blog with detailed images and instructions about how to replicate her creations, sadly though it appears to have ended in July? I have emailed to ask if she is in her final week, I hope she made it to the end.

I’m pleased I finished, I made a few mistakes, a few boo boos and I may have insulted some famous artists – I still can’t believe I painted a plate for Grayson Perry week! However in amongst it all were some successes, some pieces that will be made as ranges and some real inspiration. Thank you to all the artists that helped me along the way, you may have been unaware that you were a week but I hope you are happy to be a part of it.

Even more exciting is that I’ve inspired others to take up the challenge – in 2012 you can read blogs from my friend and colleague Hazel Evans, who will be doing a project named ‘Inspire 52′ , and also a photographic journey will be undertaken by Howard Shepherd ‘Image 52′. Here’s Hazel’s link: hazelevans-inspire52.blogspot.com (Howard’s to follow)

I’m left wondering what’s next, and where this will lead – I’m not sure if it will take me anywhere, once the exhibition is finished it may become a memory of something I did once. I might in time do it again, I’ve thought about the idea that I could take a year off everything, apply for funding and work personally with a variety of Makers for 52 weeks – would I do it better if I planned everything in advance, had funding, time and space, who knows, for now I don’t really care. All I want to do is make, create and be successful and happy in my creative practice and if all this year has done is provide me with focus and drive I don’t think that’s bad at all.

So, that’s it, Make 52 is over, of course there is a 7 week exhibition to plan, and possibly a book of some form but for this weekend only I’m off!

Next week, I will be…..

 

Make 52 – Week 51 : Andrew Till

The penultimate blog! 51 weeks and things have finally caught up with me, I’m absolutely shattered and a little germy so sadly Andrew Till week wasn’t a huge event – I need to conserve energy for week 52.

I’d allotted Tuesday as ‘Make’ day, however by the time I’d arranged to drop off remaining Christmas orders and the rest of my festive cards I was left with under 2 hours to complete the task. Aware beforehand that time was likely to be short instead of sleeping Monday night my brain was buzzing with how to condense week 51 in to an achievable Make. I had planned to spend the day researching, however I reallised that part of the point is the do something creative, so sitting on the internet with a cup of tea wasn’t really going to cut it.

Andrew Till is a great friend of mine, we worked together in my previous job for 8 years, and have known each other since our late teens, enjoyed holidays together and numerous film and pizza evenings. Andy now lives in Kent with his lovely Italian wife Flaviana, they are currently in the process of making their new house their own, however in the middle of tearing off radiators and painting he still finds the time to update my website and change logos for which I’m ever grateful.

Andy runs his own successful business as a web designer and ‘app’ creator – plasticwebsites.com. When setting up my own business there’s was no one else I would have asked to create my own site and branding. The ‘Parrott’ logo that features everywhere is perfect for me and shows off Andy’s talent as a graphic illustrator as well as his design skills.

I wanted Andy to be one of my ‘Makes’ because his logo design has inspired me often to think of products that reflect the logo – to think how important branding is and how it should be used to constantly promote yourself and advertise. The plan was this week to research how I could utilise my branding to create ‘produced’ items to sell in lifestyle shops as more of a staple or steady income.

So this week I began to brainstorm what I might design and produce for more of a mass market – Cath Kidson on a mini scale. I started to thinking about how I could use my print designs on metal and have them reproduced as gift items and textile products. I guess it’s not the true idea of a maker to think in such a commercial way, however I want a house and an income to be brutally honest – this is a hard job to make a living out of and I’m always open to new ideas.

To start with I decided that a kind of brainstorming method would be the making part of week 51 – I wanted to create a method of retaining ideas as and when they popped in to my head. Using an old picture frame from a charity shop I cut strips of patterned papers and wrote on the back of each one different ideas I’d already had, I then attached them to the board, layering them up – it turned out looking a bit like a ‘swatch’ board, but it means I now have a ‘contained’ method of keeping ideas and whenever I have time to research a new product I can just pull one off.

Following the making part I then spent the rest of the time I had researching product manufacture, finding everything from having your designs put on wallpaper to drumsticks and plectrums – I became extremely excited, particularly about my new online gallery shop, which could be the home of some of these products.

So thanks to my good friend Andrew Till  I’m thinking a bit more commercially – good thing to!

Next week it finishes, my 52nd Make! Items are coming in from friends and family for the ‘Ready Steady Make’ – I’ll be situated in the gallery at Walford Mill on 28, 29 and 30 creating the final piece, hopefully minus the germs and a bit more sparky – see you there.

 

Make 52 – Week 50 : Photography

If you’d have known me at the age of 24 then you would have seen me with an old clunky SLR permanently around my neck – I loved photography. I had no idea what all the buttons did, or anything technical about this creative pursuit, I just merely loved ‘clicking.’ This love of taking pictures meant that as time passed my pictures improved just through extensive practice. I wouldn’t say my images were anything particularly special… they weren’t awful, but there was and is more talent out there than my own mediocre attempts.

I’m ashamed to say that the moment I began to work at Walford Mill and started my art degree my camera became somewhat neglected – sitting in a corner gathering dust and only called upon to take images of artwork for my sketchbook, it had definitely seen better times, and what ever talent I did have for taking pictures withered away and became replaced with my obsession with metal.

I’ve often looked at my camera and remembered the times when on a day off I would fill my pockets with snacks and head off somewhere scenic with only the company of my Canon, I miss those days, but sadly not enough to make time for them, and these days time off is very rare.

So for week 50 I decided my ‘former self’ would be my inspiration and I couldn’t wait! With gale force wind and rain on the forecasts for my week off, it wasn’t looking good for photography, I’d optimistically set aside Thursday for a trip to Durlston County Park with my camera and my fingers were crossed for sunshine. To my delight it shone!

I headed out in the morning and plodded around the parks meadows and coastal paths stopping every few seconds to take more pictures – I’d forgotten how holding a camera in your hands makes you walk around with different eyes, viewing how light effects colours, and tilting your head at ridiculous angles to make things look how they’ve never looked before – to an observer you could appear quite strange.

I also remembered how obsessive I used to get about particular images, taking numerous shots of the same thing in order to get the perfect result. I probably took over 100 pictures of the see crashing by the Tilly Whim Caves – there was an amazing blow hole, created by a large swell and I couldn’t leave until I’d secured a decent picture.

As the sky begun to cloud over I headed back to the learning centre to work on my pictures on my laptop – cropping them and tweaking colours to create the finished images.

The final images aren’t anything particularly special,  they do show my lack of practice, however I was surprised that they weren’t completely awful – I thought that my photographic eye had long since left me, but I think it’s still there and given time it may return to how it used to be. I enjoyed the day I spent with my camera, I hope and want to do it again – I just need to make the time and not be adverse to having it swinging around my next everywhere I go, after all it’s a lot lighter than my old one.

Another good week and a medium I’ve missed. Only two to go, items are coming in for my ‘Ready Steady Make’ in week 52 – some stand out objects include a tennis racket and a mannequins leg, guess what I’ll be thinking about during Christmas dinner!

Apologies for the blog appearing a day late, away for the weekend in Durlston I was lacking an internet connection – quite nice really. So this week’s 51st Make will see me take inspiration from a Graphic Designer, my great friend Andrew Till – he’s responsible for my website and my branding and I’m keen to explore how I can use my wonderful ‘Parrott’ logo to brainstorm new products for my business.

Make 52 – Week 49 : Kids Craft at Christmas

I’m beginning to think there is nothing an old issue of the Beano can’t look good on, it’s a creative winner every time. That stack of old issues I purchased on ebay came in to play again this week.

A final one for the children in my life, this week’s Make was inspired by the last Craft Club of the year. The plan was to make Christmas decorations and we had 14 youngsters and one hour available.

It’s come to my attention over the years of running kids classes that sometimes they just like to kick back. They do like the messy slightly complex classes but it also turns out that sometimes they just want to simplify things a bit, enjoy making but also have a bit of chat at the same time. Now when you’ve got an hour to achieve something with 14 kids who are mostly 5 and 6 years old, in order that they go home with an effective result it is often good to keep it simple – this week we did just that.

The plan was to make Christmas wreaths for they’re bedroom doors, with the usual need not to spend any money. We already had wire, paper and beads – so a plan was formulated. Circles of coloured papers and beads, simple but effective.

They were a fantastic bunch of kids to end the year with, all in the Christmas spirit and very chatty. They loved hunting through the bead box and busily got on with the task whilst gabbling away to each other… wonderful, I love kids when they’re like this, it reminds me of when I was at school.

The resulting paper and bead wreaths were far better than the demo piece I produced and to be honest much more colourful than the version I’ve made with the Beano – how do they do it! The thought process just seems to involve picking up random colours and any old beads that don’t match and yet the results are always more vibrant than mine, clearly I can learn a lot for these little people – a constant source of inspiration.

I do like my more subtle Beano version – although thinking on it now, I wonder if it should be double with maybe and inner or outer ring… I’ll think on this and possibly adapt it for the exhibition.

So that’s it, the end of the 40′s!! Next week ’50′ and 3 to go. I’m officially off next week, I promise to do no work at all… except for that one meeting. I will be doing my Make though, obviously, and I’ve decided on a bit of photography, some quality time with my camera in honour of ‘Image 52′ in 2012. Yes that’s right there are two of them at it next year now, very exciting, I appear to have started something – Hazel Evans will be doing Inspire 52, an exploration of illustration and words. And Howard Shepherd will be doing a photographic year named Image 52… all brilliant, I can’t wait to read somebody else’s blog!

Make 52 – Week 48 : Kathryn Arbon

A ‘Monday morning’ Make this week, sometimes I’ve found it’s nice to get them done and dusted early on. It’s a way of starting the week on a creative high, it also get’s it off my mind, clearing plenty of space in my head for thinking about my business – I’ve been doing plenty of that lately.

So this week I took part in one of our very last MasterCraft classes, we’ve decided to run them until the end of this year, however due to a reduction in bookings we’ve sadly had to make the decision to stop them. However they will not be forgotten, so watch our website for brand new taster classes on weekends.

Our second to last MasterCraft class was being taught by our onsite jeweller Kathryn Arbon. Kate has been a great mentor to me from the start or my creative career, giving me valuable advice and support in starting out as a maker and working with metal. She was also my tutor at college on my Silversmithing BTEC, it was great fun being taught by a friend from Walford Mill.

During her two hour class this Monday, myself and the other students had the opportunity to manipulate and reinvent our old, broken silver jewellery to produce new items to wear. We learned simple techniques with hammers and saws to make changes to rings, earrings, pendants and bracelets, and then used Kate’s torch to solder different pieces together resulting in entirely new pieces of jewellery.

I didn’t have much odds and ends of silver jewellery when I looked through my collection, although I did find an old ring and a broken brooch that was my grandmothers.

The brooch was very dirty, but featured an elegant filigree leaf and flower. I decided I wanted to separate these two pieces and solder the flower to an old ring. I started by sawing off parts of the brooch that surrounded the detailed flower, I then filed away the sharp bits I couldn’t remove. After this, I removed the stone from the ring by filing the edges of the setting and then pushing the stone out – I’ve no idea what stone it was, it pinged across the room and is no doubt lost somewhere between the aged floorboards of the Mill never to be seen again.

Once I’d filed and finished the pieces, I soldered the flower to the ring – it was a difficult mission to join the two metals which probably meant I was trying to join fine silver to sterling silver, in the end I asked Kate to do it for me as the class was coming to an end.

Although quite flowery and girly and still in need of a clean, I do like my ring – it’s a typical ‘Caroline’ piece, using the natural world and a bit of ‘pretty’ as inspiration.

So that’s it, week 48 done and dusted! They seem to be flying by even quicker now it’s all drawing to a close, I have no doubt the last 4 will be gone before I know it. Items are coming in for my ‘Ready Steady Make’ at the end of the year – if you weren’t aware, I’ve asked 26 people to provide 2 things (anything they like), and during the last week of the year, week 52, I’ll be working in the gallery at Walford Mill creating my final Make from all 52 items…… possibly a bit of a crazy mission, but I had to end with some kind of extravaganza!

Next week, a final one for the kids that come to the Mill, I’ll be creating the all important ‘festive decorations’ with the students in my Craft Club. The class is next Saturday from 2.30-3.30pm and we’ll all be getting in the Christmas spirit!

 

Make 52 – Week 47 : Julie Arkell

Nearly there! Following last week’s fretting about ‘what’s the Arts Council going to think’, ‘will it make a good exhibition’, etc, etc…. I received a wonderful, enthusiastic and supportive message from a fellow artist and fan of my 52′s – her Marmite analogy placed everything in to perspective. There’s five weeks left, I’m nearly there, it’s too late to fret now anyway so I’ll just enjoy making.

It’s true I do have a tendancy to constantly evaluate what I’m doing something I believe was born out of doing an art degree and having to evaluate ‘all the time’ – however, to be honest, I’m uptight at times and need to just let go, be creative and hang the consequences or what everybody thinks… easier said than done I’m thinking.

So with all the sleepless nights of fretting last week, a two and a half day Make and the volunteering with the Durlston Castle Opening, this week’s Make, I decided to keep simple. Don’t get me wrong Julie Arkell’s work is absolutely fantastic, I can’t get enough of it, and in an ideal world where I wasn’t working and preparing new stock for 4 Christmas Craft Shows I would have relished the chance to indulge and immerse myself in the world of her fabulous creatures, with knitting and lots of found objects. However this week, I needed a break… not bad, it is week 47 after all.

So here’s what I did…

The one thing that really strikes me with Julie Arkell’s work is the way, through her subtle painting and additions you can see a hint of the text in the papier mache, maybe this resonates with me because I love adding and printing text in to my flower designs on aluminium – I just love the inclusion of words hidden and peaking out from layers of colour and pattern.

One particular printed document I’ve wanted to use for ages and  had a stack of them hidden away for just such an occasion is the Beano. I remember my mums Cousin Anne, who worked for the government used to come and visit in her posh cars and bring me a giant bar of chocolate and a copy of Beano and Dandy to read – I never read it any other time, but for some reason the images, fonts and limited palette of colours has always been routed in the back of my creative conscious, inspiration, patiently waiting for suitable times to come and play.

This week seemed the perfect excuse to get the scissors to the first issue in a stack of 45 bought on ebay for a bargain price. My thoughts were of Beano jewellery, I couldn’t get the idea out my head until I’d created something and so eagerly I began early on the Sunday night prior to my 47th week. I decided to again explore the pasting technique I’d learned from Jenny Adams, and see if it could be applied to metal and paper.

The result seemed to work quite well, I love the earrings, I wonder if they would be popular commercially, hmmmm, I’ll think on that. Finishing the earrings off on Monday morning before heading to work, left me free for the rest of the week to crack on with new products – I’m still in overdrive and at present I’m particular geared towards creating small, more commercial affordable items for craft shows – fingers crossed they sell well.

So I feel Julie Arkell week, although a little short and sweet and hardly doing her work justice, was a success for me and I thank her for the inspiration.

Next week I’m attending one of our final MasterCraft Sessions at Walford Mill – the two hour taster classes have had their day and we feel it’s time to move on and develop new ideas for our education programme. So for Week 48, I’ll be inspired by my colleague, friend and onsite jeweller at Walford Mill, Kathryn Arbon. During her MasterCraft class I will be creating new pieces of jewellery, from old, broken bits and bobs from the bottom of my jewellery box – I’m really looking forward to this class and can’t wait to see what I and the others taking part come up with.

Make 52 – Week 46 : Jenny Adams

A week of assemblage and fantastic home made soup. For Make 46 I was happy to be able to work with Jenny Adams in her brand new studio – it’s first creative outing!

I met Jenny over five years ago when I first began working at Walford Mill. We hit it off as friends and she became a valuable mentor to me not only in her creative practice but also in her teaching methods. I remember being nervous about tutoring my first children’s craft club and the relief that came to me when Jenny offered to be my assistant for the session. Between Jenny and Tiggy Rawling I feel I’ve gained a well rounded insight in to tutoring children in arts activities that aren’t held in the usual classroom environment.

As an artist Jenny has moved forward constantly, to begin with carving beautiful quirky wooden figures and characters, then on in to the realms of driftwood and found objects, I own two of these particular pieces, they are wonderful. She’s now moving in a new direction involving mixed media and collage – this only goes to show that a successful and keen maker can never stay stationary and produce the same things, they are always inspired by the art, craft and world that continues to change around them and always pushing themselves to create something new.

So this week we’d settled on the idea to create an assemblage, a collection, a 3D collage. We would both work on creating an environment within a box inspired by the natural world. We started out on Monday morning with a discussion about ideas. Following this Jenny showed me her method for adding colour and pattern to papers which could then be applied and collaged on the surface of a wooden box bringing it to life. I loved this process immensely, the mix of colour and pattern, it reminded me of how much I love applying the same to pieces of my aluminium. By the end of the day I’d began adding my creations on paper to the outside of my box. My homework was to find the contents.

I had it in my head I wanted to create a kind of homage to conservation in the natural world – a kind of natural history museum and country park all rolled in to one, that celebrated how we now value our flora, fauna, insects and mammals, how we monitor them and use everything within our power to keep them safe for future generations. So I wanted to create a piece that celebrated the now but still retained the use of vintage objects as is so common in my automata work.

The following morning I turned my wardrobe and my workshop upside down, trying to find anything and everything that inspired me to fill my little box. Armed with three bags of goodies I headed back to Jenny’s studio to continue with my Make.

Once I’d finished adding the colour to the outside of my box, I set about the task of making the interior, I carefully selected images, 3D objects and text that I felt worked within the space and linked to the items around it. Success!, by the end of the day I’d nearly finished, I couldn’t believe I’d made so much progress in such a small space of time, I was really focussed on this project and enjoyed the making processes and piecing everything together.

The final morning was for finishing, securing everything in to position and a bit of tweaking. This was a brilliant 2.5 days, working with Jenny in her new studio was a fantastic privilege and her home made soup was truly scrumptious. This week’s Make has to be one of my most successful, part of this could be down to the time I had available to do it, although you might think that just over 2 days is no time at all, in the world of Make 52 it’s the time you only dream about.

So, this week, I’m pleased with the results of my Make and had a wonderful time creating it, however my mind has been all over the place. A Monday night of no sleep, fretting over the exhibition – in a world where all shows are assessed by the arts council, can I be a contender, can I bare to the read the report, and just what will all these items look like in a room together? It kept me awake for some time.

There’s 6 week’s left and I’m at an interesting point with the whole affair. It appears somewhere along the line I became enthused for my own business (good thing to), I want to drive it forward, make products, sell, make money and maybe one day pay myself some wages! In the past month I’ve gone in to some kind of overdrive and mass productive mode that I can’t seem to get out of – no bad thing when you’re in the early stages of your business. However this week, this attitude has made me question what I should do with the last 6 weeks of the project, I’ve got things to make can’t I just get on with it!?!

I’ve been indecisive all week, only this afternoon drawing a conclusion – I couldn’t decide, should I continue with 6 more makers as inspiration, should I focus on rounding the project off and making some products, or should I revisit some of the disasters – Grayson Perry still haunts me, what was I thinking! Painting a plate! Idiot! Well, at about 5pm today I decided what to do – there’s 6 weeks to go, why fret, it should be enjoyed, I’ve alloted myself time to get creative and explore new  materials and inspirations, it doesn’t matter if no products come out of it, I should just enjoy the final month of this project and simply ‘make.’

As a result, next week’s inspiration will be Julie Arkell – I’ve purchased a pile of old Beano’s and I’m formulating a cunning plan, watch this space!

Make 52 – Week 45 : Reinvent for WaterAid

I had a nice, productive and I have to say it ‘crafty’ week this week… sorry Christine, I know you hate to add a ‘y’ on the end of the word.

This week’s Make saw me recycle and reinvent some previous unsold work to produce more affordable items for a Charity Craft Sale I will be taking part in at Durlston Castle during their opening weekend. The craft sale will be held in their brand new gallery and feature some wonderful textile work by Madeleine Langdown.

I set out on Tuesday with the idea that I wanted to create a more affordable option for people to buy. Items that were created using my aluminium, but without the added costs of real silver findings. In particular items that could be considered as ‘stocking fillers’, such as simple pendants on ribbon and keyrings. I also wanted to create some festive cards and Christmas decorations.

I started out with the obvious choice of shopping in Hobbycraft for bits and bobs that might be a sparkly, festive addition to the work – I emerged with a bag of bells, a load of ribbon in bright colours and some small lasercut birds and reindeer… hardly the key to some super contemporary results (I never did use the bells), however I had in my head that the two days set aside for Make 52 this week were to be of a slightly more relaxing variety, where some things could be created in front of the TV, clearly I wanted a rest this week.

Once home what followed was not altogether that relaxing, I spent 8 hours bent over my bench furiously guillotining, filing and finishing square, after rectangle, after square that were cut from a large stack of left over bangle strips from the Surf’s Up! wristbands I created last year. There was an enormous pile of them to get through and I probably didn’t need to do them all but I’m a girl who likes daily targets and for some reason Tuesdays target was to get to the bottom of the pile. My neck and shoulders disagreed with the task I’d set myself, so a walk was required to loosen them off before I spent an evening in front of the TV sticking and threading.

On Thursday I chose to spend a rainy wet day putting it all together, I stuck cards and packaged, I threaded pendants and tied knots and created some little Surf’s Up! keyrings – it all turned out very funky and colourful. Some simple changes to some pieces of unused metal created pieces of work that could be sold to raise money for WaterAid and wouldn’t break the bank in this current economic mess we appear to be in.

So this week’s Make turned in to a bit of a mammoth production line, however I’m pleased with the results, it’s not cutting edge design and they don’t really belong in a gallery cabinet, however I’m hoping they will be popular and raise plenty of money.

I’m doing two other craft sales prior to Christmas and this week has definitely made me consider the importance of creating affordable options for people particularly in the current market and especially leading up to a festive season where everyone will be watching what they spend. I would do this again in future, it’s a way to reinvent and not waste pieces that haven’t sold, I like this idea.

I hope the sale goes well and raises plenty of money, if you would like to come along it will be at the opening weekend of Durlston Castle, Durlston Coutnry Park, Swanage, Dorset, 18, 19 and 20 November 10.30am-4pm each day – come and buy your Christmas gifts and marvel at the castle and all it has to offer, especially the views from the top!

Thank you to Surf’s Up! for letting me reinvent their branded wristbands to raise some money.

Next week I’ll be working with friend and mixed media artist Jenny Adams – maybe I’ll find a use for those bells!

Make 52 – Week 44 : Simon Meanwell-Ralph

Well, what can I say, this had to be one of the most exciting, fulfilling and successful weeks. Yesterday I stationed myself in the gallery at Walford Mill with a past colleague, Simon Meanwell-Ralph. Since leaving Walford Mill Simon has set up a successful  and captivating mini empire named Marvellous Millinery – seriously if you’re looking for some fabulous headwear, look no further.

Now I have to say, I’ve never really been a hat person, I do, I admit resort to a rather woolly bobble hat when it get’s really cold but apart from that I lean towards the toddler you can’t keep a hat on for the rest of the year. As far as fancy headwear goes, I’ve never needed any so I’ve never bothered to seek it out. However the week Simon returned to the Mill in his new status as once a month onsite maker, apart from the temporary distraction of the cookies he brought with him, we were all utterly swept away by his new ‘marvelous’ creations. The moment he places one on your head that goes perfectly with what you are wearing, you suddenly have the urge to gatecrash any and every Royal event – because not only would you fit in perfectly, you’d turn more heads than the Queen herself. They truly are wonderful and I fell over myself not only asking Simon if he would teach workshops at the Mill but also desperate for him to be a Make 52.

I was counting down the days until our booked Make, we’d chosen to work side by side in the gallery, on November 5th, each creating a hat inspired by Bonfire Night.

Earlier in the week I began to create my fireworks in aluminium with extremely disappointing results, however I wasn’t swayed, with the recent success of my aluminium flowers that followed on from The Monochronium Make, I had it in my head that the floral treats needed to be on headwear and so, for me, bonfires became irrelavant, instead it would be a shooting display of colourful aluminium flowers.

We set up yesterday morning and selected the colours we were to work in. Simon gave me an introduction to the materials I would be using and we got stuck in. I was eager to get going, I couldn’t wait to see how the flower would work on my facinator and it was inspirational being surrounded by Simon’s own work, in particular the Peacock headwear he’d brought along especially for me to wear.

The day was fantastic, some great interaction with the public, which is always a valuable addition to our gallery, many, many giggles and a few sweet treats. At the end of the day I couldn’t believe what I’d produced, I completely amazed myself with what I’d created, super chuffed, very happy… marvelous!

Simon created a red and yellow, bouncing firework facinator he named ‘Remember Remember’, it was great fun to wear and sparkled in the light just like a firework – the pom poms were a brilliant idea and really brought the work to life.

My facinator didn’t have the movement of Simon’s due to the thicker wire, but somehow this didn’t seem to matter, the static, upright nature of the flowers, really lifted the whole piece, giving great height to a small lady. I’d do the whole day again in a heartbeat, I loved my hat, this may have to be one Make that I keep for any and all occasions.

I had a wonderful Make this week and I’m glad it was near to the end, having great weeks at the tail end of such a huge project only serve to keep you going. There’s only 8 week’s left and I think I’ll miss it to be honest, although preparing for the exhibition looks like it’s going to be an all consuming affair.

Next week, something for somebody else, during the opening weekend of Durlston Castle on 18, 19, 20 November I will be selling my work for the charity Wateraid. So next week’s Make will see me waste nothing, I’ll be revamping, redesigning and renewing old stock ready to make as much money as possible for a worthy cause, come along, Marvel in the new and wonderful castle and start your Christmas shopping.

Make 52 – Week 43 : The Monochronium

This week’s Make was a extravaganza in black and white. I was lucky enough to be invited to take part in The Monochronium as one of the bookshelf artists.

The exhibition was created by Visual Artist, Hazel Evans. It was a huge event, filled with an array of artwork and involving more than 20 different types of creative practitioners, as well as a 36 hour Artathon!

As my part in the exhibition I would be doing my third ‘Bookshelf.’ Along the same lines as week 13′s Make, I would be using a pile of books to create a piece of artwork in 3 hours whilst sitting on a plinth. However this time the inspiration was to come from the themes of the Monochronium and the result to be in black and white.

This is the third time I’ve taken part in the bookshelf and seem to love them the more and more I do them. Having the restrictions of time and coming to something not quite sure what you’re going to make is a refreshing change for me. Particularly this time I didn’t fully think about what I was going to produce and just let it happen.

Since making my paper automata model in week 39, I’ve really been thinking about how you can manipulate papers in some of the same ways as aluminium, and how useful it can be to test new ideas. Recently I’ve been experimenting with redesigning my flower stalks, an old product of mine. I’ve been looking at designing more intricate stylised flowers for the home, so for this exhibition I decided to experiment with different templates and use the books to create a fallen vase of flowers and butterflies, bursting out from wires.

It was great fun working with the different papers, images and text found in the books, and particularly concentrating on just using monochrome. The Bookshelf I was part of ran during the preview for the exhibition so there was plenty going on to keep your creativity flowing including music performances and photography, it was a brilliant environment to work in and be inspired.

I was really pleased with my creation, it was enjoyable to make and once laid out on the plinth it dawned on me how much shadows were playing with the overall effect of the artwork – I hadn’t thought of that beforehand, it seemed to really work. So a productive and enjoyable Week 43, I’ll be making my flowers in metal this weekend.

Only 9 Makes to go! Next week I’ll be working with Simon Meanwell-Ralph my wonderful and talented friend and Milliner. We’ll be creating facinators inspired by fireworks on 5th November in the gallery at Walford Mill, between 10am and 5pm, I can’t wait!