At the start of the year the first talk I attended was one by Jamie Laing as part of Future Me week. (notes below).
I found this to be a really good talk to start the year on as I found it very inspirational and had great advice for the basics of business and building a brand. I also found this talk good as it really drove home the importance of putting yourself out there as you never know where it may lead.
I followed this advice a few weeks later by putting myself out of my comfort zone a bit and applying for the Great Pottery Throw Down.
I knew it would be rather unlikely that I was actually going to get in however I thought that It couldn't hurt to try, and filling in the application let me write down all of my skills and write a statement on what I am all about as a person, such as what my work is about and what I care about. Think just seeing the extensive list of all of the techniques that I had learnt from first year to now filled me with confidence, not just about the quality of the application but about me and a person and what I have achieved and learnt through my time at university so far.
around this time I also applied for New Designers through my Expression of interest. (below).
The next weekend I headed to London to visit Collect. I always find this to be such an interesting showcase of craft and end up coming away so inspired by the end of it (some of my favourite pieces below).
I chose most of these pieces as my favourites because of their colour, humour, story or clear sense of historical reference, which I relate to through my work. I found a lot of inspiration through these pieces of how I could think differently about my own colour pallets and story telling. I found this trip useful also because I got to visit the stand of Alviston Fine Arts, I visited their stand last year and got to have a fantastic chat with the founder Fergus Downey and had a lot of respect for him and how he spoke about his artists. I find Alveston to have an amazing collection of artists with work I really resonate with and would like to keep them on my radar for any future opportunities.
Whilst in London I also visited an exhibition at 2 Temple place, where I got to see the work of Connor Coulston. (below).
I think Coulstons work is a really interesting study on the contrast between classic forms, and modern additions and subjects. I like how he keeps his surfaces messy and unfinished, however incorporates complicated additions such as neon signs, I also like his modern references and playfulness towards subject matter. I think I can really take something from his work about modernising classical forms and not getting stuck in the nostalgia of them.
Finally the last place I went to in London was the V&A where I got to see an exhibition called 'British Studio Pottery'. in this exhibition was the work of Vicky Lindo and her series entitled "Dead Dad Book". I have loved this series for a long time now and found it a privilege to be able to see it up close and really investigate and read every panel and understand the series in an in-depth way. (pictures below).
whilst observing her pieces I was in awe of how all of her objects worked together to tell all parts of a whole story. This work surrounds the story of her troubled relationship with her late father and the unusual circumstances around his suspicious death. Lindo tells this story through a piece based around newspaper excerpts about the event, a piece based on how own feelings around it, a piece illustrating the event, a piece about her relationships in her family and a piece about her own memories of her relationship with her dad. I found this to be a really inspiring visit as it gave me new ideas and inspiration on how I could tell complex stories through a multiple piece series. This was my favourite exhibition of the weekend and I think also the one I will carry with me to inform me on my work going forward.
Once back at university we had a guest lecture by Johnathan Boyd. (notes below).
I also had a group tutorial with him afterwards. (notes below).
At this point I had changed my New Designers submission to include new and revised forms. (below).
At this point I also had to put some thought into how I wished to exhibit my work at the degree show. we held a small day exhibition to test out our initial ideas. I did a small sketch of my reviewed idea as I decided that instead of stand alone plinths I would opt for a table top version. (below).
when we held our day exhibition I could not bring my actual pieces up as they were drying in the studio so I crafted some shapes of similar sizes to my pieces out of household items to use as references. (day exhibition below).
After this I decided that I did in fact like this more than the idea of free standing plinths so I came up with some final measurements for my plinths. (below).
Unfortunately however I am not inducted into wood to make these myself. so I have made a commission deal with George Potter Designs to make him a ceramic piece in exchange for him making me these plinths. Colour to be decided once final pieces are finished.
Throughout this project I have been very focused on the saving of heritage craft in Sunderland so I was extremely interested when I was contacted by a page on instagram called @savethenationalglasscentre , which is campaigning to save the national glass centre in Sunderland, one of our last remaining craft organisations.
I have signed their petition and have been donating to their cause, as well as encouraging others whenever I can to sign it too to avoid another craft being lost in the area.