Making It

When you make a living from designing and making the run up to Christmas is one of the busiest times of year, so please excuse the lack of blog in September! Making the large volumes of stock needed to fulfill orders, take to shows and send out to stockists has made me feel a little bit like a manufacturing  factory recently, so it's been great to also be involved in the 'Making It' Project - a celebration of craft & creativity.

There are lots of events planned as part of the project http://www.makingitproject.com/

Diatoms, minute single-celled algae found in plankton. Image by M.I.Walker. Wellcome Collection postcard www.wellcomecollection.org


A couple of weeks ago I spent 3 days at the Meridian Centre in Havant making and engaging with visitors. Being free to make whatever I liked allowed me to experiment with scale, and geometric shapes, taking inspiration from microscopic structures. Documentation of this and the finished pieces, as well as work by other artists involved in this strand of the project can be seen at Winchester Discovery Centre's City Space gallery until 11th November http://www3.hants.gov.uk/library/wdc/city-space.htm

I'm going to be attending some of the events this weekend, but for me the Making It Project has already had a huge impact on my creative practice.

Making Space in Havant is one of the partners involved in the project, and has offered 12 month residencies for 2 makers in their studios http://www.makingspace.org/

I have been really lucky to have been selected for one of these residencies. I officially took over the keys at the beginning of September, but it's taken a while to get things moved in and organised - and there's still some way to go! I have already spent some really productive days working there, and once the rush for Christmas stock is over, I'm looking forward to experimenting with some new ideas!