Artistic skills

As you are aware, I have recently started doing my gold arts award. Part A asks me to undertake an artistic challenge. This requires me to develop a new art skill in a variety of pieces after undergoing training in that particular field. I wish to combing several skills in a variety of pieces. Below is a list of all the skills I can do and the skill which I wish to progress further.

My current skills

Textiles
 - weaving
 - feltmaking
 - crocheting
 - dyeing
 - spinning
 - carding

Photography

The artistic skill in which I shall be starting from scratch is fine art. I have no previous knowledge in fine art but I have wanted to learn about it for a while.
In order for me to develop my fine art skills, I have applied for Wysing Arts Centre Young Artists Programme. This programme will enable me to develop my fine art skills by working with Wysing's artists in residence, aswell as learning from the other young artists.

I have also signed on to join an art class with a local artist Louise Stebbings which will again help me develop my fine art skills. The art class is a weekly class on a thursday afternoon for two hours and the opportunity to work with a professional artist will help me greatly at the side of Wysing.

Thats all for now
Meghan

Campaign for wool feedback, Take II

I have just had another reply to my opinion on the campaign for wool, this time from talented weaver Alex Glen. This is what she had to say.

I fully agree with the comment that the Campaign for Wool is a really good idea. I am not sure that the farmers will get a better price for their wool unless there is increased demand for wool and/or an improvement in quality of the wool being produced. (Until there is a better price for wool the farmers are not motivated to improve the quality of the wool of course, as in the past at least it has cost more to shear the sheep than they get for the wool) So my thought would be that the more wool can be promoted and advertised to consumers and manufacturers the better with no upper limit to stop at. I am no expert on how market forces and prices behave but I do not think the product can be over promoted.

Thank you very much to Alex Glen for kindly giving her opinion on the campaign for wool.

Thats all for now

Meghan

Cambridge Museums

Recently I went to Cambridge on a day trip particularly to explore the museums. I'll start with the Fitzwilliam Museum. I have been to the Fitz several times before but unless you write off a whole day to just the Fitz, you can't possibly take it all in. What I usually like to do when visiting the Fitz is to focus on one particular part of the museum that I would like to see and accept that I won't see much else. This particular time I decided to focus on Italian religious art.

Really there were too many stunning paintings to tell you about all of them but there was one that caught my eye. It was a long rectangular painting telling the story of Jesus, split into two parts. The painting technique from a distance looked almost a block colour, modern style painting, which is what drew me to it in the first place. However, when you get closer to the painting you start to notice the subtle detail the artist included in his painting and how although the painting itself looks fairly simple, that for me was its beauty. It stood out from the rest as being different, something that you can imagine may have been a completely new painting style in its time, something that wasn't following the regular pattern of the time of detailed, realistic depictions of exactly what the artists is seeing.

Moving onto the other museum I visited, the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology (MAA). I visited this museum because I have of course met Sarah-Jane Harknett at this museum and I therefore wanted to get an idea of some of the pieces in their exhibitions as my plan for the workshop was for the students to create a piece which has been inspired by a piece in the museum.

I wasn't looking closely at the pieces in MAA, but more at the colour combinations in anticipation of me buying the correct colours of fleece for my workshop. I found that the mains colours, aswell as the natural colours, consisted of blues, reds, yellows and greens. I found this very useful to me as I needed the right colours in order for my students to be able to recreate their chosen pattern.

Thats all for now, if any of you are ever in Cambridge, I can't recommend these two museums enough.
Meghan

The Museum of Broken Relationships

Recently the National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford (NCCD), staged an exhibition called the Museum of Broken Relationships. It consisted of a collection of pieces donated by the public, all of which reminded them of a relationship that had failed some how. These pieces ranged from pictures and books to all sorts of pieces which to anyone else would mean nothing at all.

For each piece there was a short story written by the owner of the piece as too why the piece means so much to them and what originally happened to make this piece a symbol of their broken relationship. These stories were not only an interesting read, but varied from the trivial to the down right heart break and betrayal.

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me when I was there so I don't have any photos for you this time. However, if you go to the link below, there is a bit more information about the exhibition and some photos of the pieces.
http://www.nationalcraftanddesign.org.uk/exhibitions/Museumofbrokenrelationships

All in all I found the exhibition interesting. It was certainly interesting to read about the story behind these objects and why they meant so much to individuals. I wouldn't say its the best exhibition I've seen at NCCD, that would probably be Gabriel Dawe, but it wasn't the worst either. Definitely worth going too once but not necessarily twice.

Thats all for now
Meghan

Campaign for Wool Feedback

As you have seen in my previous posts, I have done some research into the campaign for wool and I have formed a view on the campaign for wool. As part of the gold arts award I needed to share my view on the campaign for wool with others and take a note of their feedback. I have had three responses in total and below is what they had to say.

Meghan

Your post on the Campaign for Wool was certainly thought provoking.  I am very keen that farmers become more aware of what a brilliant product they have and therefore do not burn or dispose of sheep's fleece as if they are worthless.  However, the idea that wool becomes a real luxury product, instead of one available to us all, is concerning.  The wool board pay only about £1 per fleece for the wool they buy to turn into carpets etc.  An artisan wanting a specialist fleece (say for spinning) is prepared to pay a lot more than that, and willingly.  But I don't think we should kid ourselves that all sheep's fleece is worthy of the artisan market.  Only some of them make lovely soft yarn for the clothing industry.  So your comment on being sensible in the price of wool in the future is correct, in a broad sense.  However, I hope that in moving forward, we can find a balance that allows farmers to get a fair price for good fleece, that will still allow artisans and the fashion industry, to afford to make products that are available to every one. 

Thank you for bringing the campaign to others attention.  It is important that we are made more aware of the struggle over wool in this country and the wider community.

May I wish you all the best in your gold arts

Michelle Johnson

Hi Meghan

It's really great that you are wholeheartedly behind the Campaign for Wool and I agree that there is a danger of wool pricing it's self out of the market.  However, given that the National Clip has drastically reduced over a number of years and that there are still a number of farms who burn their clip rather than sell to the wool marketing board, because they can't get a decent price, the more the Campaign is needed to raise wool's profile.  

Maybe more farmers will be induced to rear sheep, not just for meat, but for the fleece in the hope that they will get a decent price for it, then the price/demand will balance at a more realistic level for all.

Best wishes

Alison Daykin

Meghan

I did not have a particular opinion about wool before I read your post.  However, I am aware that many of the clothes I wear have wool in them.  My main problem, and where I agree with you, is in wool becoming so expensive that it can no longer be used in everyday products.  I feel that there are enough things that have been priced out of the market, and beyond people's purses.  Therefore, never having heard of the campaign for wool before reading your post, I am glad I am now aware of the issues, and I hope, like you, that it continues to be a force for good in opening people's eyes to the farmers plight.

I have looked at their website, and am very impressed by it.  Thank you for taking the time to explain it!

Best wishes

Edward Bowling-Johnson

I want to thank all the people who have taken the time to get back to me with their opinion, it is greatly appreciated.

Michelle Johnson has a very interesting website which is definitely worth a look http://www.handwoventextiles.co.uk/

Alison Daykin also has a brilliant website 

 http://alisonyuletextiles.co.uk/

Thats all for now

Meghan

Combining three mediums

This post is all about my final artistic challenge piece, a piece to combine textiles, photography and art. I decided that the best way to go about doing this would be to use a series of pieces in one overarching piece. I decided to create nine different fish which will all be hung from the wall. All the fish will have a backing of ply wood and each will be decorated in a different way. Three will be decorated with textiles, three with photographs and three with art.

Well, good news I have finished all the fish and assembled them in their final place. There are three columns of three fish with all of them hanging at different levels.

The finished piece

Going through the fish from left to right in the top row you have, a photograph of a breaking wave, a blend of watercolours and a photography of the sky and sea. 

In the middle row you have a fish decorated in wet felt, an ink drawing which was then "coloured " with various blue pastels, and various pieces of paper which were scrunched up and a pastel run along the very tips.

On the bottom row you have a photography of the sea and sand, a fish covered in white fleecy fabric and a blue lacey bow, and a fish covered in rosettes of hand dyed fleece.

This completes my artistic challenge, speak soon.

Meghan

Textile Photography Piece

This post is all about my piece combining textiles and photography.

The plan for this piece was to take a photo for the backdrop which would be printed onto fabric and then using textiles, highlight certain parts. I decided on a photo I took in the grounds at Wysing Arts Centre.

The photo I will use

After the photo had been printed onto fabric I stretched in across a wooden frame and stapled it at the back.  When that was finished it was time to add the textile highlights. This included sewing rug wool onto the fence, stitching yarn up the branches and attaching golden leaves to the branches.

The finished product

The textile/photography piece is now ready along with the textile/art piece and the photography/art piece. Only a combination of all three mediums to go.

Meghan

Alla Moda

I recently posted about stewarding at Kings Lynn Arts Centre (KLAC), in the Alla Moda exhibition. I thought you might like to know a little more about the exhibition.

Alla Moda is an exhibition of Italian ceramics from the 1950's-1970's. The exhibition is a collection of these ceramics from the Graham Cooley Collection, collected by Graham Cooley and Mark Hill. The exhibition compromised of over 300 pieces in striking and bold colours and shapes.

Of course while I was stewarding, I had an opportunity to view the exhibition and hence form an opinion. The pieces were truly stunning, I don't think anyone can argue that, and having over 300 of these specimens in one place added to their beauty. I must admit, although on a whole the pieces were stunning, looking closer I found quite a few which didn't truly inspire me or appeal much. This isn't to say that they were all like this, on the contrary, the colour combinations gave me enough inspiration for dozens of artistic pieces.

Overall I enjoyed viewing the exhibition, they were certainly interesting to look at and the history on some of the pieces was amazing. Is it the best exhibition I've been to?; definitely not, but its not the worst either. To sum it up in one sentence it would probably be, interesting and informative pieces but not something I would visit a second time.

Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take any photos in the exhibition so I can't show you any of the pieces. I think this concludes this post.
Meghan

Conclusion

Well, I am nearing the end of my gold arts award and I felt it time to bring the gold arts award to a close. I have loved every minute of this gold arts award. Looking back I realised that before I started this arts award I was starting to drift away from textiles, it was no longer something I wanted to do. One year on and the arts award had brought me back to textiles and made me realise that this is what I want to be in life, a textile designer. If the gold arts award has done nothing else its this. I now know that I want to study art and design at college to take me onto a textile design degree (maybe at UCA Farnham if I'm lucky.)

This whole thing, of course, started with me enrolling on the Wysing Young Artists programme last September. Wysing gave me a brilliant opportunity to undertake my gold arts award and gave me opportunities to work with and alongside artists and young artists. Something that appealed to me right from the start with Wysing was the opportunity to take part in an exhibition, something that people of my age never get the chance to take part in.

Wysing, of course came with the opportunity to complete my gold arts award which followed on from my silver arts award. The first thing I wanted to achieve in my gold arts was completing the artistic challenge. This of course consisted of four pieces combining textiles, photography and art. Not only did I enjoy doing these pieces, but I also felt that it led me in a different direction and made me realise the potential of these three mediums if you take them outside their comfort zone.

Following on from completing my artistic challenge, I started to look at the other component parts of the arts award. I loved coming up with the interview questions for the three different artists. This not only gave me an insight into how I might go about making a career of the arts, but it also was extremely interesting to hear about what these artists had achieved, and what they have had to put up with, to get to this point.

Moving on from this I came to my arts project which took the form of a feltmaking workshop at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. For me this was such a unique opportunity to not only work with a museum in Cambridge, but also to be able to teach a group of students was a massive learning curve. Teaching is definitely something I would like to do again, wherever that may be.

I believe this concludes my conclusion. I have thoroughly loved the whole journey and although I'll miss it, I am looking forward to taking what I have learnt and using it to improve my future work.
Its not over yet though, there is still the moderation to blog about so you'll be hearing from me again soon.

However, thats all for now.
Meghan