Tuesday 16 December 2014

LV21 Making More: First Outing!

"Make do and Mend: Christmas on the home front", at the Royal Engineers Museum in Kent was the setting for the first outing of the LV21 "Making More" brooches, we have been developing over the last year.

I visited the 1940's Christmas event last year as part of my research for the LV21/Arts Council commission, so it was fitting I would return again this year as a finale to the first stage of the project.

The stand looked amazing and was staged over three tables, one selling the brooches made by the cohort, one showing demonstrations and offering the chance for visitors to make their own and the third showing a display of vintage haberdashery treasures, from books, to darning mushrooms, buttons and stocking threads.

We had lots of interest from visitors and it was great to hear feedback on what we had been working on so hard on over the last 12 months. It was also a chance to celebrate with the makers I have been working with and reflect on how far we had come as a group. It has been a real pleasure working with these ladies and seeing their making skills develop. Alongside that it's also been great to see them progress in their own creative work outside of the project.

Thank you Paivi, Sarah, Sue, Rebecca, Nicola and everyone else who has been involved in the project along the way.

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Vessels : Making Space

Here is an image of my "Silvia Brooch" on display at the Vessels exhibition last week, over at Making Space in Hampshire.

And some more images the gallery took while the exhibition was on. A few pieces that caught my eye...

See more about the exhibition here, including images of work from all the artists showing.

Unfolding – exhibition of work by new graduates in clay

Here is the flyer for my Sister's new exhibition starting on Thursday. Her work was selected for the postcard!

"Eleven graduates from BA and MA courses across the UK are showcased in an exhibition that celebrates the future of Ceramics."

Exhibition opened by Karen James, Coleg y Cymoedd Campus Director at Nantgarw on: Thursday, November 6th at 7pm Exhibition continues until 11.01.2015

See more about the museum here See more about Kate Haywood's work here

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Spotlight on: Kate Haywood

Paul Wearing has selected Kate Haywood's work for Axis MAstars.

"Hung within a three-walled rectangular space, emboldened by a central wall of strong mid-tone blue, Kate Haywood's ceramic and textile assemblages, referencing ideas and objects of ritual and adornment within diverse cultures, were skilfully curated. They can be viewed either as individual pieces or as one artwork: the relationships and dialogues between the individual assemblages encouraged the viewer to stand back and see the artwork in its entirety, whilst the complexity and detail of each piece invited closer inspection."

Gavotte, 2014. Porcelain, cotton, silk, steel, gold leaf. 64cm x 46cm x 3cm.

Kolo, 2014. Porcelain, cotton. 200cm x 64cm x 11cm.

Volta, 2014. Porcelain, wool. 170cm x 16cm x 4cm.

Read the full article here

Tuesday 7 October 2014

The High Line

One of my favourite places in New York is the High Line...a garden and meeting place, planted on a section of disused railway track. It measures 1.45 miles long and is described as an "Aerial greenway and rails-to-trails park".

For me it captures the magic of New York, a place which always feels so creative and as if anything could happen. I loved the planting of the High Line, being late summer there were loads of heuchera, rudbeckia and lots and lots of grasses! The structure of its previous life has become part of the design, with trees growing in-between old tracks and small grasses creeping in between lines of gravel that echoes the use of track ballast. There are lots of seating areas, all with a different feel, wooden sweeps of chairs hugging the rails while forming planters, hidden secret benches and larger busier meeting spaces, forming an auditorium above the busy streets below.

Here are some of the images I took.