Saturday 3 November 2012

Speed Craft event and a subsequent very long blog post!


Today was the day of the much anticipated speed craft event organised by Debbie Bryan Studio and Shop and held at the Galleries of Justice.  I do have to confess that due to my only going into the city when absolutely necessary and then grabbing what I need and leaving policy I have never been to visit but I do follow keenly on twitter and often check out the website which is how I heard about this event.


http://www.debbiebryan.co.uk/

Open Monday to Saturday 11- 5pm

Debbie Bryan Studio & Shop, 18 St Mary's Gate, The Lace Market, Nottingham, NG1 1PF. UK

Tel: 0044(0)115 9507776    Email: info@debbiebryan.co.uk




The day comprised of moving around various workstations and artists and creating something using the medium preferred by the artist within 25 minutes.  When the bell rang it was time to move to the next table.

My first stop was with textile designer Lucy Renshaw who makes some wonderful items so please look at the link below.

 http://www.lucyrenshaw.com/home



With Lucy we made a fabric covered piece of cutlery. Above is a chandelier made by Lucy from cutlery and some individual covered cutlery items.  We were greeted at the table by a smiling face, a heap of fabric and paper, some glue, scissors and a piece of cutlery.  From there we got cutting and sticking which is a lot harder than it sounds.  My spoon is a bit shabby around the edges but I am quite pleased.



My second stop was with fused glass artist Stevie Davies.  She also makes some beautiful and practical pieces of art and below is her web address and an example of her work.

http://www.stevie-davies.co.uk/index.html


 I have had a go at this before with Tom's Mum who is also a fused glass and stained glass artist ( http://www.susicoxglass.co.uk ) but I have never incorporated metal into the fused work or worked with glass so small and delicate.  We started by laying out the glass on a pre-cut rectangle and once we were happy we stuck them down ready to be taken home by Stevie to be fused in the kiln. Below are the colour choices and my complete pre-fused item.



My third stop before lunch was with Nicki Dennett who is an illustrator and printmaker.  I do love a good print so again here is a web link and an example.

http://www.nickidennett.co.uk



For this we had to draw a picture or choose one from a selection on the table.  Being terrible at drawing I chose a printed sea scene.  I also chose to make my print onto the inside of an old envelope as I thought the blue would be a great background for the fisherman's boat. My first attempt went wrong as I tried to write and it came out backwards but my second attempt worked a lot better.  We had to lay the paper face down on the inked acetate and draw on the back.


After lunch which by this time was well needed as my brain was frazzled we moved onto the table of Phiona Richards who makes jewellery and sculptures from old and unloved books.  You may have seen her on Kirstie's Handmade Britain (apparently Kirstie is as lovely as she comes across).  Its amazing what can be made from something that would ordinarily end up in a bin so please have a look.

http://rarenotions.co.uk/



We were handed a very interesting envelope which once opened contained 5 large squares of music paper, 5 squares of black paper (recycled), 2 small squares of music paper, some ribbon, a bead and a little gift of an Oak leaf from Phiona.  We had to start by sticking the music paper and black paper together and we then had to fold it to make smaller folding squares (doesn't make much sense in writing).  Once we had these all made it was time to stick them together, add the ribbon and smaller squares and string on the bead which is crutial to making it work.  Then we could admire our gift tag that becomes a beautiful decoration!


My fourth stop was with Katie Almond who designs and makes lovely ceramic pieces.  I am a sucker for a tea cup and Katie's are certainly very attractive.

http://www.katiealmond.co.uk/index.htm


With Katie we made brooches from porcelain, I think we were only supposed to make one but she kindly agreed (after they had been cut) that we could make two, thanks Katie.  The first step was to roll out the porcelain clay and select either a template or some lace to roll a pattern into the clay.  We then chose a template to cut around, of course I chose a teacup.  Once we had cut around the template it was time to decorate with added smaller pieces of clay and paint.  I found my teacup to be quite plain but I was struggling to think of what to do as I did not want to ruin the lace pattern so a fellow crafter kindly donated a heart she had made from her collection and all I needed to do was paint it.  I also have to wait for these to be fired but I do think the wait will be worth it.


My final stop was with Janine Nelson who creates contemporary mosaics from broken and unbroken vintage plates.  Again it is amazing what can be made from something that would otherwise go into landfill.




I have to admit that I did not do the art of mosaic much justice but I did try, I think orange was an awkward colour choice and I was trying to be too organised rather than letting myself go and fill the space we were given.  I might add more to it in the future to finish it off and the glue is still wet in the photo but I am quite pleased.



Once the final bell had rung we were offered a beautiful looking and tasting chocolate brownie with a cup of tea, there had been a lot of tea throughout the day but everyone knows crafters love tea!


Anybody interested in this then there is another Speed Craft event being run next Spring and Debbie organises a number of other workshops with various artists that after this taster I may well be signing up to.

A big thankyou to Debbie and all the artists involved!  Today was a wonderful escape for a creative female currently suffering with anxiety.  Now it is time for a long sleep to recover.

2 comments:

  1. I would adore a day like that! What a wonderful adventure to try your hand at so many lovely crafts.

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  2. It was a wonderful day. I really enjoyed trying different things.

    ReplyDelete