What an amazing weekend!

At last I am coming up for air after a truly wonderful weekend.  I began to feel as if I had taken root in the studio but I honestly didn't mind because I spent four days meeting such lovely people that, apart form the fact that I was completely exhausted by the end of each day, I could have gone on for ever!

Non- functional jug

On day one I sold two ceramic pieces to total strangers which meant that I had already achieved my aim for the weekend so I upped my game considerably and posted here that what would really make my day would be if a gallery expressed an interest in my work.  They did and I am now chasing several different avenues for both my bronzes and my ceramics.  I find this hugely exciting. 

Suddenly I have people telling me that my creations are good and that they believe there is commercial value in them.  This feels so much more than when friends tell you the same thing. 



I love my friends dearly but they are always going to want me to feel good about myself and will massage my confidence accordingly.  This is different and very real.

Alice and Charlotte

I have spent today creating mailing lists and taking photographs of the work which has been requested in order to begin proper negotiations with the galleries.  I know that I must also get my website back up and running and that I need to give a lot of thought to professionalising my profile and to the route that my work takes between now and November.



Tubiform group

Carapace




In addition to beginning the Ceramics Diploma at City Lit in September I now have a long list of things that must be done in order to build a professional profile which, thanks to taking the first step and renting space at Wimbledon Artists Studios, is suddenly a real necessity.  Better stop wittering on my blog and get going then!

Moving the Goal Posts.

So this is a short post.  Life is short and I have a studio to run but I wanted to blog because I have reached my goal for the weekend - by Thursday evening!!  I had a great time on day 1 of the Open Studios event.  So many lovely people came into the studio and some even bought work from me.  I am so pleased! 



The trouble with managing to achieve your goals that easily is that you are tempted to move the goalposts for yourself though.  A great many business cards were picked up yesterday and a lot of interest was shown in various aspects of my work.  So I have set myself a new goal - with a much higher bar.  Wouldn't it be great if someone approached me from a gallery with a view to taking some work!  Now that really would be amazing!!

Nearer and Nearer draws the time

During school assembly as a child I thought this hymn had been written especially for me.  I hated my school.  Every time we sung this - and we seemed to sing it often - I changed the words, singing  'Nearer and nearer draws the time that will surely be when I can escape from this horrible place and finally feel free' at the top of my voice. 

The phrase returned to me this morning when I found a post on Facebook from Wimbledon Artists Studios  reminding everyone that there are only days to go until the Open Studios event.  This time the sudden feeling of panic that ensued was not mixed with a violent urge to escape.
  Instead I found myself experiencing a mix of anxiety and sheer excitement. 
For the first time, other than at college, my work is on display to the general public and to exhibition and gallery curators looking for talent.  At last I will get the opportunity to find out whether anyone actually believes that I can cut it as an artist.


I was talking to another artist who is in a similar position the other day.  He was telling me that he has told his friends that he is very happy for them to come and see his work but could they please leave their cheque books at home.  I hope my friends do come - I will be so happy to see a kindly face or two - but I rather agree with this sentiment. 
I need to know whether people who have never met me, and who don't feel they need to do me a favour, feel anything for the ideas that I come up with.  Can they relate to the fragility of my pieces and to the messages which I am trying to convey?  If they cannot then I shall plough on regardless.  But at least I shall know that I am only doing it to please myself.  Perhaps that's not such a bad idea anyway!



The shelves are painted, the work is up and priced - what a dilemma that has been - and the studio is ready to receive everyone.  I shall welcome friends, family and strangers with equal enthusiasm but I hope fervently that someone who has never met me before chooses to strike up a conversation about my work.  That will make my day!


 

Getting Down and Dirty at last

Mass producing thrown pieces
 because I felt that I must!

It has taken me a few weeks to start to settle into the idea that I have a space to work now.  One in which I can do what I like, when I like with no comebacks.  To begin with I was stressing if I wasn't in the studio for every waking moment.  Then when I was there I had to be making things.  I was throwing pot after pot in a frantic hurry to get them made and completed - silly really as the kiln is not arriving until later this week. 



Now I have relaxed a bit.  I have reminded myself that I do not actually enjoy making functional pieces all the time.  What I do is play and experiment.  I love coming up with challenges for myself; just how thin will the clay go, how tall, what else will it do and so on.


With that thought running through my head I opened up my buckets of porcelain slip last weekend and began to pour it and shape it.  I wanted to develop ideas which had their birth in the FdA course at Bath Spa and to extend some of the sampling techniques that I have been using at City Lit.  The net result is a totally new way of working which, at first sight, I am really pleased with.  I have always been drawn to contours and geological folding.  Here are the beginnings of a series of experiments into how the clay will behave if I fold and curve it.  None of this work has been fired yet so I am probably jumping the gun but I am quite excited about the results so far.

At the same time I have been chasing my dream of getting onto the ceramics diploma course at City Lit for September.  I know it is going to challenge me in so many ways and I want that chance so very much.  I now feel the need to know clay and glaze techniques well so that I can push what the clay can do as far as I can imagine.

My interview was today.  I know that I am up against a host of people who already really know their stuff so I am not expecting to get on the course but for the next four weeks, until I get the result of the interview, at least I can hope!

A Rose by any other name....

Suddenly I have a bit of a problem!  As many people will know Frankie is not my real name, I use it for my art for three reasons.  Firstly I like to keep my art separate from other parts of me - it is a very special part of me that needs treasuring carefully.  I also like the idea of working in the name of my grandmother who, as a fairly determined Cornish woman, was accustomed to having her own way.  I began using Granny's name so that I could protect my identity because my husband was either embarrassed to have an artist as a wife or was concerned about security - probably the latter!

I have got used to explaining the distinction and I am perfectly content to do so.  However, I now have a smart, shiny artists studio in a proper, professional artists community.  I keep meeting lovely friendly people and introducing myself by my real name. 

So what happens when I then stick my name on the door.  Bit peculiar really because they will have just got used to calling me something else.  I know it doesn't really matter but I am wondering if I should just call myself Frankie and get over it!  I don't suppose that I am the only one, its just that, as someone who is largely quite a conventional animal, I am finding it a bit strange.  However, I dont mind at all if my faithful blogger followers feel like making a comment on this!

Exciting Progress

So now there is only a week before we take over our studio at Wimbledon Artists Studios.  I am so excited that I can hardly sleep at night.  The prospect of being able to spend the time that I want developing my own personal style and being part of a large community of over 200 artists is almost to huge to believe. 

Important date for your diary: 16 - 19 May:  Wimbledon Artists Stduios,Open Studios event.  Be there!


I have spent the morning searching for a kiln and deciding that I shall almost certainly go for a new one.  Second hand ones seem quite expensive given that they don't come with a guarantee so I think I shall spend a bit more and be sure of some advice and support.  I have also spent a happy few hours sorting out my portfolio in readiness for my interview for the ceramics diploma course.  The interview in next month and I need to be able to wow them with both my 2D and 3D work.  I really do not know how I shall struggle to college through the rush hour with half a dozen very fragile pieces and an A1 portfolio tucked under my arm! 

I shall go for a trial run on Monday when I take it all in so that I can go through it with my tutor and decide what to leave out or add before the interview - all these courses!  Will I ever stop?  The thing is that I am really hoping that once I have done the diploma I shall feel really confident to have a go at most things ceramic, including a bit of teaching.  Then the career shift will finally be complete.  Happy days!

Call it Serendipidy

Thrown bowl glazed in transparent green
over blue slip with sea green interior.

What a difference a week makes. This time last week I was wondering how I could take my ceramics to the next level now that the workshop plans are no more.

Slab piece inspired by a project on shoes.

Thrown open bowl glazed
in buttercream and sea green

So a chance conversation with a friend at college last Monday and a visit to Wimbledon Artists Studios on Thursday mean that we are now the proud joint tenants of a small cupboard with a window in which I plan to create more and more experimental pieces. There have been many sleepless nights since Thursday - I keep coming up with other things that I want to try - and the excitement levels are somewhere up in the stratosphere.   One of the great things about joining WAS is that we can take advantage of their lectures, visits and open studios. I am off to an afternoon on Internet Copyright tomorrow which probably comes under the heading of Boring but Important.  

 

Slab piece inspired by beach
 combing textures.

 

In the mean time I wanted to update my blog with a few recent successes.  I have never really bothered much with colour in the past but am enjoying playing with glazes and taking the risk on what the outcome might be.  I have used test tiles but to be honest I love the feeling of just dipping a piece whose shape I llike and hoping that I will still like it when it re-emerges from the kiln.  Once the studio is up and running I will not have access to quite so many glazes as at college so I need to know which ones I really likebut there is something very liberating about trusting to luck and you do get some wonderfully pleasant surprises!

 

 

 

The first Open Studios which I will be involved in is in May. I will be there and the kettle will be on.  Hope to see you. 

The best Ideas of Mice and Men ...

Oh well, it was good whilst it lasted! My great plan to set up a workshop for amateur ceramicists is currently lying amongst the clay turnings on the pottery floor.  I pulled the plug on it this weekend.  The premises that I had been intending to buy was becoming less and less a good idea.  There were issues over how the electricity was going to be serviced and you cannot run a kiln without a sure supply of power.  It also transpired that there were issues about the ownership of the area just outside the front door.  It began to look as though I would be trespassing every time I visited the workshop!  All that added to issues about who was responsible for the maintenance of the access road, the restrictive covenants controlling what kinds of activities could take place there and the minor point that according to my sources the premises was vastly over priced - I really had no choice.
Now I am back to square one.  Not only am I not now creating a place for other people to work in.  I also have nowhere to work for myself.  How frustrating is that when a couple of weeks ago it all looked so exciting.
So now I am on the prowl.  No garage or garden shed within a 5 mile radius is safe from my investigations as I search for a place to set up the potters wheel that I had already laid my hands on and the kiln of my dreams.  I have reached a stage where the clay is well and truly under my finger nails now and I do not want to stop making things.  I know that my skills leave a lot to be desired and I need a place to practise in order to become the next Ken Eastman or Alison Britton.
Wish me luck and, in the mean time, lock up your sheds if you see me approaching . . . .

Workshop Progress

Well it is taking a very long time for the solicitors to get together over the transfer of the workshop premises but in the meantime I have not been idle.  I have been talking to builders about the redevelopment, planners about whether or not I need a new planning permission - I don't - business development people about how to set up and run a business and ceramics suppliers about what sort of kilns and wheels, how many when.  I have so much more to do in terms of developing my business plan so that it makes money but does not cost people an arm and a leg to become a member and also in terms of finding out about all the legislation and health and safety stuff involved in running a ceramics workshop but at least the idea is beginning to develop, even if it is a long way off hatching.  I sat down and wrote out my USP the other day and this is what I came up with: 

E

xtensive access to shared resources and marketing opportunities for enthusiastic amateur and emerging professional ceramicists.  Members will enjoy the luxury of being able to create ceramic art without the restricting environment of taught classes, enabling them to develop their personal style in the company of others while relieved of the expense of renting their own studio and buying their own kiln and wheel. 

 

 

Creative ceramics space without exorbitant costs.

I see this as a slow development but one of the next things that I really need to do is to find out who is interested in this idea.  If no-one is I will need to think again!  So I am about to start producing some flyers and also a short questionnaire to try and find out a bit more about my client base.  Hope you have noticed that I am beginning to use the jargon!

In between, I have enjoyed the fact that I am back at City Lit College on Mondays and this week I actually succeeded in making a few things on the wheel which have lids that may or may not fit after firing.  Time will tell!