The exhibition is fantastic and is beautifully laid out in the Goldsmiths' Centre. It is a real pleasure as a member of the ACJ to see all the amazing makers who have been - and who still are - part of the organisation.
My own work, just inside the door, along with work by Kate Bajic and Jo McAllister. I was also really pleased to see work by my ex-student, Anne Walker:
 |
| Anne Walker, bangle at the front, left. |
When I left Glasgow, one of the reservations that I had was that I wouldn't have access to the marvellous Craft Scotland any more. By utter chance, I fell in with Birmingham's own Craftspace, an organisation which fulfils a very similar role in the West Midlands. Over the last 2 years, I've become more and more involved with them and they are the most amazing organisation for promoting craft and all associated baggage that comes with that: education, 'craftivism', cross-cultural and cross-modal participation, exhibitions, sales and, of course, parties!
This week saw their 30th Birthday party, held at one of the new, small arts-spaces around the city, Centrala. It was an exceptionally relaxed affair and only the stellar Deirdre made a speech:
Deirdre has been with Craftspace for 25 of their 30 years and is one of those rare people who can see how the most tenuous links can connect to create dynamic and exciting projects, such as "Made in the Middle" or "Making for Change", both of which I am delighted to have been involved with. A display of their posters from over the years gave an idea of the range of projects they've been involved with:
And I think that they've earned their bragging rights...
Off to London again after that for a meeting with an exciting new venue for my work, The Old Cinema in Chiswick, London.
Although I think that this may have had an original role as a kind of antiques and junk shop, it now seems to sell a lot of reconditioned and - more importantly for me - reconstructed work. I have high hopes!
Time for the Royal College of Art graduate show too. It was particularly exciting this year as my friend and colleague, Jo Garner, is presenting her graduate show. Overall, it is a very exciting show and as I can't think on anywhere better to start, let's look at Jo's work!
I was delighted to see that she's gone for a political take on things and not only that has been making BADGES! Not just any old badges, it is true: hand-turned steel badges with enamels -
I'm particularly pleased that she's taken a pop at the vile Daily Fail and the impossible government immigration forms. It's good that she's just generally angry about everything.
The show overall is excellent and very varied, from tablewares by Isla Macer Law:
Through fine jewellery (yes! at the RCA show) by Jessica Pass:
There are meditations on Beauty and the Beauty Industry by both Sophie Swinton and Eva Melinka:
Material explorations by Eleanora Kolosova:
These are not just garden twigs! Made from metal and other materials.
There is amazing eyewear by Bhakti Moorjani;
Yiwen Shao has made the most wonderful wearables using vibrating pearls and latex:
It is a real pity I can's show you the video playing in the top shot. It is rather wonderful.
My favourite work at the show was, however, that of Lukas Grewenig, who has developed an amazing new process for engraving metal surfaces with hidden images. This piece here:
When exposed to a beam of light from a mobile phone or hand-torch, reveals the most fleeting of hidden images:
Incredible! I can't wait to see where he takes this.
It is not all over yet, but nearly! After this it was back to London again for the annual New Designers show of work by recent graduates. I have to say that this year's ND was a bit "limp", rather underwhelming in terms of jewellery and silversmithing. Yes, there was some nice work but not a great deal that utterly thrilled me, as it did last year. It is always good to go and meet people, however, and it took me an hour and a half to move from the School of Jewellery stand to the Glasgow School of Art stand - a mere 12 metres! - as I kept stopping to chat.
The work from the School of Jewellery I've blogged before, but it does look good in the new space, especially where students have got to expand their original displays, such as the one by Danielle Laurent:
For me, the event of the night was getting to see my ex-student, Paula Sloan and talk to her about what she's been doing since she left my HND course two years ago, going on to study at Glasgow School of Art:
I was particularly drawn to the silverwares and blacksmithing this year, with rather wonderful work by Callum Partridge:
And also by Megan Falconer:
Megan explores place by making hammers from found materials and using the hammers to create the finished silverwares.
My ex-student, Stephanie Holt won the "One Year On" award, which was great:
This is her UFO rings from last year, which she has developed as a commercial product:
Most interesting jewellery I saw there was these rather lovely enamelled locket pieces by Monique Jeffrey-Jones:
And some of the most intriguing jewellery was by Dan Russell:
There were also some technically amazing knives in Damascus Steel by Leszek Sikon:
These last knives have between 600 and 700 layers!
I've also managed to get back to the bench myself, developing some stock for the Old Cinema, as explained above:
NEXT WEEK... The ACJ Conference!