Keighley - Airedale Town

During March 2009 comedian Mark Steel visited Skipton for his radio 4 show - Mark Steel's in Town. It was hilarious - so funny that my partner had to stop whilst driving in case he crashed!
One of the butts of Mark Steel's jokes was Keighley, where I work, which made it even funnier. But then I got thinking - I spend a good deal of my working life out and about in Keighley. What makes it a better town than Skipton?

Skipton has a castle but we have Cliffe Castle, the Victorian home of Henry Butterfield. It has extensive grounds and is packed full of treasures, history and art. Parking is ample and, even better, it is FREE!

Like Skipton, we have a steam railway but you don't have to drive out of town to travel on it. The Worth Valley Railway journeys from Keighley train station to Oxenhope, stopping at Ingrow, Damems, Oakworth, Haworth and Oxenhope. The Railway Children was filmed on the railway.

Keighley has many fine examples of Victorian architecture as it was once a wealthy town built on the wool trade. Cavendish Street, with its shops and glass canopy, links the train station with the commercial centre... and that glass canopy certainly keeps us dry on wet days!

Keighley Library is another architectural gem. Recently restored and modernised, it still retains it's original features. It's worth visiting the lending library upstairs to look at the murals.

Both our town centre shops and our market are undercover. Very sensible when you think how unpredictable the Yorkshire weather can be. You can wait for a bus under cover and park undercover too. There's plenty of parking on Hanover Street and Scott street and it's cheaper than Skipton.

On sunny days it's so pleasant to eat outside in the Town Square, surrounded by trees. Or visit Church Green, at the end of North Street, another peaceful spot.

Keighley is a place of cultural diversity and there are plenty of places to worship - the most stunning is the Emily Street Mosque. Just got the minaret to finish...

... and if it's culture you are looking for then visit the Arts Factory, Keighley's only contemporary gallery. Admission is free.

More culture? A few yards from the Arts Factory is The Picture House on North Street. Parking is in Scott Street, across the road.

Keighley is vibrant with colour thanks to the Keighley In Bloom committee and its local sponsors. The roundabout at the end of Showfield looks fantastic at the moment (particularly if you like orange).

A short bus/train ride away from the town centre are: wonderful East Riddlesden Hall, a National Trust property with a very large duck pond and historical Haworth, home of the Brontes. For more about Keighley and why it is worth a visit go to LoveKeighley.com

100 cranes!

I've just finished folding over 100 origami cranes for the next exhibition at Keighley Arts Factory. My next task is to suspend the cranes on fishing line from the gallery ceiling. The cranes are in celebration of our next exhibition "The Winter Contemporary" which previews on Thursday 8 November and officially starts on Friday 9 November to Wednesday 12 December 2007.

I also spent a happy morning unpacking beautiful ceramics and I can't wait to put them out on display. We have white plinths and white walls so the display will be bright splashes of colour.

The exhibition also features painting, glass, textiles, jewelry, books and decorations.

For details of the exhibition visit: http://kafgallery.blogspot.com

Ancient Truths

Today we held a harp meditation workshop in the gallery where I work http://kafgallery.blogspot.com/ and I got to play the harp! It was so beautiful that I really want one now (if I had £2000 to spare). The workshop went very well and was enjoyed by all the participants. Our next workshops are Wednesdays10th and 17th October - and they are free.

Promotional Ideas

Apart from business cards there is a huge variety of promotional items and ideas to be bought on Etsy. Here is a selection of promotional goodies and the etsy shops where I bought them.

• When I send out items from my shop I like to enclose a small note book. The original book was sent to me by http://kupokiley.etsy.com/. Kiley makes beautful handbound books and will also make books to commission .
• But a blank notebook is not a promotional item unless it has my URL on it. So I commissioned a rubber stamp, made for me by http://onefourzero.etsy.com/. I love this stamp and stamp it onto EVERYTHING in red or pink ink.
• The car bumper sticker was really good value for money, made for me by http://byleedesign.etsy.com/ and has my avatar and my etsy address in large letters on a red background.
• One of my best ever purchases has been promotional buttons (badges) made by http://kittycrossbones.etsy.com/. I was lucky enough to buy these on her birthday and got 100 for the price of 50. I ordered 50 with my designs and 50 to promote the Arts Factory where I work. I also won free magnets and these look really great. Kittycrossbones also sells stickers, scratch cards and notebooks.
• Finding pretty paper to make book covers is a pain so I was pleased to find washi paper for sale on Etsy. I bought some lovely decorative paper from http://jasminejewels.etsy.com/. check out her origami papers too.

At the Keighley Arts Factory

I work part time at the Keighley Arts Factory, a beautiful art space in the town centre. The Arts Factory was started a few years ago by the curator, Megan Cowen and is part of Keighley College. We host approximately six exhibitions a year, including the Keighley Open and the Creative Arts Students' End of Year Show. We also show case art exhibitions by contemporary artists with many different disciplines, including sculpture, installation, photography, painting, ceramics and print making. Previous exhibitions have included artists' collectives, such as Flux (ceramics) and Artfusion North www.artfusionnorth.co.uk and solo shows. We have some exciting new artists coming soon, including a dynamic and disturbing art show for January 2008 and a photography collective.

Working at the Arts Factory is a great job. Where else can you talk all day to artists, talk about art to the public, view artists' work and plan exhibitions? My job is to deal with all the administration and we also have a technician who helps and advises the artists reagarding the hanging and display of their work. Then there are the "Friends of KAF", a small team of volunteers who sit in the gallery when the exhibitions are on. KAF also hosts corporate events and meetings and can be hired out as a venue. We have a "point of sale" cabinet showing glass and ceramics for sale and a coffee area for visitors to relax.

If you are visiting West Yorkshire pop into the KAF to see what's on. www.keighley.ac.uk/kaf

Creating a Glass Dish Part 4

After one day fusing and one day slumping the dish is finished. I take the cold dish from the kiln and check the back to see if any kiln wash is stuck to it. I then wash it in warm water with washing up liquid and dry it. Now for some kiln maintenance - I check the kiln shelf to see if it needs repainting with kiln wash and vacuum out the kiln ready for the next fusing.
These dishes are available from the following outlets:
www.glassprimitif.etsy.com
www.shawgalleries.co.uk
www.keighley.ac.uk/kaf

Dichroic glass is lovely

I love dichroic glass. I first saw it on a US glass website and thought "that is the glass for me". I originally used Dichromagic but now I only use CBS (Coatings by Sandberg). When I first started making dichro jewellery there wasn't very much made in the UK and so the galleries I approached were quite taken with it. I went to the British Craft Trade Fair at Harrogate and most of the dichro I saw there was fairly awful (quite a lot of badly cut and underfused pieces) which encouraged me to invest more time and energy into making dichro fused pieces. Now, of course, the market is saturated with dichro and I am constantly changing my ideas and designs to keep it fresh. There is so much mass produced dichro on eBay that I can't get a good price so I'm quite glad there's Etsy now. I like to add small pieces of dichro on fused glass dishes to give them a sparkle but dichro is so expensive I have to use it sparingly. Like all my glass, I save every fragment when I have cut it and fuse the small pieces in the kiln to make decorative "blobs".
What is dichroic glass? Dichro isn't a glass in itself but layers of quartz crystal and metal oxides that coat a glass surface. As long as the coated glass is compatible with other glass then dichro coated glass can be fused with transparent or opaque glass. CBS dichro is coated onto Bullseye therefore CBS is compatible with all glass that is 90COE, including Bullseye. You can also buy other dichro coated glass, such as float, which will be compatible with glass that is 82COE. Both these types of dichroic coated glass are available from www.warm-glass.co.uk
Why use dichroic coated glass? The dichroic coating transmits a colour which, once heated, reflects a different colour from its surface. This reflection is dependent on the angle you hold the glass at because the refracted light from the surface makes it faceted. Dichro can also be influenced by the colours you are wearing as dichro jewellery can pick up different variance of colour. A good example of this is the blues which can range from cyan to violet. Wear it against black and it will be different than wearing it against, say, green. Wearing dichro jewellery is very attractive because the flash of changing colour catches the eye as the wearer moves around.














Dichroic glass jewellery by Glassprimitif is available from:
www.shawgalleries.com
www.glassprimitif.etsy.com
www.keighley.ac.uk/kaf

Fishes on Dishes

These dishes are made from Bullseye glass and are on sale at the Arts Factory, Cavendish Street, Keighley, West Yorkshire BD21 3DF. They measure 5" square and come in bright, funky colours. They can be used for sushi, canapes, candy or just as something cheerful for the coffee table. They cost £15 sterling or $28 with postage of £3 for UK buyers, $6.50 for overseas. Contact the Arts Factory on 01535 618554 or email: joanna.whitehead@keighley.ac.uk.

When I started fusing glass I experimented with a variety of glass until I decided that Bullseye was the glass for me. The colours are brilliant - my favourites are vanilla opal, red irridescent and turquoise. Unfortunately, it's an expensive glass but you get the quality that you pay for. I buy my Bullseye colours from Decorative Glass Supplies in Bradford. This is a huge warehouse stacked full of glass and glass making supplies. Makes include Bullseye, Spectrum and all the glass you need for stained glass.