Design Inspire Live

Design Inspire Live at Headingley Heart

This Saturday (13th June) I shall be taking my glass to Design@Heart, a unique event at The Heart Centre, Headingley for designer homewares and gifts. I'm quite excited about this event because it is the first one of it's kind at The Heart Centre, replacing the craft fairs with something a bit more tailored to customers interested in original items for the home.The ethos behind Design Inspire Live is to promote designer makers with themed events, where we can showcase and sell our work. These events have been designed and created by Becky Moore, herself a creative designer and you can find out more by visiting the website DesignInspireLive.

The Heart Centre Headingley

On a sad note, the organisers of Settle Artisans have decided to call it a day with the fairs at Victoria Hall, Settle so I won't be attending any future dates planned for this year. If you received a mail shot from me with the dates of all my activities for 2015, please note that it is only the Settle fairs I won't be at - I will still be at Masham, Art in the Pen at Skipton, Kelbrook Craft Fair and Strid Tea Rooms this summer.   If there are any future fairs planned at Settle I will definitely be signing up as Settle has always been a great place to sell my glass. 

It's Show Time

January and February are the months that I spend applying for fairs, events and exhibitions. March to May are the months that I find out if my glass has been accepted - or not.

It's always a case of  "you win some, you lose some" and I'm pleased to say that I have only had one rejection so far this year (so we won't talk about that)!  Form filling and application processing are time consuming: editing and selecting images of new work, making payments, writing artist's statements that fit the word count, updating CVs - all take up time. Some galleries want to see images of the actual work that is to be submitted, others just want to see a selection that represents the artist's work.  This means that for exhibitions such as Platform Gallery's Craft Open I had to make the work in advance in the hope that it would get selected (it was :) )So now I am changing the pencilled-in dates in my diary to inked-in ones, paying more fees (bleurgh) and planning how to present and display my work.  Here is my event schedule for 2015 - I am hoping to add more dates in the next couple of weeks.

14 April - 10 May Glass and Ceramics exhibition at Just Makers The Old Bath House RHS Harlow Carr North Yorkshire

23 - 25 May The Makers' Fair Saltaire Arts Trail Victoria Hall Saltaire West Yorkshire

25 April - 4 July Craft Open Platform Gallery Clitheroe Lancashire

11 - 12 July Crafted by Hand Masham North Yorkshire

15 - 16 August Art in the Pen Skipton Auction Mart North Yorkshire

I love Mondays

I was chatting to one of our resident artists at work the other day and she said that she really looked forward to Mondays as she spent Sunday in anticipation of getting back to her studio.  Well I like Mondays too.

Today I'm off to Harlow Carr to drop off glass for a forthcoming exhibition. It's a lovely drive over to Harrogate via Beamsley Beacon (a very big hill) and I have a car boot full of new glass.  Harlow Carr is a fantastic place to visit, made up of extensive gardens and owned by The Royal Horticutural Society.  The exhibition, which opens on 17th March, will be in the Old Bath House and I am really looking forward to it.

The Old Bath House, Harlow Carr

I think the reason that I like Mondays so much is that no two days are the same. Last Monday I was teaching glass fusing and next Monday I will be enjoying a long weekend in The Lake District. Before I was self employed I worked for a building society and every monday (in fact, every day) was the same. 

Once I get back from Harlow Carr I will spend the rest of the day back in the studio creating more glass for an exhibition application with a deadline of the end of March (!) I'd better get busy then....

Making Plans

At the end of each year, when I have finished my last event, I always tell myself that I will have plenty of time to make new glass during January and February and even take some time to develop new ideas and test out new materials. It has never happened and this year is no exception.

I have applied for three open call exhibitions and have been busy making new glass for each (I am only allowed to submit the glass shown on the application images) and I also have a show at Harlow Carr at the end of March.  In May I will be at Saltaire Arts Trail for three days and I will need plenty of glass for that too.  So the kiln has been on nearly every day and I have been cutting, grinding and cleaning as much glass as I can.

As a small business I always find January/February difficult months for cashflow - not much flows in but plenty flows out to pay for stall fees and submission fees.  I try to spread the cost of glass by making my significant purchases when Warm Glass has sales and offers. I took advantage of their 12 Days of Christmas offer in December to buy all my teaching glass and my staple glass - large sheets of clear, white and vanilla.  I only started planning to buy glass a couple of years ago when I created a Cashflow Forecast and monitored my spend from 2012.  Money spent on glass was chaotic and impulsive (and frequent)! so I have reined in my outgoings by setting a budget for each expense. This means I have cut down on buying magazines and books and keeping a record of my mileage. 

If, like me, you are a small business and struggle with balancing the books, I recommend setting up a Cashflow Forecast in Excel. Financial forecasting, budgeting and bank reconciliation is really boring so I set aside two hours a week to update my spreadsheets and accounts.  It might not stop you from spending money but it certainly answers the question "where does it all go"?

Create Your Own Glass

Fused glass platter

Have you ever wanted to make your own fused glass platter, dish or wall piece? I offer individual tuition at my studio in Silsden, West Yorkshire to enable you to make a stunning piece of glass to your own design. 

Glass plate after the first firing

I design, cut and clean all my glass prior to placing it on the kiln shelf for fusing. Most of my glass goes through 2 days of kiln firing (coasters up to four) to achieve the finish that I like - a slightly raised design but all edges are well rounded.

Glass plate on platter slump mould

Once the glass is fully fired it is washed to remove any resideue of kiln wash and then placed onto a ceramic slump mould. The piece is then fired at a lower and slower rate so that it slumps down into the mould and takes the shape of the platter. This is always the exciting bit - opening the kiln to see the finished dish. Some glass fusers will grind the edges of the dish and refire it to "polish" the edges but if your firing schedule is slow enough this isn't necessary.

Slumped platter stll in the mould

If you would like to visit the Glassprimitif studio and make a large glass platter or wall piece you can contact me HERE. No previous experience of glass fusing is necessary and all materials are provided and refreshments too (but bring a packed lunch).

£150 full day - 10am to 5pm