Henley Arts Trail 27-30th May 2011-Venue 12

It's only five days until the opening night of the Henley Arts Trail. I'm taking part with over 20 artists at venue 12 in Wargrave. I can't wait to see it all come together. I'm also ready for a big spend up myself. If you're free then please pop down to the opening event between 6pm and 9pm this Friday 27th May. Venue 12 is at Woodclyffe Hall, High Street, Wargrave, RG10 8BY. If you can't make it this Friday we are also open from 11am to 6pm on 28th, 29th and 30th May.

Here are some of the amazing things you can purchase.

Handmade Jewellery by Beady Pool.

A wonderful range of handbags, purses, accessories and baby gifts made by CoCo Crafts. 

Cute softies, as well as many other creations by Monda Loves.

Mixed media paintings and textiles from Patchwork Butterfly.  

Handmade Silver Jewellery by Jo Jo Jewellery.

I'll also be there with my range of ceramics, including my new wall pieces. Hope you can make it.

Caversham Arts Trail - 13th to 15th May

The first weekend of the Caversham Arts trail was a great success. We are very much looking forward to opening again this coming Friday 13th May until Sunday 15th May between 11am and 5pm.

You can find me and my ceramics are at Venue 7 along with jewellery by Machi de Waard and knitted textiles by Jules Hogan. Come and visit us if you get the chance, we'd love to see you. 

You can download the leaflet which includes all artists details, opening times, demonstration information and a map showing all venues here.

My ceramics

New porcelain wall art I've just finished

Jules Hogan - knitted textiles at venue 7 

Machi de Waard also at venue 7

Julie Simmonds and David Pope at venue 2

Peter Quarmby, Louise Spiers, Mary Phelan and Sonia Olaniyan at venue 1

Nicola Duncan at venue 9

 You can see more images from last week here.

If you would like to know more regarding parking, restricted access and refreshments at each of the venues please click here.


This weekend you can also enjoy the following demonstrations: basketmaking,  silverwork, chinese brush painting, spinning and weaving,  jewellery making, slip casting ceramics as well as poetry reading. See the flyer for more information.


Five of the artists participating in the Caversham Arts Trail will also be showing their work at the Reading Contemporary Art Fair on 14th and 15th May. Look out for Louise Spiers, Julie Simmonds, Charles Burns, Sonia Olaniyan and Matthew Keeler at the Caversham Artists stand. 

Arts Trail and Open Studios

It's been a busy few months organising Caversham Arts Trail as well as frantically making enough stock for the trail and other shows.

Caversham Arts Trail starts on 7th May. This year there are 32 artists at 15 venues across Caversham so it's set to be an interesting trail. Download a map here. I'm venue 7 and I've got two guests joining me, Jules Hogan and Machi de Waard. Jules makes lovely contemporary knitted textiles, cushions, hot water bottle covers, lavender hearts and more.

Machi makes silver and gold jewellery. She's got a wide range of rings, earring, cuff links and more that make great gifts as well as presents.

I'm also taking part in the West Berkshire and North Hampshire Open Studios at the same time. This means that my studio will be open for visitors on 7th, 8th, 13th, 14th and 15th May, (the same dates as CAT). As part of the WBOS there is also a group show at New Greenham Arts Centre from 7th May to 5th June called Insight. I'm really looking forward to seeing a few pieces of work from everyone on the trail.

I'll be venue 24 on the WBOS map, if you're in the area you should also visit Julie Simmonds who is venue 70, Nina Krauzewicz at venue 46, Charles Burns, Gloria Pitt and Anne Websiter at venue 19.

And if that isn't enough i'll also be at venue 12 on the Henley Arts Trail from 28th to 30th May.

In June I'll mostly be resting!

Updates

 I've been busy working on some new designs. I wanted to create some wall art so I've been experimenting with leaves in frames. The ones on the left are cast from a real leaf I took a mould of and the ones on the right are stylised leaves. They are both porcelain but the cast ones are very thin, just a millimetre or so and the others rolled out porcelain clay so they are about 5 millimetres thick.

These are the new coasters I've been working on. Only have one set of green finished but there are a few drying out ready to be fired next week so I'll be selling other colours soon.

These are slip cast porcelain tea light holders that I am also busy making. The kiln is packed full of them as I type and they will be ready to be listed in my shops in the next week. I'm starting to love working with porcelain but still sticking with earthenware too for now. 

This is my next job, there are about 60 coasters here that I've got to tidy up before firing. It's a repetitive job but strangely satisfying once it's complete.