Taster Day - Artist Blacksmiths

We offer one day Taster Days for potential applicants across all our courses and yesterday there was a Taster Day at the forge . Participants arrive first thing in the morning and have an opportunity to work at a forge and also talk to our current second and third year students about their practice . We popped over to the forge at lunchtime and checked out how they were getting on and ended up staying longer and giving students impromptu tutorials and also took some photos - so here's a glimpse of what was going on in the forge yesterday afternoon .

HE Exhibition No 2

Last night was the private view of the HE Exhibition and the official opening of the new building on our Folly Lane Campus ... A big thank you to all the graduates from the Crafts Cluster who are exhibiting and came to the opening

Simon Bushell ( the guy on the bench) has been offered a one year residency with Stephen Cox and was excited about constructing his new forge from a redundant oil tank , Beryl ( glass) has almost completed her new studio , Anna ( jeweller ) who's working in the Alloy workshop sadly arrived with two of her fingers broken !! so won't be making for a while and I've recently blogged Nicks news , he just won a Award for excellence from the Society of Designer Craftsmen and Sara is busy with commissions and her new horse ..

Folly Friday No 2

Today Kate and I had another Folly Friday full of Tutorials with our third year students, it's an exciting time of year when students are focused on making their practice which is developing and changing so quickly and their output in enormous ..a really exciting time of year .

Folly Friday

It has been a long hard two weeks for all of our students, but even harder for Dell and I! We have managed to get every single students across all 3 courses and all years a tutorial, some have had two or three, and Del and I have touched base with almost everyone ourselves. There have been lots of smiles, lots of hard work and a lot of tears!! So much so that today one of my first year jewellers bought me a box of tissues for my office!!

But, it has been the most rewarding two weeks for all of us, as there has been so much progress made and now we have only a week or so before summative hand in.

Today, as suggested in the title, was Folly Friday. Every Friday from this week onwards Del and I will be in the workshops at Folly Lane, as this is where half our students live. Now more than ever, making is a priority and Del and I saw many students to help with technical advice. I was in small metals talking to all the students who are busily working away I their little spaces. I brought a big parcel of silver, enamels and other bits ( including tiny pestle and motors for our enamelling section) down for Bronwen, our workshop manager and in house jeweller. We spent some time pouring over the new stuff, I never get bored of ordering supplies, even if the are for someone else!!

Next, I spoke to the jewellers and small metalworkers. These images are of Amy and Bethan's work, we are almost there!

Beth is really getting into enamels and has produced companion pieces. Their relationship to each other is explored through colour.

Amy is exploring oversized findings. I'm really excited about the gold plate on these huge butterfly backs!!

It's been a great week, Del and I are dead on our feet and rather glad that tomorrow we can get some rest.

I look forward to what next week brings!

Have a great weekend

Ashleigh at The Fold

After talking to prospective students in Stratford yesterday I called into a great Gallery / Cafe and was delighted to see Ashleigh's work exhibited, Ashleigh graduated from our Contemporary Applied Arts course last year it's fabulous to see the work again within a gallery context .

Dan and his doodles!!

I have been in very early this morning and one of the first students I have seen today for a tutorial was Dan Calderwood, one of my first year blacksmiths.

We sat down to have a look at all his work and to see how best to organise it. In amongst all the sketchbooks, paper, notes and research, there was a flip pad full of doodles that were produced before he even came here, and they have really helped dan understand more about his creative process.

It's always important to realise that creativity doesn't just happen when your in college, I happens all the time, and doodling really is rather useful, it's a creative release!!

So these doodles will be photocopied and displayed in his learning journal to document his creative process.

Robyn and the mad hatters treasure hunt!

Robyn is a second year jeweller who is working on her Design development brief. She had chosen to create a range of work that has a really playful narrative, she is producing objects for a treasure hunt that is inspired by Alice in wonderland.

Here are the beginnings of her project and she has used some vibrant colours to adorn the chess pieces that are part of the treasure hunt.

Simple, quirky and wearable!! I'm very interested to see how the rest of the work develops.

Utensils

All the first years across the Crafts Cluster currently working on a Utensils brief - " a tool , implement or container for practical use" . They have a few weeks making before their assessment and there's some great work
developing, today I was really inspired by Bill's wall full of scissor tools ... Looking forward to seeing how this body of work develops over the next few weeks ..

Exhibition at the Mall Galleries

This week we have a number of last years graduates exhibiting at the Society of Designer Craftsmen at the Mall Galleries , SW1Y 5AS
Simon Bushell , Nick Wolstencroft , Beryl Morgans and Oliver Leng , you can see images of the show set up and Private View by looking at the flickr account linked below ... and the great news is that Nick won an "Award for excellence" which upgrades to him to a full member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen alongside a winning cheque.
Well done Nick

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonart/sets/72157628783827087/

HE exhibition

Well, we are back for the New Year and we have started the way we mean to go on!! First Big job Dell had when we got back was to co-ordinate an exhibition of graduate work at our Folly Lane campus. The building has recently had a face lift as such and now we have a permanent exhibition space.

Del needed to oversee all the exhibition but I got the chance to sit down with Anna, one of last years graduates from CAA, and select some work for the display case. I really love Anna's work, and have to remind myself to take it off!!!

Well, here's to the New Year!!