Congratulations Abbi and Ben

Great news from New Designers - Abbi and Ben have been invited by New Designers to come back next year and participate in the " One Year On" Exhibition ... it's a great opportunity and a real challenge to them to get their workshops set up and to get making ...

Society of Designer Craftsmen

Every year the Society of Designer Craftsmen has a stand at New Designers and graduates can apply for Licentiate Membership of the Society the aim of the licentiate programme is to offer graduate designer makers a bridge between being a student and becoming an established maker , if you want to apply you need to fill out a form and this is followed by an interview whilst graduates are exhibiting at New Designers , successful licentiates have the opportunity to exhibit in the Society's prestigious Mall Galleries the following year so it's a great achievement to become a Licentiate member .

Lots of our students applied and they'll find out in the next few days by post who has been awarded Licentiate Membership , I'll blog again when I find out more and who was successful ..

What's New Designers ?

I'm on the train travelling back from New Designers and it occurred to me that some of our regular blog followers might not know what New Designers is ....So ...New Designers is a annual graduate show held in the Business Design Centre in Islington London over two weeks . Week one has Textiles , Fashion , Jewellery , Ceramics and Applied Art whilst week two is more Graphics , Illustration, Product Design and Furniture .

Every major Art & Design Institution in the UK is represented and it's a fabulous show case for graduates its also slightly overwhelming with over 4,000 graduates exhibiting ..

New Designers - The private view

Tonight was the private view and the stand looked great , everyone dressed up and looked fabulous , it is proving very hard to keep up with all that's happening on the stand , there was quite alot of gallery and press interest and lots postcards were picked up , we had some great feedback about the stand with lots of people commenting that there was no house style and that the work was very diverse .

I loved the fact that the students feel really proud of the stand and here it is ...

Putting up New Designers

Well............ For all of us, it has been an exhausting few weeks, and yesterday really pushed a few of us over the edge!!! Getting the show up went really well, everyone got stuck in painting, putting up plinths, moving things round, going off to buy lunch and returning with sunglasses!!!

It really is a test of team work!! The show is all put up and is sparkly and shiny! This morning we are all returning to see the show in all its glory!!

Del and I have really enjoyed being with our guys for the last part of their journey, and catching up with students we used to teach and staff we used to teach with. Very crazy time of year where you wish you could have a few extra days, when were not all quite so exhausted, to enjoy all the people we have met along the way!!

Mhairi wins the Wyevale Nurseries Award for Artist Blacksmithing

Artist Blacksmithing Graduate Mhairi Fraser has won his years annual graduate award for Artist Blacksmithing donated by Wyevale Nurseries ...

Mhairi is passionate about music and plays a number of instruments and her final piece was a elegant music stand with sweeping curves based on one of her favourite pieces of music ..

For an arch of roses Post 2

I first blogged about this piece back in March and I promised to blog again when it was back from having its paint finish applied ...it was designed to sit within a arch of roses at Berrington Hall , it's ambitious , well designed and made by Bob Thomas one of our second year Artist Blacksmiths .

Congratulations Bob it's a great piece of work and looks even better now it's painted ..

The Three Counties Show

Every year the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths take a stand at the Three Counties Show in Malvern and install a exhibition ( which is also competition) of contemporary forged work made by professional Blacksmiths , our students also have the opportunity to enter the competition and exhibit - it clashes with Degree Show so the third years can't exhibit but it's a great opportunity for the second years ...

The last brief that the second years finished involved them designing and making a panel that expressed their developing aesthetic and it was these panels that were entered as well as few pieces of work from the other major project this year which involved making work for or in response to Berrington Hall including Sam and Bob's gates .

It rained and rained the week of the show and by Sunday the whole show ground was mud bath !!

Announcing the new Artworks Award

This year we are pleased to announce a new award , kindly donated by Pete Goodridge of Artworks of Abergavenny this generous cash prize is chosen by Pete and given to graduate in recognition of excellent craft skills .

Pete came to the private view and throughly enjoyed talking to the graduates and after deliberation the first Artworks Award was given to Katie Wright a graduate from Blacksmithing who makes wearable jewellery from forged steel and sliver ..

Dominique wins the Lion Gallery Award

The Lion Gallery gives an award annually and this includes an opportunity to exhibit in the Lion Gallery - this year the award was given to Dominique for exquisite small cluck-able vessels and rings ..

The Degree Show

The Degree Show is the culmination of three years hard work for the students and marks the end their study and for many the beginning of the careers as makers , I love seeing students standing next to the objects they've made and looking so proud , knowing they've worked to the best of their ability ... It's full on and stressful ensuring everyone is happy with their space and the show works as a whole. This year was especially challenging as the show was in a new space and it was the first show that Kate and I worked on installing together ...

We chose to exhibit graduating students from the Crafts Cluster together .. Here's some snap shots of the work in the space , all the graduates now have a on line presence either their own blog or website and all the links are on the home page of this blog so click on the links and take a closer look at what they've been up to ...