Sunken Studio: Make, Play and Chats with Rebecca.

Earlier this year I visited Sunken Studio, which is an absolutely beautiful workspace in Roundhay in Leeds, run by Rebecca. I met Rebecca back in 2013 when I was working at the Leeds College of Art (now Leeds Arts University). Rebecca taught and ran the Object and Spatial Design pathway on the Foundation Diploma, while I was on the MAGPi Pathway. 

She now solely runs Sunken Studio, where she delivers thoughtful workshops - which are so much more than learning how to construct an object. Read though her insightful blog, which will not only keep you up to date with the happenings at Sunken Studio - but where she writes passionately about process, play and technique - knowledge and insight that she openly shares with you as you indulge yourself in the world of clay and making. Since my visit Sunken Studio has growth from strength to strength, holding workshops in North Yorkshire, collaborating with Colours May Vary in Leeds and Mauds House in Skipton and currently selling ceramic jewellery at a pop up shop in Headingely.

Rebecca invited me into the studio to apply my illustrations on to her ceramics to use as examples in her up and coming workshops. Working in a beautiful space, the hours flew by as I spent a Saturday applying my characters into ceramics. Apart from going to a 'paint-your-own-pot' cafe-type set up in York a few years ago, I haven't had much experience translating my illustrations on to ceramics. I have always admired the work of Vicky Lindo and more recently Alex Sickling - as well as following an army of illustrators/ceramicists over on Instagram. So it was great fun to give it a go myself, under Rebecca's guidance. 

Over lunch, we had an energising conversation about craft, running workshops, learning through making and art and our shared interest of design education. Rebecca was telling me about a workshop that she runs with a local primary school, which is pure No Outcome. No Outcome is an ideology manifest as a workshop series which I run at Nottingham Trent University, based on the assumption that assessment kills innovation, and students should be given the time and space to make and play outside of their assessed work. She works with the pre-primary school students giving them lumps of clay which they play and make with, then fold it up and put it away. She said that at the start they were hiding in the corner, crying out of frustration that they couldn’t take anything that ‘real’ home to show their parents. They were frustrated that what they were making wasn’t recognisable and that they couldn’t roll out the clay. But, slowly and surely they began to work with it, to roll it out and to play. They were becoming more dexterous. I really enjoyed this story, making links to No Outcome – the clear emotional reaction to not being able to have something that looked like what they imagined, that they put value on things looking like existing objects or the fact that an object had to be constructed for there to be any value in the activity was really interesting. Where has that come from? Why do some Higher Education students feel that way too? Is it so ingrained that for something to have value it must be something that is made when the value comes from the practice, the process and the skills that they help to develop. The things we cannot obviously document. I loved hearing about how the pre-primary school students use the clay to solve problems, to become more co-ordinated and confident. It is a shame that these activities at school are seen more and more as extras as anything but 'core', when solving problems through making, through play, through exploring the constraints of materials is so important, for so many reasons and the lessons and skills learnt can be so transferable. I think I would be lost without the practical, problem solving escape of the art room and the home economics block at school and, to me, it feels horrifying that these ways of learning are becoming seen as 'extras' when to many they are vital. 

Certainly food for thought - and this is what I mean by spending time at Sunken Studio, you get so much more than making a pot. Although coming back to collect the fired results was thrilling and nervous - my favourite being these cat tiles which (I think) look great! I've just moved into a new home and I can't wait to incorporate them somewhere into the redecoration. 

You can find a series of workshops at Sunken Studio on Rebecca's website.

Follow Sunken Studios on Instragram @sunkenstudioleeds

Go and say hello at the Carousel in Headingley until the 9th Dec.

FAD '17

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It’s all been a bit quiet on the blogging front. Mainly because I have been doing a lot of teaching. In November I was asked to come in and help out on the MAGPi  pathway of the Foundation at Leeds College of Art. (MAGPi stands for Moving Image, Advertising, Graphic Design, Photography and Illustration. It’s the ‘communication’ pathway, but also as you can gather from those titles a broad mix of mediums). In 2013, when I was doing my PGDipE, I worked two days a week at LCA and absolutely loved teaching on an Art Foundation course. I was asked to come back this academic year. Foundations are a real gem in the UK educational system – sitting in between level 3 and level 4, they offer a year of unique diagnostic education, a year to be yourself, or to discover what that even is, a year to explore art and design education, which can be restricted at school. Leeds College of Art is one of the best places to undertake a Foundation in the country – and I don’t say that lightly. Not only is Leeds a hub of inspirational activity – from music to art, academic thought to sport, independent spaces and businesses – but the foundation is seeped in history and is different to many other foundation courses around. The students don’t do ‘tasters’ of each subject, but go through a thorough exploration of solving an array of problems – how they solve it,  and how they document how they solve it, determines what kind of artist, designer, thinker and problem solver they are – and what medias they chose to work with. It’s truly exciting, transformative experience – one that I would recommend to anyone, everyone to do – even those that don’t necessarily feel that they will have a career in the arts. The ability to solve problems creatively and to adapt and responded to the world around us is surely needed for every individual, in a technological advancing future, which is hard to foresee. I could harp on about this type of education all day long. It’s important, it’s needed, it’s transformative, it’s intense (teaching it and learning) but so rewarding (yes, teaching it and being on it) you just can’t do it half-arsed. It’s all or nothing – such is the vocational world of design. I wanted to share with you some of the lovely work the Class of ’17 have produced at their end of year exhibition, which was a few weeks’ ago. If you follow this blog, you’ll know that I also teach at Nottingham Trent University, so I have been catapulted into the assessment and end of year show there too, and I will be sharing snippets of that too and other degree shows I hope to attend–including New Designers and New Blood in July.

Photographs show our lovely space at LCA with the eclectic mix of work - MAGPi & Textiles. Directly above are lovely papier mache masks by Annie Hall.

 Interactive Graphics - above based on a project about Play by Courtney Morton, and below exploring typography by Emilla Bermejo-Ford.

An amazing illustrated zine about coming of age, by Emma Barret below.

Strange Conversation is an interactive game, designed by Hannah Carlie - 

a response to over over usage of social media.

Playful textiles by Amelia Galliford. 

Fabric Printing/New Creations

I have been playing with a new toy recently - a heat transfer press, which allows me to transfer marks, shapes and illustrations on to different fabrics with immediate results. Carrying on with the cacti theme of late (I am working on other things too!) I have been experimenting with layers, building up subtle textures. I think it's a really interesting tool that can be used alongside more blocky screen-prints. It's super fun to just play and build up marks without having a long prep process that screen-printing can have. When I screen-print, I want every print to be perfect because of the time invested in making the artwork, prepping the screen and work-space. I know that imperfections and 'mistakes' take you on an unpredictable creative journey where magic happens, but I still get a bit uptight when screen-printing. I want every piece of fabric to be utilised, and the print to come out as it in my head. With heat transfer, you can simply play and not be so precious. Well, that's how I feel!

 

I think that heat presses are a great investment anyway if you are planning on printing fabric, because you can do away with spending hours and hours ironing your freshly printed fabric to make sure that the print is cured. You can pop them under the heat press and your brand new pattern is fixed in one min or less! Which, brings me on to me latest creations, which should end my cacti creations (for now!) Using binder ff and disperse dye, I recently printed lots of meters of fabric using the separates of the mono-prints which I printed a couple of weeks' ago.

I was really happy with how they came out. I photocopied the coloured monoprints so that they were black and white and I could expose them onto the screen but still keep some of that delicious texture which I really liked from the originals. The final print was slightly textured which I think looks good, I just hope that people don't misinterpret it as a miss-print ! I'm a sucker for texture in printing techniques, and I like playing with exposing my screens to create textures. 

With the fabric, I decided to make a few different shaped cushions to go into my etsy shop.  I made long, rectangle, square and triangle cushions:

I also printed some fabric with a smaller print on, which I have made into detachable, reversible collars, available here. They have beaded embellishments on the tips:

 My etsy shop is filling out quite nicely now. I will stop banging on about life post-pgdipe, but it is good to go a making bender! I return to my lecturing job in one months' time so I have a glorious month now to build up my portfolio again. I'm currently working on a few illustration jobs right now, so will blog about these as soon as I can ! 

Open Studios & New Makings.

Over the last week or so, I have been getting back into making as much as I can, to get the momentum back up since I handed in all my PGDipE files. It's still a while away until I get the results, so I'm hesitant to de-clutter my desktop and office room in my house of all of the notes, assignments, observations etc ETC! Until it is completely finished. It is a bit weird, still being in limbo, but I have been back in my studio all the time, and printing almost everyday. The days where I am not printing, I have been designing and drawing new ideas and creations. It feels so good to be getting back into it all with full gusto! Here is what I've been up to recently: 

 

I whipped up some new appliqué cat cushions for my etsy shop. I had had a few emails about re-stocking them and so I put these cuties back in. Then, still on the cat-vibe, I spent a Saturday screen-printing a new hand-drawn cat pattern on to bright green, teal and cream cottons to make some new additions to my shops and in time for Open Studios at my studio space (but more about that in a bit). Here's some photographs of the process:

I wanted to keep a hand-drawn feel to the pattern, so when I exposed my screen I drew with black crayon and pencil on to paper then used the photocopier to copy the original drawing on to thinner paper, leaving the scribbly/texture in the cats coats. I really like adding as much texture as I can in my work and like experimenting with what I can expose on the exposure unit. Here is the fabric once cured (heat pressed to ensure that the print will last as long as possible!) 

I was really happy with the colour choice of the fabric - they look really fresh. I decided to make the cushions with a contrast opening on the back - I chose black medium weight cotton with white spots on - in two sizes, small and large and a black mid-weight cotton with white 'waves' on for a bit of differentiation. It reminded me of a photogram of bias binding:

Here they are! All sewn up and inside my etsy shop - which you can visit here. 

I must seem like I luuurrrve cats - 

I'm fond, but not in love! I just like to draw characters and cats do make cute characters! 

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You may have heard of a great organisation that offers brill spaces for artists and makers - it's called East St. Arts. It's based in Leeds but has spaces all over the country. I've had a studio space with them since November last year. Although I've been really busy with completing the postgrad, I've found it so great to be working from a studio that isn't my spare room at home. I felt like I had outgrown my space, and was beginning to feel distracted working from home. ("ooh, I'll just re-arrange my succulents in the bathroom and deep clean the shower - THEN I'll start work" and other similar house thoughts were starting to un-focus my time at home - haha). The time had come to remove myself physically from my home and have a space where I could go to work, make a (creative) mess and keep my thoughts there. I love my little studio and am much more productive there. Maybe, I'll do a post about my studio space sometime? Anyway on the 11th - 12th July, East St. Arts (ESA) opened their doors to the public who came to look around, have a chat and buy some work. 

Here are some photographs of a little corner of my space which I hung some work up. I felt like I was showing the same work as I had done for a while now; knitted cacti, illustrated books and prints, since the commitment needed to the PGDipE has made it difficult to produce new work - and I felt a bit unconfident when the doors opened and people entered, but there were so many lovely people to meet and be inspired by, it soon passed and it was a great opportunity to show my work to new people and bond with the other studio holders. Everything pictured above is on sale in my etsy shop! So do have a peek if you fancy anything!