Christmas Craziness and Unit Twelve Award and Exhibition Images

The last few weeks have been crazy with different Christmas / Craft Fairs in and around the Cardiff area. I have also been setting up for two exhibitions over the Christmas period, the Winterland Exhibition in Milton Keynes Arts Centre and the Contemporary Craft Open in Unit Twelve, Stafford. Here are some images from the exhibition:

I visited Stafford for the Open's Private View and Award Ceremony. I was lucky enough to win the Made By Hand Online Award which was a great, and Unit Twelve made a hand-made rosette too!

These are some of the pieces that I loved from the exhibition:

Ella Robinson

The Purple Thread Shed

Ruth Allen

The Exhibition has so many great little pieces of Arts and Crafts and is open until the 1st of March 2014.

In the past three weeks I've been a part of three Christmas Fairs, and have two this week also. I'm selling my Ceramic and Jewellery pieces also some new christmas decorations I've been working on, and some new personalized small heart necklace that can be found on my Shop page on my website : www.elunedglyn.com/shop

Here is my stall at the Canton Christmas Fair :

and at Porter's Christmas Bonanza in Cardiff City Centre:

The fairs this week will be Treganna School Christmas Fair from 5pm - 7pm.

And the Cardiff Arts Collective Christmas Fair at the Paget Rooms, Treganna from 11am-5pm.

I've also been working on some commissioned Porcelain Christmas Decorations, which also gets me into the Christmas spirit! 

It's been great to get involved with so many different exhibitions and fairs this month, and I've enjoyed meeting some makers from around the Cardiff area. 

Here is a Print Maker from the Cardiff area that makes amazing hand-made books, and illustrations.

http://www.thesho.co.uk/Lizprice.html

Also, a charity that makes hand-made t-shirts promoting hope through creativity in aid of young people dealing with depression with amazing designs.

http://hatw.co.uk/

Wales International Young Artist Award

This past month has been slightly crazy due to being shortlisted for the Wales International Young Artist Award with the British Council.

I applied around June-July time, so was stunned to receive the email that I had been shortlisted. The award ceremony was in the Radisson Blu in Cardiff and was a lovely evening. It was great to get recognition for the work I have been producing in the last year and it was a great feeling to be a part of the first award of its kind.

Here I am with the work that I submitted:

It was a great experience to be shortlisted and I've had some media attention from this including Wales Today, S4C and BBC online. I was also interviewed for Youth Arts Online regarding my practise and the development of my work during and after my degree.

http://youthartsonline.org/convergence-old-new/

I've been preparing some new pieces for Christmas Fairs that I am taking part in this weekend and the following weekends. The details are :

Friday the 29th of November - Plasmawr School Christmas Fair 3.30pm - 6pm
Saturday the 30th of October - St John's Church, Canton 11am - 5pm
Sunday the 15th of December - Paget Rooms, Victoria Road, Penarth 11am - 5pm

Over the last two months I've been running Welsh-language Adult Evening Ceramic Classes and the results have been great. I have really enjoyed sharing some of the skills I have developed and hope to glaze the pieces in the following final weeks.

Here are some Christmas Lanterns that we have been working on:

I have taken some work to Stafford on the weekend for a great exhibition in Unit Twelve Gallery: Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition

 http://www.unittwelve.co.uk/index.htm

which will be running from the 5th of December to the 1st of March.

I will also be sending work this week to the Milton Keynes Arts Centre for their Christmas Exhibition : Wonderland.

http://www.artworks-mk.co.uk/ 

I have just started stocking in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth which is a great achievement for me and I can't wait to go and see the pieces over Christmas.

Christmas Fairs and Media attention!

The last few months have been quite manic! I started a new job at the beginning of October and have been settling well in there. We have finished painting and renovating the house and now I will be able to give all of my time to my ceramics work.

After setting up my pieces at the Cardiff Open 2013 in High Street Arcade, I was approached by the welsh language magazine Golwg who wanted to write an article about my ceramic process. This was a great opportunity to showcase my work, and S4C then recorded a small interview about the exhibition.

I collected the pieces as the exibition finished last week, and I've also collected work from an exhibition in The Pound Arts Centre in Corsham, Wiltshire just in time for Christmas Fairs I have coming up. 

I returned to my home town for a few days and also delivered work to the Aberystwyth Arts Centre Shop for the Winter Christmas Fair. 

I will be also taking part in two Christmas Craft Fairs with the Cardiff Arts Collective, one on the 30th of November 11am - 5pm in St John's Church, Canton and the other on the 15th of December 11am - 5pm in Paget Rooms, Victoria Road, Penarth. 

I've had a few developments with my ceramic work too. I have been looking into using terracotta slip for the pieces too as an interesting contrast. I have bought a gold lustre glaze too, in the hope that the success rate is greater because of it being a glaze. My next few weeks will be used up making porcelain christmas decorations for the Christmas Fairs and making new jewellery pieces. 

The last few months have been mad, which is great and I hope that the Christmas Fairs will be just as fun! 

Summer, sunshine and sales!

I've been busy, after the Contemporary Craft Fair in Bovey Tracey, making new pieces and selling my work at various fairs, outlets and exhibitions.

I have so many ideas to create new work for the collection, but, after buying a new house I've been preoccupied with painting and refurbishing!

My work was shown amongst others in the National Eisteddfod in Denbighshire with Cwt Tatws. I was amazed to find out that I near enough sold out, so have been making more work to send up to North Wales in order to upload to their website, www.cwt-tatws.co.uk.  Here's an image of the pieces in the Eisteddfod :

I've also started selling in a lovely shop in my home town called Ian Snow. They have taken some jewellery from me and sold out already so have sent more pieces over, which is great news! 

Last week I drove to Corsham, Wiltshire to deliver around fifty of my pieces to the Pound Arts Centre. I will be exhibiting my work with other graduates in the 'Assembly' exhibition that centres around Contemporary Craft in the UK. The exhibition will run from the 7th of September until the 6th of October. 

I have also been selected to sell my work at the Cardiff Arts Collective Christmas Fair on the 30th of November and the 15th of December. Hopefully I would have made more work by this point and would have some christmas editions to add to the stall! 

I can't wait to get making again and hope to keep getting interest in my work around Wales and the UK. I have two commissions running at the moment too, which I need to continue work on so I'm busy busy busy! I've moved into my studio, which is the most important thing and will be living there for the next few months due to the interest in the pieces! Here's my shed gleaming in the sunshine!! 

The Contemporary Craft Fair!

I have returned from the Contemporary Craft Fair in Bovey Tracey, Devon! I was a part of the One Year On section which included many graduates from around the UK. This was my first craft fair so I was nervous to see what the general public thought of my work and of my concepts in ceramics.

We (Myself and a friend, Sally) travelled down Thursday morning, and arrived at around midday. Once we'd arrived it was all systems go from the off, trying to unload everything from the car in the hot sun! I had designed the storage unit to not only present my pieces in a stand, but also as the storage for the pieces in the car. Although everything was measured, we had a slight problem with the boot entrance being smaller than the measured inner of the car. Because of this, it was difficult to get the whole set in, but we managed, only just!

After re-painting the unit and placing all the pieces ready for the show we had a few hours to find the hotel, (which was another mission!)

Here is an image of the stand just before opening for the private view

I had some great feedback from the private view, some people intrigued with the method, some people wanting to touch the pieces and even some saying that it was unique and they had never seen anything similar before, which was lovely! 

The next few days of the fair were great, I got to know some of the other graduates with stands, talked to a lot of people about broken and re-constructed crockery and sold a decent amount of pieces. It was a lovely weekend weather wise, with the ideal festival weather throughout. The Fair was at Mill Marsh Park which was a great setting as there was plenty of room, and lots of activities for all! 

I have felt recently as if I've been making the work for so long, creating new pieces and constantly in a different stage of the making process with many pieces, so it was great that I could show people what I had been up to in the past year and just show off my work a little! 

The event also gave me confidence to carry on with this body of work and to make new pieces. It has also inspired me to apply for more fairs and events within craft, so it was a great experience all round! I'm already excited for my next fair! 

To finish, here are some very tall women from the Contemporary Craft Fair:

Tea for five?

I'm currently still making for the Contemporary Craft Festival. I need more storage for all my pieces, and I've finally completed my tea set! :)

The images I have are not the best quality but the pieces are not yet fired, so I will hopefully be buying a fade backboard soon to take more professional images.

Here is my studio at the moment in all of it's glory. Bit messy, but productive:

I have started adding a firing to each piece by marking my signature underneath, I wasn't sure to start with whether it was worth it, cost wise for the pieces, but I felt as if it was an important part of my pieces looking more professional. 

Here are some of the current tea sets, only half fired, but you get the idea. I think after my pieces all being finished they will work well as a whole, but they will also compliment my other pieces from my degree show. So, hopefully I will be able to present the pieces together. I have been thinking about the design of my stall, but I have yet to finalize and measure these ideas. Here's a half finished tea set for you to cast your eyes on. :) 

Current proposal and exhibitions

I have been a busy factory the past few months, getting stock ready for an exhibition at the Contemporary Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey, Devon in June. I've been creating new pieces that will link together to form a tea set. As you've seen my cups and saucers previously, I won't go into too mucn detail about these. They are the same concept as my degree show proposal. Here they are:

 

I'm really excited to exhibit at the Craft Fair as I have volunteered many times for a simliar craft fair in Newport, I love the atmosphere and the quirky, original designs of different artists. I will be in the One Year On section with other graduates and I'm looking forward to displaying my work professionally.

 

I've been making a teapot as a centre piece to my body of work. It was a good test of what I have learnt in Univeristy as the mold had many undercuts and became a seven part mold! Here is one of them before being bisque fired:

 

 

I've also been working on a milk jug to go with the set, which I've freshly cast today for the first time! It's so great to see my work developing and soon I will be able to say that I have a full teaset! Here is the milk jug that I have also been working on:

 

 

My work is currently at The Counting House in Porthgain with my Sterling Silver and Porcelain Hand-Made Jewellery amongst other artists. If your around the area, go and have a look!

 

 

I was lucky enough to be asked to talk at MOMA Wales in Machynlleth at the beginning of April. I went through my journey from school, to foundation, to university and the many various projects I had to my current work. It was lovely to present my work in my hometown, slightly nerve-racking but I enjoyed explaining my processes and how my mind works through inspiration from other artists from different artistic movements, from Cubism to Deconstructivists and the Constructivists.

 

 

 

My kiln has been amazing, and it was such a great buy off ebay! I fire every other day nearly now, and it's so easy as the kiln sitter automatically turns the kiln off when it hits the right temperature.

 

I have a few things in the pipe line ideas wise, as I want to create similar jewellery pieces to my 3d objects as I don't think my hobby jewellery compliments my ceramic pieces. I look forward to seeing how this works. I also need to create a display for my exhibition in Devon, I have so many different ideas for it, but I'm constrained due to the fact that everything must fit into my car, so it will have to be a clever design! I've been creating new sketches that I wanted to use as transfers for my pieces, but I can't decide whether I want to leave the pieces white or whether the transfers will add to the work. I have tested one piece, but I find it difficult as I can't really see how effective it is without using transfers on all of my work! I'll leave you with a sketch of my teapot:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eluned Glyn. www.elunedglyn.com

 

 

New developments

I've not written for AGES! I've been developing my new website with online shop that links to paypal. Have a look at www.elunedglyn.com, some feedback would be nice too if you have the time! I wanted to create a website that would have all the separate information clear and easy to find.

I've just started a new job at Re-Create, Cardiff and Vale Play Services Association in Ely. My position is Merchandiser and Resource Assistant and my role is the day-to-day running of the scrap store and ensuring cleanliness and organization throughout I also answers any queries regarding Re-Create's hire equipment and arts & crafts. I'm enjoying my new job so far, learning a lot about different aspects of running a shop every day, and the hours are great as I'm able to carry on making on my days off. 

Since my last blog update I've fired my new kiln twice, (both successfully!) It's a great little kiln and finishes within 6 hours which is great. I've been working on a tea set, which I now have 5 cups and saucers. I only need to make a teapot and we're rocking! I'm enjoying my making at the moment and have found my rhythm in making.

Over Christmas I exhibited in the Aberystwyth Christmas Craft Fair, which was great for people to see my work, and feel as if I've gained a lot from this experience. I'm hoping of exhibiting in a few exhibitions again this year. I will be blogging more often, although it was meant to be a New Year's Resolution! 

Here is an image of my glazed cups from the last firing.