Wednesday 12 June 2013

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: