Monday 25 November 2013

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.

Friday 1 November 2013

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!