professional development bursary - Page 3 of 7 - a-n The Artists Information Company

“I’m confident that with the funding applications out of the way, I’ll be able to make a decision about next priorities and get stuck in!” That was the last sentence of my last blog – two and a half weeks […]

Since my previous post I’ve learnt that my Taylor Wessing portrait prize submission was one of 429 selected for the second stage from 5717 images entered initially, but it didn’t then make it through to the next phase (i.e. was not shortlisted for […]

I went to London for a week to attend a Digital Textile Printing short course at the London College of Fashion. After an introduction and discussion about textiles, pattern, fashion and interiors, we were given a couple of tasks to […]

Here are the results of my first set on bundled silks. Each silk was dyed using natural materials gathered at different locations including seaweed from the coastline (top left hand corner), dirt, weeds and rusted metal found in the car […]

In many ways this project has proved not to be what I expected – a simple matter of making a three minute film about a tea set. Project work is often complex. This project carries the weight of a significant […]

It was a strange working week last week. My main focus was on completing my Grant for the Arts application plus some small applications for match funding. By the end of the week funding fatigue was setting in and I couldn’t […]

I’ve been making these little things. I made some of them years ago, though they weren’t pink then, and they didn’t really seem to be anything and so they got put in a box labelled “CURIOSITIES” along with some latex pods, […]

The work for my a-n professional development bursary has now officially taken longer than expected – it’s probably quite important to document how creative projects are sometimes trickier than anticipated. Other factors can also interrupt play. I’m still not quite […]

It is so easy to under-estimate the value of public engagement in R&D – there’s no doubt I’ve been guilty of this myself and have been made to think more deeply about it. In the sort of research I want […]

Hello and welcome to my (much delayed) third blog post. As I’ve previously mentioned, one of the core motivations for applying for a professional development bursary was improving my limited technical skills in bookmaking. Despite my worryingly intense appreciation for […]

June I took some walks locally, collecting natural materials along the way from specific locations; plants growing within the walls by the seafront, wildflowers in the city centre, weeds and rusted metal from outside the studio. I wanted to test […]

On Monday this week I had my second consultation with Julian Germain. As before, a whole afternoon was spent in Cowshill village hall in Weardale, shuffling rough prints around, with breaks for tea and chocolate digestives. And it was a really […]

I have recently completed my welding course at Tameside College in Ashton, Manchester. I’ll be receiving a Level 1 certificate any day now. Over the months, I’ve been able to feel confident in being able to set-up and use a […]

For the past 10 days I’ve done little other than edit images, and by 6 o’clock last night I’d really reached saturation point! Poured myself a large glass of wine and went to sit in my back yard (it had […]

Sadly my time in the printmaking workshops at the University of Brighton has come to an end for now but I hope that more options for later in the year may line up elsewhere. It has been a great opportunity […]

Week One at La Ceiba Gráfica has been about gathering equipment and materials to begin setting up my temporary screen print studio. And as I have been given a space on the beautiful new mezzanine overlooking the new ‘Taller de […]

Thanks for friends and tutors putting me in touch with some great people and everyone I meet generously offering further contacts, I’ve been lucky to visit ad meet printers from various walks of life. Starting with La Buena Estrella, an […]

One of those serendipitous moments while I was waiting to hear about possible dates for making a trip to learning about natural dyes and pigments here in Mexico, I’m just collecting my bag after going to an excellently curated show […]

So part of this project is gathering ideas from far away and exotic lands, but much of it is also about using what you have in a sustainable way that’s good for the planet… or better at least. So before […]

  So far the blog posts about my professional development bursary work have been about the upsides to the project. This time I’ll present a round-up of some of the challenges – project work is often not plain sailing. Filming […]

Part of the thinking about using natural pigments in my work is about being consciously aware of where they are from, geographically, how they are formed, placing them in relation to myself and in relation to the visual content of my […]

After visiting an exhibition of paintings using natural pigments (tintas naturales) at the Textile Museum in Oaxaca. Work by Maddalena Forcella and learning the main dyes used are: Cochineal (Dactylopius coccus, Cochinilla in Spanish) for red, Cempasúchil (Tagetes ereta) for […]