Moving my blogg to my website jaxsarts.co.uk

I have just revamped my website which now incorporates this blog if your interested in reading more visit www.jaxsarts.co.uk Learning how to use wordpress has been a challenge but an interesting one.

Christmas and planning for the new year

Its been busy time over the Christmas period as I have been busy providing Christmas related workshops ranging from textile  creating handmade decorations and planning for next year. As well as this I needed to take some personal time out to spend time with our son Ashly before he emigrated to Australia on Christmas Day a time of happiness with a sprinkling of sadness mixed in.
So now looking forward to the year ahead I have been planning a program of activities that will be starting at the end of January , which and running through to the summer  which I am really exited about  I will be adding these to the current activities page very soon .I am also I am also planning in time to create my own work and carry on with private commissions and bookings and on top of this I had a great Christmas present a couple of weeks ago when I was offered a part time job role starting  mid January.
Why might you ask is this a good thing ? well I have always to work for someone else part time usually as a community development worker as this role is I find complements my work as a artist.The other benefits is that it offers a regular income which in turn allows me to pay the bills on a regular basis and enabled me to provide workshops that are assessable and affordable to most of my students.

Photographing my jewellery work

With the lack of consistant good natural light at the moment  I decided to improvise and spend most of the afternoon making a light box from many of the great ideas out there in the virtual web world.  I then spent the afternoon photographing some of my new work, the hardest task I found was trying to photograph my latest resin jewelery here are my first attempts, the most difficult is the reflection and the fact that my digital camera is rather limited I think that I am going to need some more practice.

Lino block printing in Winchester and the Wrapped Up craft fair in Andover

What a busy few days I held another great lino block printing card making session always lots of fun as usual I always love teaching others and gaining back so much myself  always interesting my main problem is that my active mind wants to do so many things and time constraints means that I need to help people to move in and stay focused added to that many people are quiet when then are concentrating it is an interesting skill for me learning to stay quiet and observe... a difficult one as my multi tasking brain is usually busy doing several different things at the same time.

It is always interesting as to how we judge success in our work someone the other day said to me that success is judged by income, well although that is nice it is not one that I use as a measure. For me the pleasure in imparting a skill or helping someone to gain in confidence I often have returning students saying something to me about a previous experience e.g several of the students who have attended my printing workshops also brought their children to the animal sculpure workshops last month all have said how much fun they had and how it has inspired them to create more others who attended  the previous experimental mono  session have said how much fun they had and loved the freedom. It is always good to receive feedback and it is the only way that I can judge if I need to alter anything and improve the experience.

 Andover Lights Wrapped Up my first large craft fair was a great example of all the great crafts people out their beavering away  all of superb standard and very varied crafts.
I loved the feedback that I received all very positive and helpful as I am very much a newbie to selling my crafts in this way  my belief in making items that I find pleasing seems to be the right one  and one worth persevering with and  as much of my work is observed to be different to the norm it often attracts attention and curiosity.
It seems to be a difficult financial time at the moment as many of the other stall holders commented that buyers were being much more careful as they are watching their budgets at the moment.

Quirky Cow and getting ready for the weekend and my current passion for resin

I just wanted to share with you my lovely friend Melissa art work under Quirky Cow designsshes a lovely an a really amusing artist and I just love her website
http://www.art-spaces.com/melissasimm/

Ive been busy as usual getting ready for another Lino block printing workshop tomorrow and my stall Andover The Lights Wrapped up Christmas Fair on Saturday.  Making a change from my usual recycled wares which there are plenty of  I seem to have a thing for all things resin at the moment , as usual its sticky messy and smelly and a new dremel means that youl often now ind me in the shed with a dust mask covered in resin dust .

But  I love the adaptability I have quite a collection of bought in pieces so now I am busy inventing my own.

What is art , a question that is often asked.

A few weeks ago I attended a creative persons get together at the Aspex Gallery cafe in Portsmouth.
One of the questions we were asked is if needed to describe what art was how would we describe it?

The old saying its as long as it is short often applies in this case with so many perspectives it is never on that wil receive a definitive answer as it is so subjective.
I often think of such a topic with one that is often associated with a question and a emotion be it positive or negative, as with all relationships in life we often partner with someone who has different views to our own.
When ever I go to London I usually try to visit gallerys such as the Tate Modern. I can't admit to liking everything that I see however my favorite pieces are the ones that challenge me to think differently or leave me a sense of wonder .
I wont admit to understanding  much of the concept art for example a stuffed horse or a piece of tree on a metal fence, after all the horse was amazing in its own right and was not created stuffing an animal and hanging it from the ceiling or cutting a fence that has a branch embedded could be argued to be an  interesting idea or statement however for me just because it is placed in a gallery does not make it a piece of art.
Now I admit that this description can equally be applied to other situations and in my case that usually relates to a scenic view, waterfalls, sunsets or a collected group of sounds.
But isn't that the point .... art should be evoke an emotion, be it wonderment or loathing it doesn't  matter, it should be something that has been created and at its very best ideally inspire.

Selling my work. Craft Fairs and Etsy

Hello again, so many people ask me why I don't sell many of the crafts I make for workshops I often considered doing so however as I have said before space is a major concerns.

However recently I have decided that as space is limited I should make small things to sell and  have been making a range of recycled jewelry using materials that you will be familiar with such as paper,fabric,wool, wire and resin  and in the next week I be creating some papiermache bowls and other textile based crafts ready for Andovers Wrapped Up Fair at the end of the month.

 

If you are  based anyway near Southampton or Andover you can find me at a number of venue. The first being small to help me to gauge my potential audience was at Southampton Library last  weekend, this Friday evening (the 18th) I will be having a  stall at the HILT Community Centre in Chandlers Ford Eastleigh followed by a much larger event at the Andover Lights Wrapped Up Christmas Fair on the 26th November.

 

and no its not quilling

How may you wonder do I find the time ? well the fact that my son is now an adult and my partner is very understanding (well most of the time) makes a big difference.

I am also planning to have a go at starting up a Etsy Shop and need to create a website for my paintings as commissions are coming in ....Being a prolific creative If I am not busy teaching others I am usually creating my own work. Some of which you have seen here before.

Experimental Mono Printing what fun and getting ready for the lino printing

As previously mentioned a few weeks ago I was busily getting ready for a mono printing workshop session, Well I can report that as usual great fun was had by all.
I love meeting new people as well as a few students I have met before as always this kind of workshop allows all concerned to try out different things and just play. It always amazes me how many adults love playing and experimenting and always say that they wish that they could do it more often.
I am now busy preparing for my lino block printing card making session in a couple of weeks as well as my final introductory jewelery workshops this year ( this time its recycled plastics) as well as trying to be prepared in advance for the rest of my workshops this year
If your interested most of the rest of my workshops that are open to individuals to book onto are  happening at the  Winchester Discovery Centre a favorite of mine as its a great space to work in.T he only exception is a Christmas family crafts session at the Gill Nethercott Centre, Whitchurch on the third of November.

My goose ready for the the Robert Davies animal sculpture workshop

Robert Davies Goose

The Robert Davies drawing exhibition depicts a range of animals who are considered to best of breed contrasted with animals who have been intensely  reared who have now been rescued. Robert captures the character of each of the animals in his drawings.

Winchester Discovery Centre asked me  to provide animal sculpture workshops for families responding to his work.
We created chickens, geese, pigs, cows, sheep and horses.

 Because the sculptures needed to be  ready to take away within a three hour time frame I use papier mache principles with mud rock using mud rock as the outer layers.

My goose after the workshop

I created templates for each of the animals that Robert had drawn allowing participants to choose the one that they liked the best.

I also created this goose sculpture as an example and a pig which I worked on during the sessions. 

 To make the goose I  cut a body, head and neck, two wings and feet from thick cardboard. I taped the head neck and body together treating this as one piece and then padded  it and the wings with  scrunched newspaper and covered with masking tape.

 The feet were made large to ensure stability these wire fastened to wire legs.


All of the pieces were covered with two layers of mud rock and joined together, further  detail was added with smaller pieces.
The families took more mud rock home with them so that they could do another layer and repair any damage that might occur on the way home.I have advised the students to leave it to dry ( 2- 3 days)  before they decorate it .

Now that the workshops have run I intend to finish my goose ( when I find he time and  use a mix of plaster and pva glue as a final coat. once this is dry I will sand it down and paint it with acrylics.
I will share post a photograph of the piece when it is completed.

Craftsforuum.co.uk

I have just discovered  crafts forum a really useful website for asking craft related questions have a look you might find it of use