Open Day

The first open day at the studio (which will eventually be mine) where I had a showcase of my own work.

It happened yesterday. I spent the week stressing myself out, coldworking the things I was able to coldwork and sanding/painting and “filler-ing” my upcycled display cabinet and obviously trying to make a shed load of glass to go in it.  I was getting up at 7 and working before going to work then going straight to the garage-studio in the evenings to coldwork. Many things did not get completed because I was too tired to concentrate properly and I don’t yet have the array of coldworking facilities which I need to finish everything to the standard I want. I have lots of “work in progress”

I was so fatigued by the start of the day that I barely remembered it and quite frankly was not a good conversationalist when there were many, many people all trying to talk to me at once. The people are lovely and for the most part encouraging.

I hope I didn’t just stare vacantly in their direction and nod and smile…

I just slept for 13 hours straight and am still tired. Apparently I did not handle this well.

A few things happened, some of which surprised me and some of which disheartened me. I feel egotistical saying this but I didn’t sell much of my work and I found this surprising. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised because Richard has announced that he will be retiring from glassmaking in the next couple of years so his collectors are obviously going to try to get what they can whilst he is still making. Not that this makes me feel any better when I look at my sales.

The upside is that I now have a permanent display at the Station and it is currently nicely stocked with things. Silver-lining, right?

The more disheartening thing happened when we were pricing some of my pieces in the morning. (Yes I know it was last minute but hey I am an artist so I am useless at linear thinking) There was a friend and collector staying with my boss and his wife who was helping out with the open day, I asked his opinion on pricing for some of my solid-sculpted pieces. I realise that solid-sculpting is not to everyone’s taste and is by no means a traditional method of making in the UK. It clearly was not to his taste because he suggested the price tag of £60 for something which had taken me almost three hours to make. He must have seen my face drop because he rapidly suggested I upped it to £75… I imagine my face probably frowned. I made him hold the piece and the realisation of just how heavy it was dawned on him, his estimate only just covered the cost of the glass and the gas used to heat it, not even covering the assistants wages. I think it then registered with him that he might have offended me just a little.

I had valued his opinion in the past because he is a longstanding glass collector who is meticulous in his arrangement and display of his collection. His house is like a museum. Full of traditionally made beautiful pieces of glass. I still value his opinion but will not be asking for it on any solid-sculpted pieces. The closest thing to solid-sculpting he has in his collection is a paperweight or two. He clearly places a higher value on the blown pieces which he obviously enjoys.

This was one step in a steep learning curve for me. Richards collectors love his work, my own style of work is very different and that showed in sales. I will not be changing my style of work (because if I just copy Richards style that defeats the object, doesn’t it?) but will be changing where I choose to market it.  I think my solid sculpted pieces probably belong in a gallery setting where the right audience will see them.

I was also told that one of my sculptures was “horrible”.  The reason being that it was a bunny body with a large skull for a face and big floppy ears. I enjoy mixing the cute with the macabre. Many people think I should stick to the cute. I like the macabre too much to stay away from it. I realise it’s an acquired taste but the market is out there. It probably doesn’t exist amongst most middle-aged glass collectors though. Several people have suggested Whitby as a good place to show my work.

I feel I need a trip to Whitby to meet some of “my people” and have a break for a while. 

 My display cabinet before and after

Fully stocked, bit dark as we hadn't opened the blinds yet

Ocean sculptures and paperweights

 Underwater volcano sculptural light

 Everyone needs icecream cone sheep in their life right?

 New small display advertising my Memorial Ashes Paperweight range

My horrible bunny skull sculpture. His name is Bernard. I love him.

New Tyres

So I'm sat at a garage waiting in the mechanic to fit the two new tyres that I need. I have a nail in one and a bulge in the other.
This may seen like a strange start to an arty-type blog post but bear with me.

I have recently begun the slow transfer of ownership of a glass blowing business and studio. It will happen over the next two years. I now don't get paid to be there and my main income is from selling my own work through the gallery area. I work there in exchange for studio time and pay towards the gas and cullet.
Just before this arrangement began (when I had paid work for four days a week) I had such a hard time dealing with a colleague at another studio that we refused to work with each other from then on. I had worked with this person for two and a half years and dealt with a lot of unnecessary s**t from them.
This meant that I lost two of the paid days a week I had which was going to be my financial stability whilst I started up my business. It couldn't have happened at a worse time for me.
I've had to take a heavy hit to my spending habits, social life, petrol consumption and what I eat and where I shop for it.
Everything has to be saved for and every time I begin to relax a little because I have some money in the bank something comes along and drains my bank balance. Like my car.
I've started selling bits on eBay to make a little bit of money but it's not exactly going to keep my going.

Starting up a glass business and customer base is hard.
Officially a struggling artist right now.

Britain's Glass Makers, regarding the impact of the recession and overseas production.

So, what, I hear you cry, is the state of glass making in the UK right now?

Clearly this is the question on everybody's (or nobody's) lips. It's on my lips/mind/brain anyway. 

We have a few factories left that I know of, which are what I would call traditional glass factories with skilled workers. Dartington Glass, Cumbria Crystal, Caithness, Plowden & Thompson are the ones I am aware of, there may be more but I haven't found them yet.

Many of our factories went out of business due to the importation of cheaper glass from India and China where wages are much lower and health and safety is non-existent. I also believe the raw materials are cheaper over there, probably because of the two aforementioned conditions whilst it is being extracted from the ground. Silica-sand being the main ingredient of glass which does need to be mined. We have a good seam going somewhere in Scotland at the moment I believe...

This is a link to an old (1991) film of a typical glass factory in India. From 3:50- 5:55 because you can't grasp how dangerous it can be until you see a load of blokes chucking blowing irons with molten glass on the ends at each other...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPjDUXz0Fe8

 As most of the glassware sold in the UK is now made abroad, this closed many of our factories, until only smaller independent studios and educational facilities remained. Then the recession hit. This closed many of our small studios or forced people to drastically change their products or their way of making.

Many people now hire a studio for a day or two of making their work as it is more affordable than running their own studio full time. (Which most of us don't know how to do anyway as studio management/furnace building/equipment operation is not taught in Universities these days.)

The cost of hiring a studio for the day is high but they have to be to make it worth the while of the owner once you take in to account the running costs. The rates vary from studio to studio from £150 per day (Midlands based studio) to £450 per day (Manchester/London based studio). Often the artist will have to pay the wages of an assistant on top of this cost, or provide their own assistant or share days with another maker.

The small studios which are dotted around the country are the real driving force of the UK's glass scene. Independent makers who have developed their own signature style, or really tailored their work to a niche area of the glass market. 

With that in mind it's artist spotlight time! Focusing on three glass makers who are still here after the recession and all have different approaches to their business.

Richard Golding; Founder of Okra Glass in 1979 Richard has worked in most glass environments, has built most of his own equipment and developed many highly skilled surface decoration techniques over his 36 years working with glass. These days he is semi-retired with a small studio called Station Glass, Shenton. (http://www.stationglass.com) He survived the recession by having a small army of collectors already established from the Okra days and by offering high-end, uniquely made glass pieces unlike any other maker in the UK.

Stuart Fletcher; Owner of Top Glass, Hanbury. Stuart has had a studio in the busy Jinney Ring craft centre for twelve years now. The shop has every available space filled with stock, including the ceiling. Baubles hang from the beams above whilst the shelves are crammed with varied pieces made by several different makers. Everything is organised mainly by colour.

The foot-fall generated by the craft centre is essential for getting through the quieter times of the year but Top Glass thrived throughout the recession by producing a wide variety of products for a variety of budgets. Smaller, cheaper pieces are the best sellers with a faster turnover than the larger, more time consuming pieces. 

Jake Mee; Owner of Smithbrook Glassblowing Studio, Surrey. Jake sells his work through galleries as well as his own studio/shop. He also, like Richard, has an energy efficient furnace combo unit which is not designed for large scale or mass-production work. Jake runs day courses which seem to be his main source of income, he also runs demonstrations for schools and other groups. He is perfectly placed in Surrey to attract well-off clients who want to try something new and exciting and maybe purchase glass whilst they are there. He has tailored his practice to suit the placement of his studio perfectly.

With the small studio glass movement thriving in this new "Handmade in Britain" era, I wonder if history will repeat itself... With art prices getting higher, then the mass produced art will creep back like in the Art Nouveau period and there will be a need for industrial practices again which could bring some glass factories back to Britain. That would be nice in the long run because almost all the people who have the knowledge of how to effectively run a large-scale glass factory are retired, dead or living in another country.

The UK glass making world is small and it's getting smaller. There will always be glass makers around but they will learn and perfect small, specialised areas or techniques in their little studios. This means better glass, more varied artisans, and hopefully a highly successful small-scale glass movement within whatever vast, general, artistic movement we are currently living through. 

One thing is certain, people are much more willing to buy a piece of handmade glass once they have seen a person making the glass. For the average person, it seems they fail to consider the making process at all when looking at a piece of cold glass unless they see someone forming the glass whilst it's hot. The greater the understanding of the consumer, the greater UK glass will be. 

Lets unite and show them what we can do!

Japanese Inro

So I popped in to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery recently and found these awesome objects. Coming from a culture which has always had pockets I find the level of detail in these Japanese carry pouches, called Inro, to be fascinating.  Victorian/Edwardian ladies used to have something similar to carry perfume with them but ours were traditionally made of metal I believe. 

There is an example of the English version on my G+ account here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104024126503907077476/posts  found in Nottingham City Castle, Museum and Gallery.  I seem to have great intrigue for tiny carry-able objects. 

Graffiti as an artistic movement?

I was talking to a fine-artist/sculptor friend of mine recently and he said "I think we need street art, I think it will become known as the movement of our time." , I had not considered this. It sort of brings my hopes back up a little for this generation, you may recall my little rant two blogs ago... 

Ahem, to quote myself;  

"I wonder what the history books will say about this era concerning the artistic movement. You can’t really call it the “Untalented Movement” or the “I wanted to be an artist so that is what I will do regardless of my actual ability to draw or sculpt or do anything useful movement”. "

I would be quite pleased if our legacy was left as the movement which pushed the boundaries of where art was displayed and why. There is also something more appealing about it when it's illegal or in defiance of the snooty gallery people and everything they stand for. I realise that sounds childish but it still gives me a thrill. I have been of the other end of the stick though, I have had my work displayed in galleries, I have gone to openings and viewed shows/displays, I have mingled with artists/designers/buyers/owners etc and every single gallery opening has been boring. Good for networking admittedly, the standard of the work has no relevance to my experience here by the way. I have seen some astounding work at boring gallery openings and private views, but they all have white walls and everyone shuffles around quietly, leaning in to see the work more closely whilst never daring to touch it or breath to hard on it. Then they will straighten up and look for the nearest person to convey their opinion about the artwork to. I want music, free beer and wine (although the wine is pretty standard I suppose), artworks which you can touch and really get a feel for, some bright colours on the walls or even a changing projection on the walls showing the making process of the work, film would be brilliant because you can't appreciate the work that goes in to something unless you see the process. Better still would be an area where the artists were working alongside the gallery showing, really giving the audience a chance to see first-hand all the effort and planning which goes in to the pieces. An outdoor section with outside-appropriate works which were an extended part of the exhibition indoors would be another great way of showing the audience how they could display their newly purchased artworks. My gallery would be awesome.

I guess I just wish that galleries would embrace the ethos of our artistic culture a little more. I realise that silent, white-walled galleries with snooty attendants are necessary for some people to purchase art, they don't feel they have something high-class enough unless they have that experience to accompany their purchase. People who like the think they are richer than they actually are most probably.

So yes, I hope against hope that we will be remembered as the Street Art Movement rather than the 'bloody talentless artists' movement. I can dream, but only history will tell. 

Found/made objects as graffiti?

Object Graffiti?

Not sure what to call it really, creating public art with 3D things. Such as filling in the gaps in walls with lego or leaving tiny railway figures in the street or hiding things in urban nooks and crannies, or sticking stuff on to something (usually before painting it) to make it look like something else. I guess technically yarn-bombing is also 3D but not very…

            I want to call it graffiti of a sort but something like “fancy littering” keeps popping in to its place. Is it littering if it’s not rubbish? Of course rubbish is a matter of opinion, for example my grandad considers most of what I do and wear and say to be rubbish.

Whilst I’m on this; is moss-graffiti actually graffiti? It’s natural and technically non-permanent so is it illegal? And who actually decides these things within the justice system anyway?  Seriously if you have any of these answers then please do share them with me!

I love this kind of street art, I love the spray-paint variety as well but there is just something awesome about non-standard methods of creating urban art. The internet has yielded no fruit on this particular subject so I may be the only blog post on the subject... Na, not possible. I will have a more in-depth search and post my findings if there are any. 

Birmingham Museum and Art gallery

Birmingham Museum and Art gallery

I visited Birmingham’s Museum/Art Gallery yesterday and really enjoyed myself. Some of the paintings were breathtaking, painted hundreds of years ago with (what I would class as) inferior materials which often were partly to blame for the untimely demise of the artist. I guess at least their work went up in value though… Little compensation I imagine. There was a sculptural figure of the Angel Lucifer (pictured) which I can only describe as freaky, no other word quite conveys my feelings appropriately. The body was sculpted with a male model as the reference and the head was sculpted using a female as reference, this added to its grotesque quality as the eyes were odd and hugely disproportionate which I assume was intentional. Considering Lucifer was described as “the most beautiful of all the angels” in the statement accompanying the piece, the sculptor obviously had very different perceptions of beauty to my own but maybe that is just because we were born in different eras.  Then my peace, tranquillity and quiet pondering was ruined by several small children entering the room going “Ewww, you can see his bum and willy”. Ah the wonders of childhood… I do not get on well with the teacup humans.

Anyway to give you fair warning this is about to turn in to a rant, a rant about some of the differences between then and now. (Not a rant about children, tempting though that may be at this point.)

            Artists were only considered artists if they had talent; an artisan was a master of his trade and it was almost exclusively “his” trade. (That part I’m not so keen on, women have as much right to do everything as men do, we have just been rather controlling in the weird little power-game that is history to feel superior to women even though we clearly are not.)  He had skill; he had to have skill to make a living trading in his artwork. He couldn’t just splash some paint on to a canvas and say it was abstract. I feel old starting a rant like this but; “these days” you don’t have to actually have ANY skill whatsoever, you just have to pay people to make the art for you then claim it as yours because you thought of it.  It has been called “the art of not making” along with some much less flattering names. You may have gleaned with your heightened sense of perception that I am against this general state of affairs. You would be absolutely correct.

            I get angry about this, I also feel jealousy bubbling away below the surface as these people who are often considered “great artists of our time” and their art is seen by millions of people whilst truly skilled people get overlooked. It is unfair but that is life. I wonder what the history books will say about this era concerning the artistic movement. You can’t really call it the “Untalented Movement” or the “I wanted to be an artist so that is what I will do regardless of my actual ability to draw or sculpt or do anything useful movement”… that last one isn’t particularly catchy.

            I feel torn asunder in my own argument sometimes because I believe such things as ‘found objects’ can be art if placed in the right context or if you are made to perceive them in a different way. The artist never claims those pieces as his/her own work or idea, they did not commission that piece to be made for their cause. In my head I suppose this is the difference between people of no talent who claim the right as artist to something someone else makes whereas the artist who can cause you to perceive something ordinary as extraordinary has a talent in their ability to change your perception.

            So yes, the gallery. (This will not be the most linear thing you will read in your life, but you’re not my English Teacher and hopefully you actually want to be reading this so in theory you shouldn’t give a damn.)  They had some beautiful examples of Japanese belt adornments, yes they have a proper name but I have a terrible memory which is why I took notes!

            I have had a fascination with the English variety of these things which don’t appear to have a collective name but tended to be highly decorated perfume bottles or tobacco pouches. To see the same things but from a different culture was of particular interest to me, they had a name for each piece of it, the clasp at the top which attached it to the belt was intricately carved, the bead separating the clasp from the box or bottle had its own story and the boxes themselves were awe inspiringly beautiful. The concept of spending so much time, care and money on something so small and functional is almost alien to me coming from the mass-production era and the throw-away society in which we now live.