Silkworms Ink Illustrations

Also in my blogging absence I did a spot of illustration for Silkworms Ink, an online chapbook of poetry and creative writing.

I illustrated 2 poems for their 50th Chapbook, some rather (if I may say so myself) delightful pheasants and a ghostly mirror.

Check them out alongside the poems at http://www.silkwormsink.com/chapbook_50.htmland see how many pheasants you can spot!

Adu Dhabi Cakestands for Undergrowth Design

Been a while since I updated... in the meantime, in the month of March I was working on some cakestand bases for Tina Tsang of Undergrowth Design (who I work part time for normally) for a shop opening in Abu Dhabi.

Tina design the cakestands as makeshift ones to stand in place as her original designs wouldn't be complete in time for the shops opening... this is where I stepped in to make 15 bases quickly and cheaply. We then sprayed half of them gold ("very Abu Dhabi") and stuck vintage plates on the top.

Flickr

OH HAI!

Just got myself a flickr account, so you can see lodsa pictures of my work, also it taught me how to greet people in 'lol speak', so there you go.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/katiespraggwork/

Fantastic Fantastical Feast

This Saturday was the last of 10 ceramic workshops I have been assisting Alan Stott with at Camden Arts Center. We have been working with 7 children aged 8-11 making objects in clay for a 'Dream Feast' on Saturday, after a bit of last minute finishing and sticking bits together with this amazing epoxy resin that comes as a sausage of putty that you kneed together, we layed the results of all the hard work out; there was cakes, gingerbread houses, fish shaped jelly, candy canes, weird and wonderful cutlery, napkins, a sizable host of dinosaurs, monsters and cyber things (of course), candelabras, volcanoes and last but certainly not least heads of the guests at the feast; all made from clay.

It all looked fantastic but my favorite was Mikey's skull spoon with a flexible vertebrae handle "I don't think i'll make all 42 vertebrae!"

Pictures coming soon.

I'm running my own ceramics workshops in the Summer holidays, where the children will be creating artifacts form their own imagined civilisation so if you know any 5-11 year olds in the North London area please let them know!

http://www.camdenartscentre.org/courses/?age=8101&id=8101

Wooden Sardines and thumbprints

The Open West Exhibition and Community project:

My ceramic pieces in the exhibition and the new piece of furniture I adapted and clad in cardboard... why don't you remember how painful something is the first time round?

The postcard propped up at the back tells Gertrude Kiwi's story that inspired the pieces....

View of the exhibition with my cabinet in the back, the boat hanging from the ceiling was beautiful, I think it was made from gold-leafed cardboard. Alan Goulbourne's piece is in the foreground, the artist I assisted with the community project.

I spent the first half of last week in Cheltenham helping Alan Goulbourne with his half of a community project run by The Open West (the exhibition I was part of).

His piece for the project, based in the Hester's Way estate, is an 8ft spherical 'Bait Ball' made from pieces of 2x1 wood. A bait ball is a panic and defense mechanism adopted by sardines in the face of a predator and Alan's pieces referenced a community being squeezed yet coming together, as the area in which the project is based was due for much needed regeneration yet plans have been cancelled since Asda is moving in down the road.

I helped Alan by adding on the smaller 'sardines' to the piece and passing him drills and screws through a small gap as he climbed inside to attach the top of the sculpture.

My favorite part of this experience was heading over the road to the youth center and chatting to and involving the staff and young people there in the project. We collected over 1000 4x5cm thumb-printed squares as a side project which with their help we constructed into one large piece.

My Own Stamp!

Something I'm very excited about... that I got my own stamp made!

I got it made at blade rubbers so I could add my details to the poppies.

Feel very proffesh being able to stamp my name!

Poppies for Bran Symondson

So I finally finished making the poppies about 2 weeks ago and delivered the final 40 to the gallery last week.

I got to see the poppies alongside Bran's (amazing) photographs when I went to his private view on Thursday 27th January.

The gallery was really busy and it was great to see all the work and read the captions. Bran's uncle did a lovely speech. I didn't realise that Bran took the photos while he was serving in Afghanistan, I assumed he'd gone back out there to take them. I also found out that the Ministry of Defense tried to shut down the exhibition 2 years ago.

Apparently the poppies had a good response, as did the mini one I made for Bran's lapel. I was really happy with the finished pieces, as I hope he was too.

The images really are beautiful so go and check them out at Idea Generation gallery if you get chance.

Here are some photos of the finished poppies and them in the gallery.

Check out some photo's of the private view, including a loverly one of the back of my head and Tom looking really interested in what im saying at the gallery's flikr page...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ig_gallery/5395702570/in/set-72157625924039648/