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/

Upcoming Exhibition

The Open West

9th February - 5th March

Summerfield Gallery, Pittville Studios, University of Gloucestershire, Albert Road, Cheltenham.

If anyone's heading west, pop and check out this exhibition in Cheltenham. My Gift Shop pieces were selected to be part of the show and its also the first time some of my drawings will be exhibited; a series called The Poisoner's Cabinet.

The Open West is an annual open competition and exhibition inviting submissions from national and international artists practising contemporary and conceptual art, inclusive of painting, installation, film, photography, print and sculpture.

It looks like its going to be a pretty exciting exhibition, apparently one of the exhibits is a bed coming in from Mexico!

I will also hopefully be assisting Artist Alan Goulbourne, who makes big installations, on a community project organised by the Open West.

What I'm doing now...

So far 2011 has been good and exciting for me, here's 3 reasons why:

1) I'm currently working on a commission for photographer Bran Symondson, making 100 press moulded opium poppy heads for his upcoming exhibition at Idea Generation Gallery.

I've been working in Manifold Studio, a beautiful studio under the arches of the East London line in Hoxton founded and built by a group of 9 recent graduates from the Royal College of Arts Ceramics and Glass MA. Im keeping Hanne Mannheimer's space warm while she's away on a residency in Denmark.

I've been pressing on (literally) for the past 2 weeks, my current poppy total stands at 52, but the first batch of 60 is going in the kiln on Saturday.

The unfired poppies - with score marks filled with oxide; the real poppies have these scores where they have been scratched to release the opium sap.

The space where I've been working.

One of Bran's photographs, currently exhibited at Idea Generation Gallery.

http://gallery.ideageneration.co.uk/

2) I've started my Saturday job at Camden Arts Centre assisting the Artist Alan Stott with the Ceramics Techniques for Juniors class.

We are making a dream feast with the children who are 7-9 years old. I think we'll have an imaginative and exciting spread at the end of the 10 week project. This week we were making surreal candelabras for the table.

My favourite was a little boy's; a detailed 3d clay illustration of a man in a pointy hat tied to the candelabra's main stand with super chunky ropes ready to be executed!

3)Third and definitely not least... im getting a studio!

I will be sharing with Martha Todd, another RCA graduate from last year. Her studio is 5 minutes from my house, just before Queenstown Road Train Station and i'll be sharing it with her from March, hopefully working in there 3 days a week.