Introducing the Makers & Tools project
The Makers & Tools project came about out of conversations with makers. Just before Christmas, I was asked by a magazine to interview contemporary craft makers about their relationships to their tools. I selected six emerging makers, working in different materials and with different approaches, whose work intrigued me. In one interview, the maker told me how at the start of the academic year, she and her fellow MA students were asked to bring in tools for a tool swap, a kind of ‘get to know you’ activity. I asked her if she knew what happened to the tool she gave away, whether the other student ended up using it; she didn’t know. And out of that small element of our conversation, the idea for Makers & Tools grew.
How we thrive when we connect
With degree shows in full swing, and New Designers opening today, I feel in a reflective mood. I graduated from my BA (Decorative Arts at Nottingham Trent) three years ago and, as is the way with such things, the time feels like it has disappeared incredibly quickly and yet it also feels like an age since we were setting up for the degree show. It’s been a twisty turny journey; I feel like I have learnt so much but also feel like there is much still to be figured out. If someone had asked me, back then, where I saw myself in three years’ time I don’t think I would have imagined where life has taken me, but then again, I never really have a plan so I suppose I would have been open to the possibilities.
Writing great social media: do your hashtag homework
In the last post on social media promotion, we looked at creating a range of content for your various social media platforms. I thought it might make sense, now, to take a quick look at hashtags and how you can harness the possibilities they offer.
Tell it ten ways: tips for writing social media promotion
So, you’ve got a show coming up, or maybe you’re just about to reveal a new collection. Perhaps you’ve updated your website or have an online shop to launch. Quite rightly, social media is going to be high on your list of ways to promote this event, but how to keep it from sounding rather same-y after a while, and saturating your audience with the same information?
The non-writing approach to writing
I am going to let you in on a secret here, one that is going to sound odd coming from someone who spends a lot of her time asking people to write more. The thing is, to write about your work you don’t even have to write at all.
Artist’s statement dilemma: 1st person or 3rd person?
This seems to be a perennial problem for makers. Faced with having to write an artist’s statement, it can be hard to know what to do – use the 1st person ‘I’ or the 3rd person ‘she or he’. Lots of us have been given the advice that the 3rd person sounds more professional and that the 1st person sounds a bit ‘school project’, but I think that’s an over-simplification, and one which doesn’t help with the whole point of writing your artist’s statement: communicating about your work in the best possible way for your work.
Books to inspire: The Creative Habit
I first read this book a few years ago while I was in second year of my BA. At the time I was still uncertain of the path ahead and this book, which focuses on how to set up useful strategies for maintaining your creative drive, helped me to see that creativity is not an elusive bolt of lightning, but something that must be worked at, a skill that if you don’t practise, it will be lost. Here I am three years down the line, grappling with issues in my making practice, and her words are relevant again.
Starting writing: approaches for Gardeners & Architects
So, last week I asked “what kind of writer are you?” Are you a ‘gardener’ type who likes to plant a seed and watch it grow? Or are you an ‘architect’ type who likes to have a structure or plan to work to? We discovered that often the way you make can help you to discover what kind of writer you might tend to be. Now, here are some tips for starting a piece of writing, depending on which type of writer you are:
Books to inspire: Making & Drawing
It’s possible that I’m a little biased about this book; I was Kyra’s studio assistant for a year and a half when I was a student. And in that time I saw how integral drawing was to her making practice, how her ceramic work is itself a form of drawing. In this book she asks makers from all disciplines to share how they use drawing in their work.
What kind of writer are you?
This is probably not a question you ask yourself very often, but spending a bit of time pondering how you feel most comfortable writing will help you find when it comes to getting started. You might have no idea what sort of writer you are; the concept of being ‘comfortable’ when writing might seem really different from your experience of writing. So, let’s start with an easier question: what kind of maker are you?