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Time to Tidy!
It’s that time of year, that means I have to sort out my space – yes, it’s Shed 2 Studios Christmas Open Event.
We will have to wood burner loaded up and a-roaring, we might have a few biscuits to nibble, and of course, our kettle is always on. What this means in reality is for a few days beforehand, I spend ages cleaning and tidying , trying to sort my space ready for display!
I am excited for my future, as I am growing my space – my studio share partner Nicola Lidstone, is moving on, and so I am taking the whole space. This will mean I will be able to offer larger group workshops, and because of the changes, and I can also look at offering different kinds of workshops, not just glass fusing.
Whilst that is great for me, and the future of my business, I am very sad to see Nic go – we’ve been friends for a long while now, having met whilst doing our degree! Not only is Nic leaving, but so is another friend, and mentor, Rachel Carter. Rachel has been so supportive during my time at Shed 2 Studios, helping me in all sorts of ways, but I do wish her the best of look as she moves on to the next chapter in her career with her new workshop at the Harley Gallery and Studios, Worksop – it’s a fabulous place to visit and I know she will do really well but I will miss her!
Adam Leighton is also leaving us, although because he will remain at the University of Derby, I expect I will be remaining in contact with him as I bug them for use of some of their equipment!
Hope you can join us for the Christmas Open Event – as always, there will be new pieces on show from some of the work I have developed this year, some new Christmas decorations just because I have a new toy, and some sale items as I wish to clear out some of my work to make way for the new!
We’re open Friday 29th November (2pm to 8pm) and Saturday 30th November (10am to 4pm)
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More on Metal
Those of you who know me personally will know that there’s been quite a lot of stuff going on in my personal life lately (that may be a bit of an understatement), which has prevented me from spending much time in the studio or on projects.But, as the Metal Age project is on a deadline, I’ve had to pick up the ball again get stuck in.I managed to get along to another one of the Walking for Health sessions, although I didn’t take any photos on the last one, it was far too cold to take the gloves off! And couple of Saturdays ago, we ran the glass inclusions workshop at the Erewash Musuem, it was the first sunny day of the year so we didn’t get lots and lots of visitors – I think people were taking advantage of the first chance to get in the garden. We met a friendly family, where grandad, like a lot of people in Ilkeston, had worked at Stanton at one time; it was great, he had a lot of stories to tell.Gavin and I are now working on the plans for the two sculptures, and for what else will be going in the exhibition. We’ve also been planning the next workshops at King George Gallery in March – we will be working with students from local schools and colleges in the day, and having open drop-in sessions on the Tuesday evenings.I’m still playing catch up, so this is a bit of a post-and-run, but I thought I would show you a few photographs of our site visit – current owners, St Gobain, allowed us access to locked up buildings and the old Stanhope Plant – it was fascinating.I took this photograph after Gavin commented that if you looked down at (extremely thick) layer of black dust on the floor, it was undisturbed apart from our footprints. It was like virgin snow….
Black Virgin Snow Something fascinated me about the chains and hooks that we found lying in trolleys around the place. Not sure this conveys the sheer scale of everything (giant light bulbs, giant oil cans, giant sack trolleys – I felt like one of the Borrowers at times!) – I just liked the pattern of this one:
Dusty Chains And this last photograph, was just a poignant reminder of the busy times that were once Stanton Ironworks – obviously a countdown until the last day in May 2007, that the last pipe rolled out of the plant – it was written on the inside of the one of the maintenance teams lockers.
The Last Post
