I feel as though I've been caught in a time warp, it doesn't seem possible that just a week ago I was setting off across the country, full of nerves and excitement, my poor old car packed to the roof with work and stand props. The British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate has been a background preoccupation and worry for the past 2 years (ever since I had to postpone taking part due to the house trauma) and it seems unreal that it's now over and actually the real work is only just beginning. I imagine I'm feeling a little bit like a couple returning from their expensive wedding and honeymoon; so much planning and heaps of money just for one special event but it's what happens next that really matters. I had a fantastic time pretending to be Agatha Christie in the Old Swan but it feels so good to be back on the mountain after an emotional return to North Yorkshire. We are a little behind with the seasons, Hawthorne and Sycamore buds are still only just emerging, Daffodils are at their Wordsworthian peak with Bluebell spears poised to take their place. It all has the air of something about to burst... a little sunny nudge and the whole thing will be freewheeling towards summer abundance.
There is so much I want to say about the experience of BCTF, I haven't yet worked out exactly how much it cost but I will let you know in a future post because I think might be really useful if anyone was thinking of doing a trade show. I really wish I had done it sooner... within a year or two of graduating, mostly because it has been a really useful lesson in planning, pricing, logistics and PR. It was a massive relief that the calico panels fitted the space (after a tiny adjustment to the wooden rods with a borrowed hacksaw) and everything looked almost as I had imagined it. I was envious of some of the more minimalist stands, they looked so slick and professional but overall I was very happy and relieved. It took 3 hours to set up and one to break it all down again!
My glamorous and wonderful assistant Sara was totally invaluable. I really couldn't have done it without her (partly because my hips kept seizing up so I could hardly move after 7 hours of standing with a clip board). Sara kept me straight when I drifted in to typical artist "down talk", reminding me that the work was was unique and perfectionist not experimental and "hit and miss"; she also correctly predicted the winner of the "Wow Factor" award, another CCAD graduate Joanna Coupland .We met so many interesting people and agreed that being a buyer or a trend forecaster must be a great job.
The list of artists and makers that we met and whose work we fell in love with is too long to mention, I'll list a few at the end, but the whole event reinforced my passionate belief that the skills and talents of these people should be celebrated and nurtured. Many artists and makers rely on the sale of cards for example, while they wait for the bigger pieces to sell, galleries too, which is why the Just a Card campaign is such a good idea. We don't need a world full of mass produced cheap crap, we need fewer but more beautifully made things and an education system that values the arts and the contribution art and craft makes to society.
The wall I was most pleased with was my card wall with embroidered details and a quote from Haruki Murakami. I love receiving real handwritten letters (nice ones not upsetting ones) and it seems that the greetings card is not dead; people still spend money on lovely cards to keep or send. I was hoping the show would push me in one direction or another but in the end there was interest in ALL the products from original framed pieces to mugs and velvet cushions so after this I'm off to continue following up the contacts I made, evaluating all the feedback and making a start on some new cyanotypes and drawings.
Thank you so much to everyone who visited the stand or sent good wishes from afar. It's been wonderful to meet so many people and talk non stop for 4 days - a complete contrast to where I sit now, listening to the buzzards circling above the valley... and an owl just then... oh and the sun is just breaking through.Some of my my lovely stand neighbours :Melissa Yarlett- gorgeous jewellery inspired by mosses and lichens Stephanie Hopkins - copper bowls and jewellery ( award winner at the show) Holly Argyll - Bright, quirky illustrations on textiles and giftware Katie Edwards - Fellow member of Cumbria Printmakers
It is a lovely feeling to clear the table and tidy up at the end of a long project. Apart from a few last minute finishing off jobs, yet another lost delivery (hint to van drivers...use a map not satnav when looking for barns in the middle of nowhere) and a painfully slow internet, I'm all packed and ready to set up for BCTF on Saturday. Ok, we have run out of heating oil, I melted my printer, blew up the hoover and the power's due to go off at any minute but it still feels good to be able to say, "I'm ready... as ready as I'll ever be". The kettle is on the stove and I'm going to have a gallon of tea and maybe even make some scones for old times sake (before the power goes off!).
On Friday I'll be heading back to North Yorkshire for the first time in over a year, hoping it feels more friendly than when I left it. It will also be the first time I've spent much time in Harrogate since I lived there when I first left home, for a rather disastrous foundation year at Harrogate School of Art. Sara is coming up to be my assistant so we are combining it with a kind of belated/early birthday treat and staying in the hotel that Agatha Christie stayed in when she went missing in 1926. Originally I was going to camp in the van on the showground but decided to make a holiday of it. I hope they let me in with a ruck sack as I seem to have mislaid all my monogrammed luggage and hatboxes.
Preparing for this event has been an all consuming preoccupation since I first had to postpone taking part last year but, even if it's not a huge financial success, I do feel as though I've learnt so much from it already and it has certainly focused the way I work. No doubt I will come back next week with plenty of new ideas and information and it will certainly make a change from sitting here watching the woodpeckers and chatting to the cat. One of the things I've discovered is that many of the odd things I have needed can be found and supplied by small quirky, local shops and businesses and I've really made an effort to do this, particularly following the floods of 2015.Anyway, that's all for now. I'm currently multi tasking by sitting on hold to an EE call centre who are trying to work out why the internet keeps going off... they don't believe me when I tell them it's because the wire from Braithwaite keeps getting wet. I will let you know how BCTF went next time I write and if you're visiting the show don't forget I'll be on stand N27...also Good Luck to all the other amazing artists and crafts people taking part, I hope it's a big success.
Today the wind dropped and the day was reasonably dry and warm so I've just come in from an hour of stick collecting and branch cutting (laying a hedge to let in more light hopefully). Today is Imbolc... the first day of spring, Groundhog Day or St. Brigid's Day and so, good weather and wood collecting are not necessarily a good thing. The Cailleach collects the rest of her winter fire wood at Imbolc if she intends to make the season last a good while longer (bad weather on this day was seen as a sign that the Cailleach was asleep and that winter would soon be over). Anyway, it was good to be busy outside, it was still light at five, the snowdrops have emerged and as you can see I've been catching blue sky in bottles this week to save for a rainy day!
On Sunday I discovered this little home in a tree on the side of Buttermere; I'm not sure if it had been washed there by the floods or if it fell from higher up but it looked rather sad and in need of a new roof. We walked around the lake, which I'd never done before. The path goes through a tunnel in the rock at one point and it was all very quiet and beautiful; a dusting of snow on the tops and the lake very still and green with orange bracken slopes, bright green moss and young silver birches with pink and white bark - quite a colour scheme despite the late winter gloom.Meanwhile in my "studio" the colour scheme is very blue and white as I continue to plan what to take to BCFT in April. I bought some lovely Pink Pig sketchbooks and have been printing and embroidering covers for them on heavy calico. I was so pleased and flattered when they were spotted by the company on Twitter; they were really complimentary which is always such a nice thing when you're working in isolation in a barn and have no one to get feedback from except the cat!
The days are racing on and by the time I've finished typing this it will already be almost halfway through another week and only four days before I pick a winner for the giveaway in the last post... so if you haven't left a comment there's still time and if you have then thank you ( and good luck).
This is only a short offering today, I have to try and finish designing the catalogue and price list I'm making so that I can post it out to the galleries who have already requested one. I have to continue with product development and working out prices and terms and conditions and how to stick my stand together and most importantly I have to feed the stove because its getting dark and cold now and I need a cozy nest to work or I just huddle and go sleepy like a bear in a cave hoping to hibernate. The wind is picking up again so maybe the Cailleach is stirring...