CCDI Core Product Exhibit

I just got a phone call to inform me that my black teapot was accepted for the Cape Craft and Design Core product line. This means that my work will be on a permanent exhibition for the next 12 months, travelling around the country and also abroad.

To say that I am ecstatic is an understatement. I have worked so hard for this recognition during the last 4 years.

Every time I had lit my torch it was with something like this in mind. Granted, 4 years ago I did not know about the CCDI, and the thought of doing anything ceramic related was not even entering my mind. But subconsciously I was working towards this goal. Perfecting my skill as a lampworker with each and every glass bead that I made. The hardships suffered because I was prepared to sacrifice a comfortable lifestyle for an urge to lit a torch every day.

I have been living in Cape Town for almost 3 years, and wow! It has really been a joy ride with all the ups and downs. What has stood out for me through out this journey was the goodness of people that I have come into contact with. Help and sharing of information was given without hesitation. Support offered freely. Thank you!

Good news!

I know that I have been in absentia for some time. Every now and then pangs of guilt ride me, but then work and general life takes over and demand even more time.

Ok, the good news is that I am busy preparing for a new tutorial. This one promises to be long, detailled and will cover stuff for a variety of experience levels. As with all my previous tuorials, it will be more a tecnique tutorial, rather than one with a design element to it. (At least that is how I see it ;-) )

I hope to have it ready by the end of the week.

The downside of this tutorial is that I am going to charge a small fee for it. I will cover 5 different types of the tecnique, and the time that I will have to invest in it, forces me give it away at a price.

Silent nights, busy days

I cannot believe that it is already Christmas Eve! I have been a bit quiet, but for a reason ...

We opened a shop!

I cannot believe it, I still have to pinch myself every now and then, but yea. A real brick and mortar shop. Let me give you a bit of back ground ...

A couple of weeks ago (roughly 5 or 6!) we were invited to a house party. At the party the host mentioned to me that he had a shop available in his business property, and would I be interested to have my own shop from which I could work, etc.? Truthfully, I pushed all thoughts about it into some nondescript file in my brain, as I thought the whole idea just not plausible. I mean - we are in the midst of a world wide economic recession, job losses everywhere, and people are down-sizing and no impulse spending is happening.

About a week later I got a phone call. "Please look at the shop. I get lots of phone calls daily about the shop, but I want you to have it." I cave in and drove to the city centre. Long Street is one of the busiest streets in our city. Bars, restaurants, backpackers and shops. Lots and lots of them in the aptly named street. On my way back to my studio I phoned a friend. Can I come and chat to her about an opportunity? I convinced her 50%. Promised to take her the next day to the shop so we could have a look-see. Am I mad, or is it a viable concept?

My concept: A shop that sells an eclectic mix of art and craft. Stuff not found elsewhere in the city. Stuff that we like.

But the place looked like a dump. Vertical potholes scattered the walls, stencilled graffiti littered everywhere, the roof a mix of dark blue with white streaks. The floor is covered with a hideous red and yellow patterned plastic.

After a few discussions with the landlord, we decided to renovate the shop ourselves. A 3rd partner joined the venture, and we set about the great clean-up. A handy-man painted the ceiling and repaired and painted the high walls for us, while us girls tackled the lower areas. 7 days later, too many pots of paint and a huge bag of filler we could finally remove the plastic that covered the terracotta tiled floor. I sighed in tiredness. More cleaning and scrubbing awaited us. While we renovated the shop, we slowly started to move furniture into it. The back of the shop would be my studio. Shelves and display units were painted a uniform white and everyone brought what he had from home. Finally we were able to install some lights, and suddenly we were ready to unpack our stock - a Hodge podge of art and craft work.

This is our 3rd week trading and the day before Christmas. With no budget, no loans from banks, Nada, we started slow. There is no money for marketing. We hoped that our location would bring feet into the shop. And it did. The week before we officially opened, frantically unpacking stock we had people begging to see the stuff. And we made sales!

Slowly sales increased every day. 'Window shoppers' came back a day or 2 later to purchase items that they saw, and I am slowly becoming less pessimistic about this folly. We made contact with our fellow shopkeepers in the street. The car guards knows us. The policing service that ensures safety in the street had meetings with us. Suddenly I am a Long Street regular. Even the 'Bergies' (homeless people) that frequent Long Street greets and chats to me as if I am an old timer.

Wine, anyone?

With a new and exiting market that starts this Friday, I needed to come up with some new ideas for my beads. A resourceful person made a suggestion, and this is the result:

Ceramic exhibition

This past Sunday (wow, almost a week ago!) the local branch of Ceramics South Africa held their annual exhibition. It was a juried event with only limited works showed. I swollowed my fears, and entered some work. I had hoped to get at least one piece accepted, but to my utmost amazement both entries were accepted!

So Sunday night we attended the opening, and I must admit that I was amazed by the beautiful work that I saw. Our region really have a lot of amazing artists. A small catalogue was available showing one entry of each participant, and I was quite chuffed to see my work in it too!

A busy month

Wow, am I glad that this month is almost over! 3 Exhibitions in one month is a definite no-no. On the 7th an exhibition started at the Art B gallery in Bellville, showcasing 5 jewellers. I was the only one that incorporated glass into my work.

A week later I arrived in Bloemfontein, almost a 1000 km from Cape Town, where I shared exhibition space with a pewter artist at a beautiful house museum. I took my trusty little Hot Head with me, and did live demonstrations to the visitors. I had forgotten how beautiful Bloemfontein was!

And yesterday I entered some teapots for the regional Ceramic SA exhibition. To my relief I was informed today that both pieces were accepted! The exhibition will start on the 15th of November at the Ceramics Museum in Durbanville.

I will try and post some pictures as soon as I can of my entries.

Trade show

Here is some belated images of the trade show where I showcased some of my work. The Cape Craft and Design Institute had hosted it and invited buyers, exporters and interior designers in the city to attend it. We each got a 2 x 1 meter booth, that we had to decorate ourselves. This created a bit of a problem for me, as I wanted to create little islands of interest, vs a table of mixed work. I wanted to showcase each work as an individual focus. But budget restraints had to ensure that I created something long lasting and effective.

I had some bedside tables that I bought from crafters that sell them on the street corners of our cities. These wooden and wicker furniture is made from scrap pieces of wood and it gives unemployed people the opportunity to earn a living working for themselves. By buying it from them, I feel that I contribute to preventing poverty in my country and hopefully help reduce crime at the same time.

After a few measurements, I took the beloveds utility and went shopping for super wood. At a nominal cost, they cut the pieces to size for me, and back home. A neighbor was supposed to help me, but never pitched. So a mad dash of me finishing off last minute work and pots of wood glue, filler and sanding blocks got all finished. I made tiny little floating shelves that were fitted onto a back board. Since these slide onto the wooden blocks that is screwed onto the board, I could remove them for easy storage once the trade show is over. I painted everything white.

Setting up was a breeze. A final touch-up with the paint roller, and I could arrange all my pieces on the stand. A set of spotlight created focus on the individual shelves, highlighting the work. I could store all my bags and what not in the shelves, thus keeping everything nice and tidy.

Yesterday we had a meeting at the CCDI where some prizes were handed over to the exhibitors. There were 5 prizes in total, and to my utmost surprise I took home 2! The exhibitors had to choose the best stand, and my peers awarded me with this prize. I also got a silver (2nd) award for the best stand as chosen by the organisers and visitors.

I was very satisfied with the outcome of the trade show, as I have made some valuable contact with buyers and exporters.

Here is some new work that I delivered to one of the galleries that visited the trade show: