Photo walk

I am starting a mini project which I'm calling my Photo walk.  It's a daily project but I'm not going to be anal about the daily bit.  I'll try to do it most days but if something else crops up or I forget or the weather is unpleasant then I won't bother.

Each day I will take the same walk, or at least part of it, and while on my walk will take one or more photos.  The photos might be of anything at all that I can see from the path or road I'll be walking along.  This one of ripening wheat was on the first day.  I had it as my cover photo on Facebook for a day and then it was replaced by this one.

I haven't decided exactly what I'll do with the photos; whether to use them just on Facebook, or try to blog them daily or what. 

Today I took a series of photos to show my basic route.  The top one shows the route setting out, the bottom one coming back.  This will mostly be my walk although on days when I have more time I hope to get just round the corner from where the fourth picture shows, to reach a little bridge.

I'm pleased with the montage of my route because it gives a good idea of what my walk really looks like and why it probably doesn't appeal to people much as a walk, certainly not repeated daily.  But take a camera with you and ....

Thirty years!

Somewhat weirdly, I am on LinkedIn both as myself and as Crafts In Gloucestershire, where myself is a contact, if you see what I mean.  So Crafts In Gloucestershire gets the notifications that Jane Vernon's other contacts get, which is actually quite a useful tool because otherwise I really wouldn't know what's being sent.  LinkedIn remains rather a mystery to me, I'm afraid.  Anyway, this week Crafts In Gloucestershire received an email suggesting it should congratulate Jane Vernon on her 30 year work anniversary at Cloth and Clay.  Well, I hadn't realised.  But it's true.  May 1984 was when I started up in business as an artist.

And this was the picture that did it.  I had been making embroidered pictures for a few months, but this one made me realise that it was something I could do professionally.  Looking at it now, I'm not sure it looks all that much but at the time it seemed to and certainly everyone else thought so too.

I was still teaching full time at this point but managed to produce enough pictures to start selling at Cirencester Arts and Crafts market later in the year.  I painted on silk with artists' watercolours, then embroidered by hand, using wadding to pad out the work.  The pictures were mounted and framed but never put behind glass.  They were of landscapes and plants.  Some were realistic, like this one, others more abstract and worked in different colour schemes.

Over the years my textiles work developed and I moved through embroidered mirror frames to wallhangings and now embroidered canvasses.  Silk paints came in and I took to those like a duck, as they say.  I've used machine embroidery, hand embroidery, mirror work, applique, synthetic fabrics, metallic threads, beads, sequins and more. Who knows what's next?

Although I had my own wheel and kiln when I started the business, I was making very little pottery and still finding my way through experimenting with clays and glazes.  I sold a few pieces to friends now and then but it wasn't until 1992 that I finally found the clay, glazes and techniques that form the core of my work as a potter even now.  Back then I still had a lot of unresolved back problems and could only work at pottery a few hours a week.  I can't even remember when I started having kinesiology treatment and eventually acupuncture, but between them they turned my life around and most of the time I am now able to work full time in the pottery if I want.

Thirty years was half my life ago.  Back then I was psychologically a very late developer, a bit scared of life generally and hadn't much self-esteem.  I can still remember how I felt when I made the picture above.  That amazing realisation that I had made something I knew someone would buy and that I had it in me to go on doing that.  Starting "in business", making, selling, registering with the tax office, meeting customers but above all making, making and more making, was the beginning of becoming myself. 

The first decade saw me married, widowed, giving up full-time teaching,  and training in counselling.  The second decade saw me developing my artwork, my teaching skills and wonderful friendships.  The third has seen me in a new relationship and marriage, giving up teaching completely and becoming a full-time, self-supporting artist.

It's a pretty good place to be.  I'm not sure what's in store this next decade.  I want a little more life and less work in the work-life balance but new ideas are still tumbling around in my head and I still love making the things I make now, so we'll see.  But thirty years, eh?  Who'd 'a thought?

Working at selling

Yesterday I was at Stroud Farmers' Market.  I don't have a regular spot there so I'm often next to people I don't know and yesterday I found myself next to the mushroom stall for the first time.  As is usual between stallholders,  the mushroom seller and I struck up conversation from time to time.  Topics, as usual, included the weather (an unseasonal biting wind on this occasion), whether there were many people about (there were) and how we were doing for sales.

At one point my neighbour said "Gosh, you had to work hard for that, didn't you?"  Someone had been talking about a fish design plate of mine that had got broken.  I didn't have fish plates there with me but he took a card in case he wanted to come to the studio to see any fish plates I have here.  So no sale, but general market-type conversation, as far as I was concerned.

My neighbour, though, was struck that I  "had to" talk for ages and still get no sale.  My day at any event is full of conversation like this so it hadn't seemed out of the ordinary.  I just hadn't thought that for her, people come up to the stall to buy mushrooms, they nearly always end up buying some and then after some pleasantries they go away again.  By the end of the market the mushroom stall is nearly always sold out.  That's an unimaginable situation for me, even when I have a half-price sale.

So as a craftsperson, I do have to work at selling.  Working at it means engaging with potential customers all the time, encouraging, helping, guiding and yes, mostly, watching them walk away empty handed.  But the work is enjoyable.  I'm proud of what I make and how I display it and I'm happy to talk to people about it, or anything else.  And some of them come back and buy something.



Maybe you are one of my customers?  I don't keep this blog going as frequently as I used to but still enjoy feedback and comments on the blog are always welcome.

Exhibition news

I hope lots of you will be able to visit the exhibition.  I'm really pleased to be exhibiting with these other artists and to be working to a different theme.  As there are six of us, I will be selecting work - old and new- which resonates more particularly with the theme of "Grounded". 

Look out for some different coloured spotty mugs!  There is a collection of green and brown themed spotty mugs which are for the moment "limited edition" in number, though if they prove popular I may make more of them.  And there will be .....  well, you'll have to come to the exhibition to find out what else I'm making .....


On a different subject, as an update, I'm delighted to say that I raised £270 for ShelterBox with my wallhanging raffle.  The hanging was one by a customer who came to my stall at Stroud Farmers Market.  Thank you to all who donated.

Win a wallhanging!

Do you like this wallhanging?  Would you like the chance to win it for yourself (or someone else)? 

I'm offering it as a raffle prize with the cost of your entry being a donation to my chosen charity, ShelterBox.  I'm asking for donations of minimum £5 to an excellent cause and in return you will be entered into the raffle to win the hanging.  The raffle will be drawn either on 28th March 2014 or when the donations have reached £170 (the original price of the hanging), whichever is the later. 

Do visit my JustGiving page to find out more and perhaps make a donation.

Spots!

Light ones, dark ones, plain ones, lustre ones, gold ones.  Large and small mugs. 

Have you seen my new scarves?

All these are new.  There are more blue scarves this time as well as a rather nice one in greys with splashes of red. 

There are new designs too:  fuchsia, small triangles and feathers, to name my favourite three.

You can find some in By Local, some in Vivant and the rest will be at Another Beastly Art Exhibition starting on Wednesday.

If you see something you like here which you would like to buy, please email me to reserve your choice.  After the exhibition the scarves that were there will be available to buy on my website.