At the end of June I was up doing a speech at the Grays School of Art Degree show - it had to be one of the scariest things I have ever done! I was so overwhelmed by the amount of people who attended, I had an audience of around 80 alumnus who all came to hear about my adventures since graduating. It felt great to be back at Grays, I met Paul Harris, the new head of the School who is such a lovely guy and I also managed to find some time to have a little nosey around the show which was really impressive! I have also been busy doing a lot of designing and have recently had two of my customised creations published in the lovely Sew Hip magazine. As well as this I have been working for Swatch Loft in London, producing designs for ladies fashions - I have been working with some fantastic trend boards and have created 6 sparkly textile designs which I am hoping will sell to some big retailers!
Latest news….
Busy busy….
Its been a busy few weeks in Rach's world of crafting! I was up in Aberdeen on the 28th running a Cupcake making event with the RGU Alumni society. We made badges, pin cushions and key rings which went down a treat! We also started on my RGU You Tube videos which was a brilliant laugh, I totally cant wait to see it all edited! Been working away at some designs for Sew Hip magazine recently, there is a feature in this months issue on our Fashion Stitch Challenge show and they will be publishing some of my customised projects in the next few issues which is very exciting! I have also just launched my new business 'The Paper Caravan' - www.thepapercaravan.co.uk, a creative events company in Fife where I am based now. Oh yes, I have moved...no longer an edinburger! I have a lovely wee article in the local Press about it so lets hope I am out and about running my craft parties soon! Sadly in May I finished up at Adam Smith College. I am already really missing the job/students/staff so I have my fingers and toes tightly crossed that I will be asked back after the summer! Here's hoping!
Royal crafts
On Wednesday I was back visiting the lovely STV studios demonstrating how to make projects for Royal Wedding parties! This time I was accompanied by two of my HNC art and design students Keren and Gemma, who helped me to create some of the projects I brought along with me! It was a shame there were no hot boy band guests for them to meet but think they both still enjoyed themselves!
Sewing For Pleasure Birmingham
Shortly after Myself and Charlotte's stint at the SECC we headed down to Birmingham to take part in a Fashion Stitch Challenge. Sponsered by Coats Crafts we battled it out each day to re-invent and customise plain and second hand clothing into new fashions. Visiters watched as we crocheted, stitched, knitted, appliqued and felted under pressure and created a range of stylish outfits with our final designs being revealed at the end of each day on the Sewing For Pleasure catwalk. The show was a great success and we look forward to some more fashion stitch challenges later on in the year!!
Creative Stitches Glasgow
Last week I was through at the SECC in Glasgow running a Customisation Station as part of the ICHF Creative Stitches textile show. Myself and textile designer Charlotte Liddle ran live demos on how to recycle and customise clothing as well as little Make and Take sessions where members of the public could book on to create small fabric brooches to customise their clothing with! The event was a huge success and our stand was constantly busy with visiters to the show keen to learn new skills and get creative with their wardrobe!
Staff Exhibition
I have recently created some new products for a staff exhibition held at Adam Smith College which is running until the end of this month. My friend Jenny and her love for tea was the inspiration behind my work. I have never known anyone to drink as many cups as she does - her Edinburgh flat is full or tea paraphernalia from knitted cosies and coasters to colourful tea pots and vintage china cups! I thoroughly enjoyed creating work for the exhibition and I have had a great response from the students! Once the show comes down I think I will need to find a lovely little tea shop in Edinburgh to donate my work to!
New Textile Prints
Happy new year everyone! Since teaching textile design at Adam Smith College in Fife (which I have been thoroughly enjoying!!) I have become really inspired again, so over my xmas hols I decided to come up with some new design ideas! I have been wanting to design my own range of digital textile prints for some time now, using my hand drawing and Photoshop skills and which reflect my love for big bold colour and quirky patterns. I absolutely love the work of Maremekko designer Maija Louekari and textile designer Brie Harrison. Their collections are so much fun to look at, I love their use of colour and pattern, their style is so distinctive. Here is a peek at a few of the designs I have come up with so far. My inspiration is my studio - pom poms, pin cushions, buttons, ribbons and stitches. I would love to sell my designs to somewhere like Habitat and get them printed onto mugs and cushions...that would be really cool!!
Saltire Prize Green Energy Award Medal
I have been asked by Scottish Renewables to be part of a juding panel for a massive design competition - to design the 'Saltire Prize Medal for Green Energy'. Prof Reid said: “A competition to design the medal for the Saltire Prize is a wonderful opportunity for Scotland’s visual arts and design students to leave their stamp on an award that does much to highlight the increasing importance of renewable energy. And with such a wealth of natural resources on our doorstep in Scotland, the students will have plenty to draw inspiration from.” The Medal design competition is open to undergraduate students in further education colleges and universities across Scotland studying in the areas of silversmithing and jewellery, three dimensional design and other craft-based design and fine art programmes. I am so delighted to have been asked to take part and I am really looking forward to meeting other judges on February 8th, judging day, some of who include - Caroline Parkinson, Director of Creative Scotland, Barclay Price, Director of Arts and Business Scotland and Seona Reid, Director of Glasgow School of Art.
September…
Last June I was commissioned by a design agency to produce a collection of prop designs for Mothercare's xmas advertising campaign which kept my fingers very busy over the summer months!! I designed and produced (with the help of friends!) lots of fun xmas projects including snowflakes, the alphabet, baubles and presents! Some of the props feature in their new xmas catalogue available on their website - http://www.mothercare.com/b/54138031 with the rest of them (with hope) being used for their instore advertising and the flagship stores xmas window display which will be cool!!Last week I ran my second workshop for the NHS's 'Family Nurse Partnership' service. I got to meet Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon (as well as lots of other important NHS ladies!) and show her how to stitch up a square for the textile banner we had been creating. I couldn't believe all the press that showed up, they seemed to just come out from nowhere!! What a great project to be part of, the young mums (and dads!) and all of the nurses who took part seemed to thoroughly enjoy it, as did i...and I made it on the news which is always good! http://news.scotsman.com/news/Sturgeon-to-visit-
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Another busy week…
On Tuesday I was back on The Hour and I have to say I was a little nervous about this one as I had comedian Jack Whitehall to teach crafts to this time! It ended up being lots of fun though and think he was happy to receive the decoupaged picture frame I had made for him! Although I do think he should have given me some free tickets for his fringe show for threatening to vandalise my pretty lampshade..ha ha!
Wednesday was another fun workshop day along at WHALE arts. I thought I was going to have my work cut out for me in the afternoon running an art session for a toddler group but they were great, very imaginative and their finished felt monsters were brilliant! I also got a chance to chat to Rod Jones, guitarist and backing singer from the band Idlewild as he is currently doing a Musician in Residence at WHALE and Stevenson College, I got to listen to a few of his songs too at the Arts Cafe which were lovely.On Thursday I was out on the streets of the Westerhails area in Edinburgh where the young people hang out running visual art sessions as part of WHALE's Street Arts programme. The evening was a great sucess, I got the young people to make comedy shades which they customised with foam shapes, feathers and designs using marker pens. They all wondered home proudly wearing their colourful designs!
