Yes that's right it is September and the second month of Autumn. (Yes August is seen as a summer holiday month, but it is in fact the start of Autumn!)So really we are half way through.
I missed a blog post for August so I'm skipping on. :)
I had a good summer, shame about the weather but there are talks of an Indian Summer for next week (I'll keep my fingers crossed then so!)
Next week for me is going to be busy.
I am one of four local Craftspeople exhibiting at Springmount Garden Centre, Ballycanew Road, Gorey from Thursday 10th of September.
Our opening evening is on Thursday 10th at 7pm and all are welcome!
I've known about this exhibition for a long time, I actually work part-time at Springmount so I know what's on most of the time and I'm looking forward to exhibiting my work here. The three others are Robert O'Connor who is a local Wood-turner, Christien Van Bussell,she is a Ceramic Artist/Potter and William Stedmond who does Photography. It should be a great show.
Springmount is a lovely place and the gallery upstairs is fairly large, in fact Springmount was the first place that I did my first ever Craft Fair. This is where I started out and I think I did at least two to three Christmas fairs and one at Easter. A few months later I took a stand at 'The Knitting & Stitching Show' in the RDS, Dublin where I sat on the landing between the Irish Lace makers guild and the Irish Feltmakers guild who took me under their wing (all looked after me!!) and were lovely to me during the duration of the show as I was on my own and it opened my eyes to what could be. However, I went off to further develop my CV and studied Visual Merchandising at Dublin Institute of Design on Nassau Street which then led to working for a couple of months with Shaw's, while I still continued my craft and then finally took the plunge in January of 2012 and started my own business in textile design. Honestly, I've had a few ups and downs along the way, it's not easy! I'd say from about mid 2014 things progressed a lot more and I even have a few stockists and I hope by looking on that it continues to grow. Above all I am happy anyway and I think that what's most Important.
I love my work, I love colour (you might notice that next week!) I am a sucker for detail and tactile surfaces.
I suppose when I'm not in the studio, I love taking photographs of anything .... mainly nature/sea/sky. I like to paint the odd time, my first choice in college was Textiles and if I had not of got that my 2nd choice was Painting.
I don't want to share photos now of work I'm exhibiting, as it will ruin it for those of you who might go see it.
I am collaborating with Robert again by using his lamp bases, three of my new A/W 2015 lampshades will appear on plinths that shall sit on his bases and lit of course! I have a set of four pieces to do with 'Seasons' and each one has a leaf and each leaf is different except for spring and summer. These are circular and framed in a boxed white frame. Some other shades will hang down and some other pieces too but that's all I'm saying! Yes so I'm setting up the day before,the opening is on Thursday and I am another year older on Friday! ;) And on Saturday I'm going to go and treat myself and relax!
Then it's straight into work again and making baubles and Christmas stock, sorry have to say it as it's only 112 days or so till then! Not that I'm counting ... !! :/
The exhibition 'Kaleidoscope' is still running at Market House Design until the 30th September. (My work is also in this one)
Do check on my Facebook page for peeps of pieces and posts.
Oh... I did have some press recently. My Purple Lampshade featured in 'The Irish Times Magazine' on the 30th August, page 7.
I would not have known only for somebody I knew spotted it and sent me a tweet via Twitter about it. So that was nice to see.
Oh and last but not least, I designed new business cards too ... (Showing front side only)
Don't forget the exhibition opens on September 10th and runs until I think the end of the month, but may check that!
Until my next post.
Gráinne :)
