2016

This is my last blog on BlogSpot as I have decided to blog on my website Linda Sadler Textiles from now on.

So what did I do in 2016?

I carried on with my ceramics class at Studio Do and was really pleased with this clock, inspired by the House in the Clouds at Thorpeness in Suffolk.

I also did a couple of Raku sessions with Helen Dixon at Alby Craft Centre which I loved!

I made some tall pots which you can see above - after they have been fired, and below after they have been cleaned up.

Once again I was part of the Society of Designer Craftsmen (SDC) exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London, selling my work at The Shop within the Show. I sold brooches, necklaces, scarves and mats.

I have been a licentiate member of the SDC for 5 years and I was invited to apply for upgrade to a full member. I had to submit a statement and my work was assessed while it was on display at the Mall Galleries - I am pleased to report that I was accepted.

In August I visited the NNEP exhibition at Cley, and decided that I would apply to be part of the exhibition in 2017.

I have been accepted, so now I will be starting on my two pieces and I will be posting about this on my website.

Towards the end of the year I did two Unik markets at the Forum in Norwich.

So I'm signing off from BlogSpot now, and all future posts will be on my website

A look back at 2015

It seems I didn't post at all last year on this blog, so here is a summary of what I've been up to.
In January I exhibited 20 small items in the 'Shop within the show' at the Society of Designer Craftsmen annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. I was pleased to collect only 2 unsold items at the end of the exhibition, and I sold 3 scarves similar to this one .

March saw the end of our residency at Anteros Arts in Norwich. It was a really interesting and informative year for all of those involved and I was happy with the sales I made and all that I learnt. In June we had an exhibition there.

I entered the Bradford Textile Society competition this year, a competition we had been encouraged to enter when I was a student at Norwich University of the Arts. I did enter then, but was never very happy with my entry so I decided to have another go as an independent designer and I was really excited and proud to get two commendations.

The awards ceremony was in Saltaire in Yorkshire, but I found the journey could be done by train in a day. Tickets were bought, dog care arranged as it would be a long day, and we set off in good time (we thought)... but the traffic was horrendous and we missed the first train! After a couple of hours we decided to do something else instead and went to the Arts Centre at Kings Lynn where there was an amazing exhibition of post-war Hungarian ceramics.

I continued my ceramics class at Studio Do for most of the year and I made some casting moulds of my own so that I could easily produce small pots which I could work with and develop. I've been experimenting with smoke firing in the wood burner after the initial biscuit firing in the kiln at the studio. Initially I dug a hole in the garden, covered them in wood shavings and then lit a wood fire on top - this was fairly successful but the woodburner is definitely an easier option.

I also did a glass casting course at the Belfry Arts Centre at Overstrand with Liz Waugh Macmanus. We made our models in wax, then cast them in glass - sounds simple but it was 3 days of very hard work at the studio and several hours more at home, sanding and filing. No wonder glass work is very expensive. See my creation below.

I mentioned on an earlier blog that I had entered a tea-cosy competition (part of the Port Eliot Festival) and I am ridiculously pleased that mine was selected to be exhibited at Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly before being auctioned for charity. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get to see it but I was sent a photo.

I was part of a pre-Christmas craft fair at Norwich Castle and I made some Halloween spider gloves for this event.

There was a craft event in my local church which I took part in, and we were lucky to be able to display the beautiful knitted pergola, made by friends of John Grooms Court.

At the same event I displayed and demonstrated the methods I use in my own work.

I finished up the year by doing a craft fair at the Forum in Norwich, organised by Unik.

 

A busy year

My creative life seems to be getting busier as I get older, but I am also getting a bit more organised.
This year, the group I belong to, Slowmakers, has taken up an artists' residency at Anteros in Norwich. We take it in turns to use the lovely studio there which has a large window facing onto Magdalen Street, and we also sell our work from there. I have some of my clay sculptures on display as well as my textile pieces.

I've continued with my ceramics class and I've been making porcelain pendants (samples below) I have been hanging them on silver chains or leather thongs.

I successfully entered another ceramic piece into the Anteros Open exhibition. Apparently at the Private View someone thought it was a plate of nibbles!

My woolly necklaces and brooches are still selling so I'm still making those

and I have some brooches in the shop at Norwich Castle Museum, to coincide with the recent exhibition, Inspired by Birds.

My brooches were inspired by feathers

I entered a tea cosy competition at the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall (posted my entry - too far to travel!) I wasn't the winner, but the competition was sponsored by Fortnum and Mason and all the entries will be displayed in their store sometime soon.

Christmas fairs

Well it's that time of year again and I have been doing a few Christmas fairs in Norfolk. I have developed some new products, mainly hand knitted and crocheted collars

I really like wearing them myself as they don't need so much organising as scarves when you put them on, and they fill the gap between coat and chin.  They can add interest to plain tops.

I've also made some new brooches

and I've been printing on felt

In November I went to a glass casting workshop at the Belfry Arts Centre in Overstrand http://www.belfryarts.co.uk/ and here are the results. I was pleased with what I made and I'm keen to have another go at this process.

 I am making some new knitted and felted work for The Shop Within the Show at the Society of Designer Craftsmen exhibition at the Mall Galleries, which takes place in January.