William Billingsley .. AKA Beely the man behind the china


rose painter at Derby china

perfectionist

debt creator

secret recipe keeper

perfector of a perfect porcelain body

father of two girls who both died tragically












At Derby china Billingsleys roses were painted from roses he collected rather than following the standard patterns ... so i have been doing a bit of rose photography myself and may create my own blousy roses.







in addition to the blousy plate the 'wonky bits',' shards', 'wasters' are of interest also ..


Mr L Dilwyn in a letter afirmed that he visited Nantgarw in Sept 1814 , he found there a great number of broken and imperfect articles


'upon witnessing the firing of a kiln at Nantgarw I found reason for considering that the body used was nearly allied to glass to bear the necessary heat .... i observed that nine tenths of the articles were either shivered or more or less injured in shape in the firing'





90 % wastage


90% + 10%


9 out of 10



...from a small village in wales to the china cabinets of the aristocracy.....................














'there can be little doubt that the greatest proportion of the most perfectly finished Nantgarw porcelain was decorated away from the pottery by contemporary London enamelers.'


leading dealers were willing to take as much as they could of the perfect WHITE Nantgarw porcelain for elaborate decoration. Little decoration was attempted at the pottery. London dealers preferred to purchase porcelain in the white




















http://webapps.rhondda-cynon-taff.gov.uk/heritagetrail/Blue_Plaque/ncw.html





William Billingsley:



porcelain genius who never made his fortune http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Billingsley_(artist)


'for 20 years William Billingsley had devoted a large proportion of his time , energy and enthusiasm to the perfecting of a perfect porcelain body which would equal in fine quality and translucency the famous soft porcelain of Sevres.'...

artistic skill and taste , his white hot enthusiasm for his creative trade, his love of beauty, of perfection for itself, his power of absorption of all that was most perfect and beautiful around him , set him a plane apart .....Frank Hurlbutt old Derby porcelain

'Debt seems to have dogged his footsteps but it was for no evil purpose . His ideals were too high.. As his patient wife said of him ' he was never satisfied with what he did,he wanted to do something better ' The nantgarw works


Of Nantgarw works ..

Being in Wales it had to struggle with its own incapacity to meet the commercial but inartistic wants of the British people generally. It therefore sank, overpowered by the very weight of its own perfections




Billingsley was known as the rose painter




















artists object . Museum of Wales

‘Artist – Object’ co-organised by Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales, the University of Glamorgan and Brecknock Museum, Powys. Catherine Bertola, Michael Cousin and Deirdre Nelson have responded to an object from the applied arts collection and have explored the dynamic between a large national museum and a small rural museum.


I have responded to some pieces in the collection of Nantgarw pottery and am drawn to this blousy plate ..
Preparations for the fish exchange @ Pittenweem arts festival are well under way with fish being knitted all over east Fife in preparation for the 'fish auction' 9th August .



http://www.artmag.co.uk/gallerypreviews/pittenweem-arts-festival.php
















http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/news/mediaroom/news_release/09_06_11_art_project.asp


commission up at last and we had a great opening with ballroom dancers and buns ! As dancing was a theme through the work dancers were hired for the opening and danced for patients in the wards and then in the corridor beside the work .















Today i have been installing my work at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with the help of Jane MacArthur of Ginko Projects and Ian of QD plastics who made some fantastic perspex boxes to house the work . The feed back from patients and staff so far has been great which is fantastic after all the time spent reserarching , designing and embroidering ..









details .

photo : shannon tofts






Great news as the 'Fish exchange project' has been selected as a winner of the Wackie Wellie Award by the RNLI. The award is presented to the team whose fundraising endeavour stood out from the rest because of its originality, creativity, innovation or artistic quality!



A new batch of fish are being created in Pittenweim as part of the Pittenweem arts festival . They will be auctioned off 9th August 2009.






just back from Collect in london where i saw some amazing work ... i loved the work of Monica Brugger and enjoyed Gallery ra from holland http://www.galerie-ra.nl/

artists objects project


I am about to head off to Cardiff and Nantgarw to work on artists object project with the Museum of Wales. I am interested in Nantgarw pottery and its social history and will develop new work for an exhibiton later in the year with two other artists .






see embroidery magazine for an article on my residency in rural Australia last year http://embroidery.embroiderersguild.com/


preview of my commission for Edinburgh Royal Infirmary..

The work will be displayed along a corridor and between each coloured landscape are dance steps allowing viewers to dance their way from location to location . The work will be installed June 2009.

http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/ourservices/artscommittee/publicart/projdevelop/arcadia/arcadia.asp

I have also been working on some earplugs for COLLECT in London and designing earplugs for snoring , arguments , whinging.

I am trying to find latin translations to reference latin plant names.

stertere: snore, to make a noise, and to stir up the earth

urgeo, urgere: threaten by proximity, press verbally

queritor, queritari: complain , complain excessively

http://www.gardenworld.co.uk/convertor.asp

COLLECT http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/whats-on/view/collect-2009

http://www.craftscotland.org/Default.aspx.LocID-cftnewk98.RefLocID-cft04e004.Lang-EN.htm





my friend J has told me off for not keeping up to date with my blog so i thought i should add something! heres a preview of one of the images for my commission for Edinburgh Royal infirmary . Landscape and memory is the theme and i spent a while in the hospital talking to patients and staff gathering visual information to work with . The work will form 5 large digital prints on sillk which will be embroidered.





a wearable recording device for capturing handwork

Elena Corchero

'HandMade is a wearable recording device that captures what one does with their hands from a first-person perspective. Recordings made with HandMade allow audience members to immerse themselves more deeply into the shoes of artists or craft-makers than is possible in typical TV documentaries. Recordings can also be keepsakes, allowing users to capture ordinary moments or special techniques together with stories that can be shared with family and friends in the far future.'

http://www.distancelab.org/projects/handmade/
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