Making moves Exhibition is on tour 2012-13:
Moor St Station, Queensway, Birmingham, B4 7UL, 3 December 2012 - 3 January 2013
Centre for the Aston Family, 359-361 Witton Road, Birmingham, B6 6NS, 7 -31 January 2013
School of Jewellery, 82-86 Vittoria Street, Birmingham, West Midlands B1 3PA, 4-28 February 2013

A community project and exhibition.
Making Moves, Creating Futures for Craft

Making Moves is a West Midlands craft development initiative involving four regional partnerships, led by Staffordshire County Council and Craftspace, a Birmingham based craft development organisation. The project consisted of nine craft residencies which took place in community settings between September 2011 and July 2012, culminating in a touring exhibition.

The nine makers were challenged by residencies in unusual workspaces - including a hospital, a pub and a park visitor centre - which acted as sources of inspiration to develop ideas for new work. They worked with local communities, offering making workshops that were high quality, inspirational and in some cases, life-changing. The exhibition showcases new work by the makers in response to their residency setting, as well examples of tools, materials and work created in the community sessions.
The project also provided opportunities for nine crafts graduates who supported the community making sessions as well as receiving mentoring from the resident maker. They were given a small bursary towards the development of their practice and have also created new work for the exhibition. Making Moves aimed to provide valuable opportunities for learning. Makers gave masterclasses and lectures to Higher and Further education institutions as well as talks to the wider community. They wrote about the residency experiences on a project blog, as well as coming together for regular networking sessions
To find out more about the project visit www.makingmoves.org and the Makers’ Residency Blog www.makingmoves.posterous.com

Flickr photostream here 


All in a days work 
In the past few weeks , amongst other projects, I have been installing knitted birds for Birdyarns communal knitting project with Cape Farewell. After a brief stopover at Dovecot Studios, they have now  landed at at The Lighthouse in Glasgow as part of Luminate  Festival .There will be a free knitting event on 20th October 2-4pm . More information here 

The birds are accompanied by a listening post with the wonderful voice of Gordon Buchanan.  Working with Maklab in Glasgow, a lazer etched birdbox post was created with headphones covered in fine knit.  

"The MAKLab team are working to encourage access to digital fabrication technology at affordable rates for everyone. We work with everyone from professional designers, makers, crafters, hackers and those dabbling for the first time. Dream it. Design it. MAK it"


  .

busy times + many interesting  projects on the go.... including  arts in health work on the horizon, creating work with Willis Newson for Saffron Gardens, Bristol  and also collaborating with pupils at Vale of Leven Academy in Alexandria. I am working with the students to develop ideas  and design outcomes for treatment room curtains for the new Vale of Leven centre for health and care  with Wide Open Net
My next stop is Bristol for a short residency at Saffron Care Home with Willis Newson and Brunel Care  where I will spend time talking to residents and staff about 'home'. Design work will be developed leading to commissioned work within the new care home.

Synopsis
"How does dementia affect an understanding of ‘home’ and ‘homely’ for people across different cultures and backgrounds, including those who may have emigrated to Britain in their youth? This is the central question being addressed through an artist residency by Deirdre Nelson within a Bristol care home. She is exploring the concept of ‘home’ within the differing cultural backgrounds and rich life stories of residents and staff at a Brunelcare Care Home for people living with dementia."


M40 migrant 1
repurposed Damask napkin, cotton









 motif for printed napkins Making Moves Residency

trees+branches+routes+ roads+ migration 
 
Paper napkins will be printed and distributed to cafes in Leamington Spa.












Revisiting work for Making Moves with Craftspace and stitching a napkin referencing M40 migrants to Leamington Spa.


Modern languages curated by Katy West opens 14th July at the Barony Centre West Kilbride 

'Modern Languages offers the perspective of five international artists and designers with an interest in craft, its history and meaning. These artists seek to re-interpret the sometimes familiar, sometimes forgotten skills of Ireland’s craft tradition. In doing so they uncover fresh significance and meaning, offering new insights into the Irish vernacular.' Katy West


Aran 0.5 is one of four  'authentic' products I have created for the exhibition in 2011. Work developed from Aran 0.5 will become part of an Exhibition curated by Sebastian Bergne as part of St Etienne Design Bienalle in 2013. The theme of the Bienalle is Empathy 


Empathy, or “experiencing the other”

In the face of ecological threats, and long awaited economic revival, philosophers, sociologists and intellectuals now consider that it is necessary to rethink our society, and to imagine a new social contract based on a heightened respect for mankind. One of the notions explored is the foundation of a new society based on empathy – the mechanism whereby an individual can understand and share the fellow feelings and emotions of others.

Empathy, or “experiencing the other”, is the principal theme of this new 2013 edition of the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennial. A theme which invites a broad reflection involving all spheres of society but which is also directly linked to design as an activity of conception. Empathy has been at the heart of the discipline since its origins, intrinsic to the process of putting oneself in the place of the user to understand and anticipate his needs, or accompanying new forms of social rapport.

Throughout the 2013 Saint-Etienne International Design Biennial, we will be exploring the different issues that an empathetic society generates, and its capacity to reconstruct the world: what it proposes, but also what are the risks involved.'

Elsa Francès, Director and General Commissioner of the
Biennial.
Things have been very busy with a few projects on the go . I have just returned from The Isle of Mull and Tiree where I have begun my residency with An Tobar. I had a wonderful inspiring time meeting alot of interesting people. I am researching contemporary communities on Mull and Tiree and meeting all sorts of people from locals to incomers .

I am also completing work for my making moves residency with CraftSpace and heading off to Leamington Spa again soon to celebrate the completion of the project and 'mantel mas grande' ( the biggest tablecloth in Leaminton ). We intend to have an international  party to celebrate the project. 


Bird Yarns project with Capefarewell is coming along with birds being knitted in preparation for their nesting on Tobermory Pier in June
There is now a blog for the making moves project HERE
Exploring Portugese embroidery and sampling a few of the stitches .

love and the motorway  via The M1 appreciation course

'And, mingling with the heavy smell of fried food, there may also be just a whiff of romance.
portugese love hankie
Where better, Mr de Botton asks, to feel that pang of desire than spotting a potential love interest across the food hall of a motorway service station - isolated, vulnerable and even unhappy. And flat broke from the cost of an over-priced full English, one supposes.
"That unhappiness, far from being off-putting, can actually be a peg on which your feelings of love can hang," he says.
Altar to speed
Love has often blossomed in venues on the edges of motorways. In the 1960s, for example, the Ace Cafe - with its prime spot at the centre of a knot of motorways - gave teenagers a place to meet, listen to music, and, crucially, flirt.'

 

Service stations: my secret love affair

 

Run down and overpriced, motorway services can be the low point on a long journey. But look closer and you will find all of modern Britain here – good and bad. Fifty years after the first one opened, comedian Alex Horne confesses to a lifelong infatuation with our "airports of the road"

 

more HERE


'good food' at service stations

Beaconsfield Services M40


Where: J2 and from A355
County:
Postcode: HP9 2SE
Type: Single site, used by traffic in both directions
Operator: Extra MSA
Contact Phone: 01494 678876
Eat-In Food: McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Pasty Presto
Takeaway Food / General: M&S Simply Food
Other Non-Food Shops: WH Smith
Motel: Etap Hotel

'There are now many Portuguese whose original focus of employment was the services on the m40'


 + ideas of Portugese embroidered napkins +
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