Tag Archives: craft co-operative

Preparing for commerce…

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So- time to announce to the world the start of a new business!

You may recognise the photo- see here.

We have spent some time over the past few weeks gathering things we have made to display at a big Christmas craft fair in Dunoon next weekend. Yesterday, Michaela, Helen and Pauline set up a table in our lounge, with me running in an out making brackets and prop-ups and rails.

It is quite an involved process- my inclination was to pile the table high, but Pauline, who knows about this stuff, pointed out that the idea was to draw people to things they could actually see, rather than a tangle of stuff.

All this is another step towards our co-operative craft venture. It is exciting, because everything is new. ‘Sea Tree’ will be the name of my contribution to the whole- we still have not found a name for the co-operative. Any suggestions?

I will not be manning the stall next weekend- I am rubbish at salesmanship, particularly when it involves things I have made. It is a skill I need to learn though I suppose- although it is a big leap for a public servant wage slave…

So- here we go.

Sea Tree

images . words . sculptings . crafts

Coming to the Queens Hall, Dunoon, Saturday 6th of November

commissions taken

Praxis…

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Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted or practiced, embodied and/or realized.

You could say that it is all about getting your hands dirty.

I am on leave from my day job, so spent today day in my shed, making things.

And it was great- sawdust in my hair and things taking shape on a workbench.

I have come to love creating things out of bits of rubbish- driftwood, fallen branches, old rope. A lot of what I do is cerebral- it happens in an office and has little physical end product.

There is a point to this activity though- we have an embryonic craft co-operative, and my contribution is to be photographs and some sculptures made from ‘found’ objects.

So far I have enjoyed the making, but I have not got round to actually selling anything!

 

 

A shed full of hope…

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I have been busy!

Regular readers of this blog may remember some garden deconstruction in the summer…

It has been quite a job to clear the wreckage, along with all sorts of junk left behind by previous occupants of our house.

One benefit to clearing the space is that it revealed some graffiti art on our back wall done by Marcel, a Swiss guy that lived in our annex for a while. It spells out the word…

Hope.

Which is kind of appropriate, as building new things always requires hope.

I need a shed.

All men need sheds- perhaps women too, but the place of contemplation and creativity for men of a certain age is often made out of timber.

I have another purpose to all this though- we are in the process of trying to reshape some of what we do to earn a living, and one of these involves the establishment of a craft co-operative with some friends. And so the cellar needs to be cleared out to allow the setting up of a couple of kilns. Tools go into what is presently the garden store, and garden equipment needs a new home.

So here it is so far, after three days hard labour-

And I need a workshop, where I intend to make stuff.

Simple stuff from driftwood and pebbles and rope.

In the hope that a new kind of life is possible.