Painterly Prints

Some results from the painterly print workshops - the second years have some exciting fabrics developing...

 

Three Surface Pattern Design Students shortlisted in the Portmeirion Design Competition

Three of our students have been shortlisted in Portmeirion’s Design Competition.

Out of 385 entries, 7 designs have been shortlisted, and three of those are Jemma Moore, Alicia Cox, and Helen Rutter from Staffordshire University.

All 7 shortlisted entries will be available to view on Portmeirion’s website at www.portmeirion.co.uk/designcompetition and will now go forward to the People’s Vote which is being run on Facebook.  You can follow the link here to vote for them http://woobox.com/zpk646

Voting ends at 11:59pm on 8^th December 2013.  Good luck to our 3 finalists.

 

Graduate selected for the Crafts Council Hothouse Programme

First class BA(Hons) Surface Pattern design graduate of 2011 and studio artist at Unit Twelve Gallery, Stafford, Julia Jowett has been selected for the Crafts Council Hothouse programme 2014 for selected makers.

Hothouse selects the brightest new craft talent from across the UK and provides them with a tailor-made six-month programme of creative and business support.

In a marketplace where the bespoke and handmade is being recognised and celebrated by global brands the skill and knowledge of the individual maker becomes ever more powerful.

The Hothouse scheme is for makers within two years of setting up their business who already display a high level of technical craftsmanship and originality and need support for the next phase of their business and creative development.

Thirty eight makers from across the UK have been selected to embark on the Hothouse scheme that will begin in 2014 and be delivered via four regional cohorts (South West, North, East and London) and Julia is one of ten makers representing the east and west Midlands region.

Her illustrative practice explores the importance of storytelling and imagination. She draws with wire, pencil and stitch; intricately working dense areas of traditional embroidery and needlepoint stitches into metal gauzes and figuratively manipulated wire lines. Julia combines hand-embroidered wire-work with observational drawing and screen printing techniques onto fabric and paper grounds to create contemporary art pieces. Drawing on folk tales, childhood stories and surreal imaginings, her harness instinctive feelings and traditional craft processes to create considered folkloric narratives that intrigue.

Congratulations, Julia!

Hand and Lock Prize for Embroidery 2013

We are very excited and proud to announce that Katrina Lewis, third year BA (Hons) Textile Surfaces student was awarded 3rd prize at the Hand and Lock Prize for Embroidery award ceremony held at the beautiful St Mary's Church, in London last Thursday evening.

 

 

Katrina was selected as one of the 12 finalists from 100's of applicants from universities and colleges from all over the world.  After a tense few hours whilst the audience voted, we were thrilled to hear Katrina's name being called out for 3rd prize.

 

 

Indigo Blue

Staff have been developing their skills with a day of of indigo and natural dyeing techniques with Claire Wellesley-Smith. 

 

 

International Contacts

Interest continues on the stand at Indigo in Paris from companies in Denmark, England, Turkey, China and France - continue reading Colette Dobson's (Senior Lecturer) diary to find out some more...

Gustav from Denmark were looking for edgy and expressive ideas and left with a sample from one of our past graduates, Rosie de Beer.

Textile Express from Shropshire thought the work was "incredible stuff" with a ". Fantastic use of technology to creative outcomes."

Lots of visitors to the stand looked at the back of the fabrics, loving the hand crafted stitching and bead work. Officina del Jeans loved the moodiness of Sean's dyed and pleated work and Alex Hobley's layered screen printed designs.

Esmee based in Highgate, London and Turkey are interested in students contacting them for placements. Paulette Chow a graduate from Central St Martins having worked for the company for 9 years said "It would be a great opportunity for our students as they are our future".

We spoke to a number of Chinese companies including Less from Zhejang who have visited us twice to see Emily Hacket's laser cut leather.

Max Studio Towcater loved Emily Hacket's folk skirt designs.

A lot of information was derived from discussions with buyers. Rhum Raisain from Plessanne France,who was intrigued by Katie Lewis's, experimental, pleated painted and embroidered pieces. . Buyers are interested in manufacturing processes as the translation of exciting work can be challenging for them, but they say they want to see this "fresh and innovative " approach.

White Stuff, who have bought work at a previous show returned to the stand to see what was new. they were looking for conversational prints, illustrative , image based work, something our students do well.

Paris - Day Two

The diary of Indigo in Paris continues....

Tuesday 17 September

The second day in Paris has been very busy from the start, with lots of interest in the work.

 

Within a few hours we had our first sale. A Team of 8 buyers from Lili Gaufrette Saint Maur France, looked through all the children's wear on the stand. They loved recent graduate Ginni Mansueto Jones's quirky fun pieces and Holly Danby's beautifully embroidered animal knitwear. They decided to buy one from Philippa Higginson, one of our second year students on the Textile Surfaces course.

Prym Stolberg Germany, also looked through our children's wear collections, they loved the non-traditional, tactile and quirky approach of our students particularly that of Soma Doyle, Amy Jones and Ginni Manseuto Jones with lots of smiles at Ginni's dashhound and poodles.

Premiere Vision Paris September 2013

SPoTS is back in Paris for the September show this year!  The team are busy keeping a diary of what is happening - which you can see more of below with more posts to follow....

 

Monday 16th September

 

 

The team arrived at 21.45 to set up the Exhibition.

We are all very excited to see the students work to be shown in a great location in the hall, very central, in the Indigo section of the show. The work looks fantastic we are pleased to see it looking so professional amongst the work of other major design studios. This is now SPoTS ateliers' third showing at Premiere Vision. 

Artists Access to Art College

Staffordshire University are offering the opportunity for Artists to come in and use the resources under the Artists Access to Art Colleges Scheme.  We have opportunies in printmaking, wood, metals (incl. fine), ceramics, laser cutting, resin and plastics, 3D design, textile surfaces, surface pattern design, lens-based facilities and painting.

An ApplicationPack is available directly from a.mawson@staffs.ac.uk

 

The  Application deadline  is 1st September 2013

FOR FULL ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA AND FURTHER DETAILS OF HOW TO APPLY     http://www.aa2a.org/apply

 •       Access is free, for at least 100 hours, between Oct 2013 and April 2014.

•       It is hoped that AA2A can provide a grant of up to £220 for artists who need this to undertake the scheme.

•       Artists on AA2A schemes run from 2011 to 2012 or before can now reapply.

•       Applicants must have at least one year’s professional practice.

•       Applicants should be able to work with minimal technical support.

To see current AA2A artists' work go to http://aa2a.biz or read previous artists' stories here<http://aa2a.org/publication>.

 

Ashley Thomas

It's always great to hear that our past graduates are being successful since completing their degrees.  One of these is Ashley Thomas and you can find out more about her work on Ashley's   web page here.

 

Ashley came into Staffordshire University this last year, to talk to our students about her career to date and brought in some of the designs that she has created for the British department store, Debenhams.  

Graduation

Congratulations to all our students who graduated this Summer.  An opportunity to listen to Daniel from this years group being interviewed here ...

Staffordshire Hoard Inspired Mugs

Alice Barker, Maria Davies and Caroline Hunter have had their designs selected to go on sale at the Potteries Musuem and Art Gallery.  After a few afternoons looking at artefacts from the Staffordshire Hoard, the three students spent time drawing and developing work that would be used to decorate a limited edition set of mugs.  Now available at the Museum Shop for Alice's Design, Caroline's Design and Maria's Design and you can read more about them here

Students visit Chelsea

After the challenges of designing and creating as a group, four of our final year students were able to visit the Stoke-on-Trent Tansformation Garden at RHS Chelsea in May to see their cushions in situ...

Cushions for Chelsea

Our four final year students have been very busy the last few months completing their designs for the cushions for the Transformation Garden at RHS Chelsea.

 
The garden is now complete and we are looking forward to visiting Chelsea to see the cushions in situ - you can find out more about the garden here

RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Stoke-on-Trent Garden Partnership approached the BA Hons Surface Pattern Award to create a range of cushions to be displayed as part of a Show Garden at the 100^th anniversary of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show from 21^st to 25^th May 2013. Final years students Sarah Taylor, Leanne Rowlands, Emily Hackett and Gaynor Carlton-Jones have worked collaboratively to produce designs that will sit within two seating areas within the garden. The students have been busy developing their designs over the last few weeks...

Adapt and Construct

Some results from the workshop run by Martin Smith with our first years...

Premiere Vision

Our first full day at Premiere Vision was so eventful, not only did we sell 6 pieces of beautiful work but we got the chance to explore all the stands in Indigo. Tomorrow we can try and see all of Premier Vision and the trimmings and accessories exhbition.

 

 

Some of the team...

 

 

 Getting the stand ready...

 

 

A very successful day for SPoTS Atelier, with lots of interest and sales too. White Stuff were looking for "something interesting" and selected work from Colette Dobson and chose three of Becky Hogg's delicate felt designs.

 

A childrenswear company from France found Joanne Frost's work charming due to its selective colour palette and pretty florals.  A great day with lots of positive feedback about the collection of samples on the stand. Looking forward to another day tomorrow...

Julia and Sarah

Paris...

Phew!! We arrived after a long day of travelling, slightly longer for Senior Lecturer Colette, as she had to juggle two huge suitcases all the way to the Parc d'Exposition! 

We finally got the samples sorted and stashed at around 9.30pm and headed for the hotel for a hot shower and a cold drink.....

The stand looks great and we have tomorrow evening to explore Paris.  Hopefully, we will have some good news to report on the sales front...

Julia and Sarah - Day One.

The countdown has started.....

Paris tomorrow - and we'll let you know how we go on with daily posts (wi-fi allowing!) live from Indigo and Premier Vision - but here's a snippet of how frantic it was to prepare everything in time.  Relax, guys - the hard work is over....

 

Third year student Laura Elder putting the final touches to her work........

 

 

........as is fellow student, Sarah Taylor!

 

 

 

And finally, after entry on the database, Senior Lecturer Colette Dobson packs it all away in a bag borrowed from Mary Poppins!! 

 

Catch up with our adventures tomorrow and find out how the journey to Paris develops......the forecast is for heavy snow, so it could be an interesting trip!

 

 

 

Getting Ready for Paris

Our students are currently getting ready to exhibit at Premiere Vision in Paris!

SPOTS Atelier which is run by Senior Lecturer Colette Dobson will be taking a selection of student designs to sell at the trade fair in France.

Last year, students successfully sold to several companies, including Hong Kong based Eyefix who put together collections for Alexander McQueen, Stella MaCartney and Topshop. We will be posting more news about the trip soon.....

Welcome

Welcome to our new blog page.  We will be posting information about our course, projects, trips, successes and more, and hope that you will follow us to hear about our news.