Hothouse3 Peer meeting Bovey Tracey

I can't believe our March hothouse group meeting marked the half way point for the programme. It seems to be flying by....
On Thursday we all met in Bovey Tracey for a day where the focus was entirely based upon our own work, how we talked about the work, ideas and our practise.

We using Edward De Bono's Six Thinking Hats as a framework to structure our presentations. We had to break our work down into clear defined sections to avoid long rambling waffle. It allowed us to really focus one one element at a time.
It sounds quite simple when you are presented with the subsections you soon realise that there are quite a few cross overs so it makes you think about which hat you are wearing at any one time. Some of us found we were wearing all 5 at the same time... 

We were split into 3 groups and each group had a mentor to listen but also to help us along the way with our own practise development. Paul Harper was heading our group http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/jcamd/research/staff-research/dpm/paul-harper.cfm with myself and Laura both working out of the studio on site specific works and collections Paul and Keith glass and ceramics both more studio based practitioners. (Links to their websites can be found on the previous Hothouse post.)

Laura talking about one of her installations to see more of her work take a look at www.lauragrain.com

I really enjoyed this session it made you focus on many aspects of the work but what I took away with me was to get feedback. Considering a large part of my practise is based around the senses and experience I need to actively begin collecting feedback from these objects and how people are reacting to them. 

Lucid Space will be the perfect opportunity as I will be there to see how the visitors are responding over the three week period.

Paul Harper was fantastic he was extremely generous with his knowledge, advice and time. He was genuinly interested in our work and practise and felt we had all taken a lot away with us to reflect on and work with. 

Key points to think about 

Collaborations 

Working across different contexts 

Being resourceful 

Really using this time effectively and the importance of building and maintaining networks. 

The 1st Crafts Council Hothouse meeting in Devon

Our first south west cohort meeting in Devon last month was a two day affair. Each hothouse cohort has two supporting partners, ours include the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and Plymouth University. Where our cohort meetings will alternate between Bovey Tracey and Plymouth over the six month programme.
The first session designing your future in Bovey Tracey included two interesting guest speakers Tim Parry- Williams a weaver and Claire Loder a ceramic artist www.claireloder.co.uk both have very different practises and it was a great insight into their approach and values. I think this session really made you think about how you operate as a creative maker. It may with hindsight sound like an obvious reflection, but I don't think we often give ourselves the space to consider these questions whilst being wrapped up in the day to day of your practise.

 During the lunch break we had the opportunity to take a quick look around the Devon Guild of Craftsmen one of the partners involved with the South West cohort. www.crafts.org.uk

The current exhibition showing there happened to include two members of the group works Keith Varney Ceramics www.keithvarney.co.uk and Paul Stopler Glass www.paulstopler.com 
It was also a perfect chance to see their work in the flesh as we were still quite unfamiliar with one another's work at this stage. 
Here are a couple of images and links to both Keith and Paul's websites for a larger selection of images. 

The second day we were based within the University of Plymouth in the department of architecture and design. For another packed day of business modelling. 

During the six months with Plymouth University's kind support we have been given access to all the workshop facilities within the design faculty which is not only exceptionally generous but really helpful for anyone of us wanting to push a technique or process that maybe difficult to develop within our own studio's, or it could simply be used as time to experiment on something new. 
We were fortunate to have a tour of all the departments workshop's and meet most of the technicians on site. I was also really impressed by the library it's open 7 days a week and you can access it 24 hrs a day that's unheard of in most university libraries.