After two weeks

Well, here we are 2 weeks after moving into our new premises completely, and we have been very busy. 


Classes are going very well and enquiries are coming in for the next round starting in November.  Our student numbers now are into the 30's which is great!!!!!

I think I will have to declare our pottery class as the noisiest class of 2010, when they all met again last Thursday after having the summer off, you would have thought they hadn't seen each other for years.  If we had been tested for noise pollution, we probably would have been shut down!

All I can say is everyone obviously has a good time as well as learning and being creative.

Our relocation is complete!!!!! YAY!!

We have now completely moved across to our new premises in Droxford, and very nice they are too.  Although the room is slightly smaller than the one at Broadmarsh, because of it's layout we have loads more storage and are feeling very organized with a place for everything.  Long may it last.  Anyway, here are a few piccies.

 

Save the Arts: A Poster by Jeremy Deller, Scott King and William ...

Save the Arts: A Poster by Jeremy Deller, Scott King and William ...

Things are getting busy!!!!!!!!!!!

The weeks are zooming by now, and our move to Wallops Wood, Droxford is getting very close.  We have been advertising our new courses and the response has been very good.  The Pottery course on a Thursday Evening is now fully booked, and has a waiting list.  The 10 week Leaded Glass course on a Wed Eve has only one space left, and the fused glass courses are gathering students by the week, so all is going well.

I have another commission on the go at the moment, a soldier themed one, more on that when it has advanced a little.

Chris' etched aluminium and copper enamelled pieces are attracting interest. Not surprising really as they are gorgeous. Photo's definitely do not do them justice!!!!!

The raku bowls etc still seem to be selling well, but we would like to start creating a new range of shapes, so maybe you will hear about this in the future.

Got to go now and look at wedding dresses with my daughter Jodie, who is getting married next August, and my son Arron, whose innocent little face is on one of the tiled portrait pieces (blog Friday 28th May) is now 31 and also getting married in May next year.  Very exciting times.

Eileen

Hello!

Hello again, it's been a while since I blogged cos things have been moving rapidly just recently.  Our classes have been gathering pace with new students coming in via the website, we have an exhibition taking place at The Oxmarket Centre of Arts until 24th September and on top of that we have decided to move premises!!!!!!!!!!!

The decision to move was not taken lightly, and a lot of painstaking research was done before our final decision was made.  The factor that swayed our choice was the price of rent for the premises.  At Broadmarsh the rent for the room we are in was going to reach an unachievable level once our graduate deal was over, so we had to look elsewhere.

Our new premises at Wallops Wood near Droxford are of a similar size to Broadmarsh and the set up is bright and welcoming for our customers, so we are pleased with our choice.  We have 24/7 access, so whether our fused glass, leaded glass, or copper enamelling courses are in the day, evening or weekend, classes are not a problem.

There are, regretfully one or two students who for personal reasons cannot make the move with us, but the majority are happy to continue their classes at Wallops Wood.  We have also picked up new students from around the Meon Valley.

So a busy time for us, particularly the end of September/beginning of October when we fully move lock, stock and barrel to Wallops Wood.

Looking forward to the coming festive season and all its selling opportunities, just got to continue to make the stock to sell.

A piece of really exciting news is that we have 2 pieces of artwork shortlisted for The National Art Competition, an exhibition that is chosen from 1600+ applications nationwide.  Will keep you posted on how it goes.

Eileen

Raku Again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a really good couple of days doing Raku with our ceramics group over the weekend.  Some people couldn't make it along, but those who did had a great time and produced some really nice pieces.  Trouble is in our excitement we kept forgetting to take photo's, so our evidence is very limited.  Sorry!

New Work

I have been busy lately with a few new pieces of work.  The starting point was 'Transitions in Nature" and I was inspired by images of poppies, so I started to experiment with these.  One thing led to another, and I began thinking about what poppies represent to us in this day and age.  The rest I leave up to the viewer

Wasteland - Raku Fired Ceramic - 135cm x 30cm

Poppy Trio - Raku Fired Ceramic - Each image 15cm x 15cm

Opium - Raku Fired Ceramic - 30cm x 30cm

Ho Hum!!!!

I wouldn't say that our attendance at the craft fair on Sunday was a total waste of time, but it came pretty close.  Sold nothing all day, until we were in to the last hour, then sold 2 items quite close to each other.  At least we covered our stall cost and made a bit of profit, so not all bad news.  Could have sold one more item, but the lady asked if I would take less for it and I said "No" We put a fair price on our products and this still does not cover the labour involved in making the things, so I felt a bit put out!!!!!

Anyway, I was pleased that one of the items sold was from our new range of raku fired clocks that we were piloting, so looks like we should make more of these.


Our next event is a Pamper Evening on 24th June at the Hilton Hotel Portsmouth, we shall see what that has to offer!

Craft Fair on Sunday

Just putting in a plug really, Decima Designs will be hosting a stall at the Hovercraft Museum Open Day,  Lee on Solent, this Sunday (13th).  Hope the weather is good, cos if it ain't then I can't see too many peeps coming out to spend their money !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :0(

New raku fired portraiture a hit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Much to my delight, my raku fired ceramic portraiture has been a bit of a hit!  As those of you who attended the private view of the degree show will know, I sold a few on the night.

I have also secured a couple of commissions on the strength of what was showing, and now the University of Chichester have requested the loan of 3 small hangings to exhibit on and off campus for the next year.

It appears that what I have achieved is quite unique, so when I get a chance I will start 'plugging' them around galleries to see if I can get them in anywhere else.

PATRICK

ARRON

Meanwhile, the pottery, fused glass and leaded (stained glass) courses are going well.  Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves as well as learning new skills, which is great.

Off now to do more commission work.

Will update again soon

Here we go again!!!!!

It all kicks off again tonight, evening classes start with fused glass tonight, leaded glass tomorrow, and pottery on thursday.  Last Friday @ 5pm was the deadline for all of our uni work to be in, and now we are looking forward to the Private View this Friday (and results in July).  It will be great for all of our family and friends to see the results of what we have been rabbiting on about these past three years.

After the big build up to the deadline, I spent the weekend doing NOTHING! Just chillin' out and trying to get over the fact that uni has finished and I am no longer a student (at my age it's probably just as well!)

Anyway, onwards and upwards.  There's going to be a big surge of energy put into the business now, cos we gotta make this work.

Open Day

Well there it was gone.  A big thank you to all who made our Open Day a success on Saturday!
 It was a really good day, with lots of people coming to have a look around, watch the demos and have a chat.

Some of the raku pieces were sold as soon as they came out of the kiln!!!!!!!!!! and some people signed up for courses.  So all in all a good day.

Chris and I really enjoyed it, and I think it is something we will definitely do again.

By the way, keep an eye out in The News tomorrow, we have an advert in the Basepoint feature

Ready for the open studio
Just back from setting everything up ready for the studio opening tomorrow. Here's hoping all goes well and we see a few strange faces around.

This turquoise raku fired sphere turned out beautifully.  You can see from the copper reduction how the flames from the sawdust licked up around the form.  Each piece of Raku fired ceramic is unique, as the firing and post reduction process can never be fully predicted or controlled.  A truly fascinating process

It's a funny old world

Isn't it funny how some days things can really go your way?  Today was one of those days for us.  It all started with a phone call from the Oxmarket Centre for the Arts in Chichester, where we were offered an exhibition space for 3 weeks in September.  Then we took some raku pots and glass pendants along to The Spring Arts Centre in Havant for them to display and sell, we were fully expecting them to choose which pieces they wanted to keep and reject the pieces they didn't want, but they kept them all!!!!

Travelling on to Clayman at Chichester to collect some supplies, when I got another phone call from the events lady at Leigh Park library, wanting us to run some courses at Leigh Park and Hayling Island libraries.  And then on top of that, Linda at Clayman agreed to display our course brochure in their shop.

So all in all, a very busy, but very productive day.

We are taking some more raku pieces to the Oxmarket in Chichester tomorrow, because sales have been so good on the last lot they want some more. Whoop, whoop!!! 

Been busy the last few days continuing with 'stuff' for the degree show deadline which is 7th May at 5.00pm. Once this has been finalised, then we can concentrate more on getting the business up and running in the way that we want it to continue.  By this I mean more advertising, more getting work into galleries, and running more classes than we do at the moment. 

Don't forget our Open Studio on April 24th where a good time can be had by all.

We're IN!!!!

We have well and truly moved in to our new studio today.  All the furniture is in, now all we have to do is fill up the shelves and cupboards to make it look like we are busy.  New course brochure is out now and we're all ready to go!!!

New Premises

How very exciting.................our own business premises. On 1st April 2010 we will pick up the keys to our new workshop/studio. We are going to be at Basepoint Havant, if you go to Google maps and type in Decima Designs, you will see the location and how to get there.

Off to Ikea today to look at furniture possibilities, as we will be running glass classes from there after Easter. Can't wait. Only problem is that we still have to finish our Fine Art degree and the deadline is looming fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy, busy, busy. Our time at Uni is running out now. Not long to go before the degree show and there is still lots to be done. Ox Market is selling our raku pieces well, and want some more, so the pressure is really on. Wish us luck.

Guess what? finished the presentation, just need to practice a few times to make sure i don't ramble on too much.
No more grrrrr's , well not until time is running short and i'm still building my sculpture for the degree show!!!
Such a worrier, but then that's what makes me me, isn't it?

As you can see folks, Chris is still panicking :o{ What she actually means is we both wanted to try the new glass cutting system instead of doing our presentation work, but it actually took me to suggest it! At one point I even offered to play on my own if Chris wanted to get back to her presentation, SHE DIDN'T TAKE ME UP ON THE OFFER, what does that tell you??????? I rest my case.

Still going Grrrrrrrrrr

Well, where has the day gone?
Delivered our Raku to the Ox Market, thought they would choose the pieces they wanted. Guess what? They took all of our pieces!
Started on presentation, then Eileen wanted us to play with a new glass cutting system that arrived, then it was tea time, then we had to go to work, then the day will be gone and not much presentation done. Grrrrrrrr will I get it done in time?
Why can't days last at least 8 hours longer?

Another day tomorrow, thank goodness.

Well here we are, Wednesday, only a week to go before we have to each give a 15 minute Powerpoint presentation at Uni. "That should be easy enough" I hear you say. Yeah, right, maybe it would be if we had started to put it together, but neither of us have. Not panicking just yet (well I'm not, but Chris is a little bit, she keeps going around going grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!). Trouble is it's all about our own work, with loads of pictures, and inspiration sources, and art theory etc. etc. etc. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

However, had a good afternoon helping Chris to teach cardmaking to a lovely group of ladies at Gosport Discovery Centre (Library as we like to call it). All very relaxing and friendly and enjoyable.

We are taking some of our raku pieces to the Oxmarket Art Centre in Chichester tomorrow, as they have asked if we want to display 'stuff' in their cabinets. Wish us luck.

New Website

It's arrived!!!!!!!!!! Our new website has gone live and we are sooooooooo proud of it. It's very exciting. My brother Pat built it for us, and he has done such a good job. It now means that we can 'show off' to more people.

We did some raku this morning, in the rain, but we got some beautiful pieces out. I will post photos of them when I have taken them. Even in the rain I find Raku exciting, there's nothing like pulling a glossy, hot piece of ceramic from the kiln and burying it in sawdust. Well actually there is, the next stage of taking it from the sawdust and dowsing it in water is just as exciting.

Am I sad or what????????????????

Busy day at uni today, but not much to show for it really. I seemed to be bumbling about all day and all I achieved was making two 2x2 feet boards to hang on the wall. These boards will hold the tiles I am making for the degree show. My final image will be 12 feet long by 2 feet high and made entirely from raku fired 6x6 inch tiles.

I have a bad eye today, I think it's a sty or something. Very itchy and very sore, Chris made me go to the pharmacy and get some drops to put in. I must admit they have made it feel a bit better.

Hi there
It is funny that when it comes to writing something, everything goes blank. Anyway, last day before back to uni for the last semester, very scary. Lots to do today, not least trying to get images of our work sorted so we can get our website really rolling.

Well here we are then, a blog at last. It's funny isn't it how you think you have lots to say, but then when it comes down to it you can't think of anything. Mind you it is 11.18pm and I'm getting tired now after setting this lot up. Bed methinks!