Following review by an Independent Selection Panel from Creative Scotland and Creative Learning Aberdeen I am delighted to have been selected for a Craft Maker (Mentoring Scheme) Award of £1,500 towards supporting an 8-month period of research, experimentation of new surface applications and development of my own branded range of products.
If you’ve been checking out my ‘In Progress’ project you’ll be aware that I have become interested in the concept of how one develops their own distinguishable and personal ‘identification’ of style. An influence for this has been the work of a Finnish Textile and Surface designer – Reeta Ek, who explored these themes through her MA thesis – ‘The Sketchbook’ Here she undertook a personal creative exploration; ‘What are the things and techniques that inspire me and how would the process proceed if I had more time to be creative’
In a comparable situation, as a mother to two young children and having an amazing opportunity (and true luxury!) of some time to really explore my own creativity I saw the benefit of carrying out a similar project.
I’m going to be using the award to carry out a period of personal creative research and exploration to offer further definition to the development of a personal style that I can then use to formulate a later product range under my Camban Studio brand.
Using my existing sketchbook explorations of my Lichen and Birch surface themes as a starting point, I’ll be focussing on concentrated experimentation and exploration of scale, colour, texture, materials and tools to build up a body of experimental work. Further exploration of the work I have done in embroidery and embellishments will form a complimentary feature to the textiles I can create.
I’ll be spending some time exploring additional fabric printing techniques through participation in a 5-day course ‘Textile printing with plants’ This course is designed to introduce a significant number of simple, deliberately low-tech, methods of transferring the intricate details of plants onto cotton and mixed-fibre fabrics. Techniques covered include: eco-printing, tie dyeing, shibori, mono-printing, block-printing and cyanotype printing. I can’t wait to have a solid five days of experimenting in beautiful Sutherland in the North of Scotland!
Additional to my own creative output, I’ll be carrying out research as I go, connecting with, and exploring others creative output, to provide inspiration and different directions for my own practice. I’ll be visiting exhibitions, locations and trying to connect with other creatives from all walks of life.
I’ll be keeping a regular diary of progress through my blogs here, and on my Instagram, with a view to collating these at the end of the project along with images of my work into a physical ‘sketchbook’.
At the moment I’m feeling slightly overwhelmed by all the possibilities for my work and so thankful to creative Scotland and Creative Learning Aberdeen for believing in me and my work! I can’t wait to get started creating and getting together chatting over a cup of tea with my mentors.
And I want to hear from you too! What fuels your creativity? What is your definition of creativity? How do you feel when you are creating? I would love to get others points of view, message me or comment below!