Category: craft
Birthday number 3
It’s my third birthday in the studio / shop at Manchester Craft and Design Centre and I still love it like it’s day one.
I am so appreciative of all the lovely customers I’ve had over those years and all the appreciation, feedback, encouragement and odd conversations, I’ve had a few good odd ones! It’s great to see how people react to the work and the unexpected ways that links them to it. It’s been great to develop collage commissions with people, assembling and archiving their treasured paper memories. And it’s been brilliant to make bespoke jewellery, tailored to people’s wants, tastes and budgets!
Thank you everyone who has stepped into my little space and enjoyed being there! Your support means I can keep doing what I was made to do! Thank you x
Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair
Come and join me at the next show I will be exhibiting at, The Little Northern, sister to the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in October, is a lovely one-day event. I will be exhibiting both my jewellery and cards along side around 40 carefully selected designer-makers and artists, taking high quality contemporary craft into the suburbs of South Manchester and Cheshire
Sunday 7 May 2017
Altrincham Town Hall
10.30am to 4.30pm
March Meet The Maker 2017
So I took part in #MarchMeetTheMaker on Instagram again this year and I thought I’d share a selection here . . .
Can’t live without . . .
My riveting tool.
Apart from my family, my fella, the support of customers and admirers, my hands, my daydreaming , etc etc! Thought I’d keep this one basic! I do love that tool and have been using it for 20 years now!
I discovered recently I have an ancestor, in one census he was a riveters helper, in the next a riveter, yes!
Me. . .
… this is me! At my bench. A place I love to be.
Favourite to make . . .
New things! Shouldn’t be showing this really as I haven’t got far with it at all. Currently playing with stone setting, which has been on my list for years, some of these stones I’ve had since I was studying! My vision is greater than the results so far, so much more to do. Eek!!
Workspace . . .
We have pretty small workspaces at the craft centre to give room for shop area, so it has to be well organised to make the most of it and i have to say it does work perfectly, it’s my favourite studio of all the studios I’ve had.
Organised . . .
A bit of the organisation I mentioned above. I (conveniently!) love drawers, boxes, tins!
Inspiration . . .
History / People / Stories
Old buildings & Details
Found things
Paper Books & Documents
Non precious becoming precious
Beautiful mysteries
Sketchbook . . .
I don’t get much time to work in a sketchbook these days but since I graduated I’ve maintained a collection of soft back a4 with cartridge paper (same paper as I roll print with). They’re a mix of workings out, off cuts, repeated drawn shapes, scribbles and lots of designs I’ve scribbled onto the nearest bit of file paper then masking taped into the book!
Work clothes . . .
I can wear whatever I want for work. It’s often grey with stripes or holes, as long as it’s warm, I’ve had lots of studios over time and they have all been cold, some really cold!
Brand image. . .
My logo which is simply my name handwritten and a rather large pile of postcards with their lovely layered old edges, which isn’t technically my branding, but it is very relevant!
Where . . .
For the last year and a half I have been making and selling from my lovely studio / shop upstairs at Manchester Craft & Design Centre, and it is perfect, I really feel my years of being a jeweller makes sense working in this way.
How it’s made . . .
I do plenty roll printing, everything gets roll printed with cartridge paper to give a warm texture referring to the postcards and the paper with these unique prints are then used in my collages.
Feedback . . .
I spent many years in a studio making and sending my work out with no feedback and it took me a while to pick up courage to take my work to fairs, I was not confident in my work for years. Now I find myself in a studio that’s also a shop. We all get to hear, quite a lot! I am developing a thick skin! Some don’t say anything, that’s fine. Some make comments that are really useful or interesting, and some are . . . ! I also get such treats like people coming with a box of perfect ephemera they want to give me, amazing! And some are gorgeous people like the couple who recently bought a necklace and then came back the next day and left with a collage, (My favourite too!) and I’m so chuffed it now lives with them in their lovely home in Germany. They even took the time to send me this photo of it amongst some lovely intriguing other works. Thank you! This kindness keeps me (us?) going. Our work doesn’t end when you wrap it up for someone, it starts its journey.
You’re invited!
MCDC Christmas Event
We launch Christmas at MCDC on Saturday 19th November and we would love you all to come along!
We will then be open 7 days a week until Christmas, our last day is Christmas Eve when we close at 3pm
MCDC Christmas Event
Saturday 19th November 2016
Live festive music between 2 – 5 pm (we are open 10 – 5.30pm)
#MemoriesAreMadeHere
You can follow me on:
Instagram @clarehillerby
Facebook @clarehillerbyjewellery
Twitter @clarehillerby
. . . for new pieces being created for my studio / shop along the way to Christmas #inmycabinets
Buy Art Fair down and done
Buy Art Fair finished last night and it has all come down and done for another year now. So just a few details of some collages made for Buy Art Fair and the stand itself. I’ve more new collages in the shop, hanging them today, so come and have a look!
HAND
“Ideas travel, and HAND.01, a packable, refillable, paper-topped modular table from emergent British design studio HAND and paper pioneers G.F Smith, has been designed to ensure that inspiration is captured wherever it strikes.
Manchester Craft & Design Centre has joined forces with HAND Srudio to capture the creativity of the Centre’s Resident Makers and other creatives from across Manchester, and to celebrate craft, collaboration and the heritage of MCDC.
A total of 49 artists have used HAND.01 to create 49 customised pieces of work which, when collated, will form a large mural representing an iconic section of MCDC.”
HAND CRAFT
08.09.16 – 30.10.16
#HandCraftMcr
Making & Selling
. . . where I think, design, experiment, make, display, meet, discuss, re-home . . .
Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair
I am excited to be taking part in the Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair . . . this Sunday! It is now at Altrincham Town Hall, and across the road is the award winning Altrincham Market. I’d like to be at both places at once on Sunday!
I hope you can join us at this lovely event, there will be around 40 makers from many craft disciplines. I will be taking my jewellery, collages and cards. I’ve been busy making new jewellery recently and I’m working on new collages and cards this week!
Future Makers 2016
Every year Manchester Craft & Design Centre host an exhibition titled Future Makers to celebrate talented new makers who graduated the previous summer. Each studio can invite a maker they deem one to watch and I am very excited to have invited ceramicist, Josie Seymour-Jones who graduated from Hereford College of Arts. She will be the first Future Maker I have selected for my Studio/Shop, and I cant wait to see the work arriving next week. If you visited the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair last October, you may have seen her work there already. You are welcome to come and view Josie’s work (that she is busy making at the moment!) from its launch on Thursday 25th February (6pm to 8pm). There will be around 11 other Future Makers exhibited around the building.
Future Makers runs until Sunday 29th May 2016.
“I work in porcelain to create ceramics with subtle surface qualities
Treating the clay as a canvas, I approach the work as if it were a painting, building up layers of colour to create a pictorial composition
Observing traces and marks in the landscape, the pieces are made in a way which reflects the delicate nature of the porcelain
I am a graduate of Hereford College of Arts in Contemporary Design Crafts, and currently work from my hometown in north Wales”
Christmas at Studio 20a
Christmas decorations have been hung, shops are stocked with goodies, and we have officially launched our festive period at Manchester Craft & Design Centre! Plus from the 1st of December we will be open 7 days a week. Monday to Saturday from 10am until 5.30pm (as usual) but also Sundays from 11am until 5pm. There is also a new exhibition to see Exploring Wonderland, a celebration of 150 years of Alice in Wonderland. Hope you can join us!
Things have progressed …
I have made progress at my new studio / shop here at the craft centre. All the painting, bench building, cabinet hanging, shelf making and days of painting everything in sight are coming to a close! I’ve just hung drawers of jewellery in the window today and the last big job is to hang my sign, but I am very happy to be open and it’s all going nicely!
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My current stockists
If you are in or around Devon you can now find a collection of my work at The Contemporary Craft Festival Shop, illustrated is a selection from the collection available there . . .
I have added a few new outlets recently, please see my list below, and you can also check my stockists at any time on my website here.
Of course you can visit me at my Studio / Shop (No appointment needed), where I will always have a full collection of my jewellery, collages and collage cards available to browse, or you can discuss a bespoke piece if you like.
Studio 3 @ Manchester Craft & Design Centre
17 Oak Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester M4 5JD
We are open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5.30pm (& Sundays in December)
Visiting details here
O n l i n e O u t l e t s
lovedazzle
Made By Hand Online
http://www.madebyhandonline.com
U K O u t l e t s
Aosdana Ltd.
Isle of Iona, Argyll PA76 6SJ
Contemporary Applied Arts
89 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0HX
The Contemporary Craft Festival Shop
Littlecote, Fore Street, Bovey Tracey TQ13 9AD
Mostyn
12 Vaughan Street, Llandudno LL30 1AB
Oriel Davies Gallery
The Park, Newtown, Powys SY16 2NZ
The Scottish Gallery
16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
Yorkshire Sculpture Park (currently showing in ‘Rings’ exhibition)
West Bretton, Wakefield WF4 4LG
LNCCF | Sunday 27 April | Altrincham
Planning and preparing to take part in the upcoming, and first Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair of 2014 . . . Hope you can come!
Here’s what I’ve been up to …
Between Christmas and New Year I have been moving studio, again, but this time still within the craft centre, to a bigger work and display space in studio 3, sharing with Linzi Ramsden ceramics. A very exciting new space with a great presence in the craft centre. We have been busy painting and setting up and are nearly ready for our launch mid March, a Saturday yet to be confirmed! We will also be curating a display of invited makers of various disciplines in three month exhibitions. Details will follow!
The Great Northern . . .
Well the Great Northern is over, I must say I am still alittle exhausted and still have heaps of catching up to do, so much is put aside when you’re doing a fair! But it was really great to be involved, and lovely to do a fair on the doorstep. Sales were good, comments were brilliant, it’s really a shame we can’t pay our bills with those comments, as boring as it sounds, we really do need them to become sales (I am sure some think creatives just get by happily, let me know how please!) I really enjoyed planning and then putting my stand together and seeing a full collection of jewellery and collages in a sympathetic context, I used pages from an old ledger book as a back drop, with lists of their shopping, debts and day trips from 1907. I think people really respond to my work when I am able to show the full story. It’s also really great to see some great work, some of my favourites being, Carla Edwards, Naomi Robinson, Julia Smith, Kaper and Julia Jowett (… there really were lots of gorgeous work!).
Come & visit me at the Great Northern!
Reflections on words . . .
Forming words was launched yesterday at Manchester Craft & Design Centre / my studio home.
The work exhibited was beautiful and thought provoking and I’m looking forward to seeing it all again, in more depth next time, not just as very beautiful objects! It was an incredibly hot day, so I don’t blame me for just enjoying it, the busy lively craft centre and the cocktails!
One of my all time favourite ceramists is in the exhibition, Hanne Mannheimer, one of my many many favourite jewellers Jessica Turrell, and I’m very happy to now have a new favourite in Buddug Wyn Humphreys, just stunning. Here are a few snaps from yesterday, you will need to imagine this alongside various musicians we had accompanying the opening!
Forming Words is back . . .
Forming Words is touring from Flow gallery in London to Manchester Craft & Design Centre . . . It opens this Saturday and the craft centre have lots of word based treats (including live bands and cocktails I believe!) lined up for the launch. More of my jewellery, and collages are available from Studio 6 where I work, though not this Saturday, I will be enjoying the launch and hope you can come along!
The last little one before the big one . . .
The last Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair is coming up … Sunday 7th July at The King’s School in Macclesfield … I will again be bringing along my jewellery (including some new pieces!) my collages, cards and bunting. The ‘big’ one is the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in October.
A few images from my stand at the last fair in Wilmslow … hope you can come and support us!
