Taking part in exhibitions

This pot, fired in a raku kiln, is at Artisanand Gallery in Aberfeldy, a beautiful part of the country in Perthshire. Angela, who runs the gallery, has regular exhibitions and we are delighted to be a part of the programme. Last month, we swopped some work about to fit better in the current exhibition theme, Feathered Friends. It’s interesting to take part in exhibitions. We are just packaging up some work for the Greengallery in Buchlyvie, in Stirlingshire. It’s a great honour to be selected and then there’s the anxiety of making or finding the work that feels good enough and fits the theme or criteria.

For Greengallery it was ‘positive vibes’ which was a bit more challenging as we don’t try to create work that is just ‘positive vibes’ but some of our work is gentler and reflecting on kindness and hope, so that’s what we chose. We get to deliver the work to Greengallery next week, although if we’re honest, we had a sneak peek over the winter when we were driving by! Ssh! It’s a beautiful space with light and tall windows out into the gardens.

Do check out the website ‘where we are’ page to see the shops and galleries that we sell in.

 

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The source of our inspiration

We made this bowl recently and I was struck by how familiar the colours were. Here you can see the image alongside, of the shoreline by our house. Isn’t it beautiful. Chris didn’t go down to the shore and choose the glaze colours. It’s more like we just have soaked in the colours here and they flow out of us into the work we do. I’ve often wondered what our work would look like if we lived in the city….

We love the work of our friend and fellow artist Si Smith whose work is based in his home city of Leeds – people, architecture, the ways people travel through life.

I guess ours is the lines in the sand, the tidal pools, the spirituality of the wild places.

Both have such value. The connection to our land, to the place, to the people we are surrounded by, the conversations, the hopes, the dilemmas..

The colours here are so beautiful. Soft, grey, clear. They still the soul and you can rest in them. Although our work is not fundamentally about the Cowal Peninsula, or even Argyll, the very being of it seeps through into what we do together – the words and the shape and form and colour.

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Self-employment – a celebration

This week, we mark eight years of us working as ‘seatree’ full time! I’ve been reflecting on it and where we have come to in that time. There’s so much chat right now about what a struggle it is for us artists just now and the struggle is real in this economy but my goodness, we have a lot to be thankful for.

This week summarises where we’re at and what keeps us going..

Spring has sprung and everything is looking so glorious and hopeful.

Friends have called by for tea and chats and we have met friends and neighbours at a village Beltane fire.

Chris has led his annual wilderness retreat and at each side of the retreat, there is a flow of friends staying over, which we love. This year, they also supported us by buying our work – and amazingly by plumbing in the spare second hand kiln we got last year! Finances hadn’t stretched to the electrical work, but this weekend, it was plumbed in in exchange for one of Chris’s pots!

This means that while we await the necessary spare parts for kiln #1, we have been able to fire some of James’ work, and some sculptural pieces I have made too, in the hope that they might be ready for the Given What We Know exhibition next week..

We submitted our tax returns, but got to sit in our lovely dining space to do it..

We got to spend time on our shoreline, the place that inspires so much of our work.

So much to be thankful for. Eight years and counting and we thank you for your support!

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How to package pottery

I (Michaela) started making ceramic brooches some time ago, original using the circle cut out of the base of bowls, like the middle of a doughnut. I love detail and making small things and the space these small discs provided for adding one word and a small sketch was delightful. Many were made – but few were sold. I had bought some sustainable jewellery boxes which were black, to help the brooch ‘pop’ and put a coordinating colour inside the box and a seatree label on the lid. But few sold, whether in shops or at fairs or online. I was quite disheartened as I loved making them so much.

Roll on a few months and the sudden brainwave that maybe it wasn’t the brooches but the packaging. Maybe black jewellery boxes indicate elegant rather than quirky? So I ordered some brown kraft card brooch display cards, adapted the seatree stamp we use for the bags at fairs and used the letters stamps that are used on the clay, to write ‘wearable art’ along the top.

And now they sell! Online, at fairs and we received a wholesale order for a shop at Loch Lomond!

It’s all about the packaging…

 

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