Tag Archives: fragile

The Naming of Things

I love creating new work and, as I work, I know why I am making particular pieces – I understand the story I want a piece to be a part of. The trouble comes when I try to give a piece a name, then I am stuck. Words fail me. Everything seems corny or gauche.

Enter a wordsmith! This weekend I had a truly wonderful time telling the stories of my work to my daughter and, in exchange, she suggested names. This has had a remarkable effect. Whereas before I was struggling to envisage the work in the gallery, now that pieces can be called by their name, I find that I can picture them in the exhibition. I have discovered the flow through the work and can imagine how it is going to look.

Daughter and I played with myths, etymology and implication. We made up words and created order out of chaos. Now I have an exhibition!

Image: Robin Shelton, name: to be revealed.

A friend told me once that she thought if you knew the name of something, you were more likely to remember it. I am hoping that, by naming the works in my exhibition, people will remember to work and, more importantly, the message that I am trying to convey.

It’s a Wrap!

I have become increasingly concerned about the type of packaging that I use: getting through bubble wrap by the mile since I started selling my work.  In a recent accountability workshop for like minded creatives we talked about this and someone mentioned paper bubble wrap

I decided to trial it at the Contemporary Craft Fair in Bovey Tracey, Devon last week.  I bought the Rajapack EX MINI system which comes on a cardboard dispenser and also provides tissue paper to interleave with the packaging.  I also bought a big roll of string and some brown recycled paper bags.  The cardboard dispenser and was easy to set up.  It’s quite a small thing to transport, but as you pull  it from the dispenser the ‘bubble wrap’ cleverly expands into a honeycomb structure.

IMG_20190607_125257_710 The verdict?  The first couple of pieces that I pulled off the roll didn’t quite go according to plan – maybe the piece was too big; maybe trying to use the dispenser while it was on the floor, under a table, hidden by fabric impeded things; maybe it is always difficult until the dispenser is a little less full – but I was delighted to have found an alternative to plastic which works brilliantly to protect smaller pieces and the environment.  It looks good too and there is a weird satisfaction in the way it comes off the roll!  I think the jury is still out for larger works which I was less confident were adequately protected.

Given that my work is about the fragility of our landscape, it is vital for me to find a satisfactory solution to the wrapping of my work.  Not sure I’m all the way there yet but I am certainly feeling much happier.  And let’s face it, if we all do something isn’t that better than a few good people doing it perfectly?