This week I have joined a number of my City Lit Diploma graduate contemporaries in signing the least on a small unoccupied premises in Camden. The council in this most enlightened borough of London believes that it is bad for the area to have too many empty shops and so they have come up with a fantastic idea to support emerging businesses. For a short period they pay your rent and electricity bills and you contract to open the shop and make the area look more lively. Well it seemed to us like an opportunity too good to ignore and so Klay was born!
We are a group of 12 ceramic artists, some making functional pieces, others decorative, but all of us working in the realm of contemporary ceramics. The shop doesn’t look like much at the moment but with a lick of paint and some clean shelving, it has real promise. There is a great little café next door and a couple of other galleries in the area and transport links are great; Kentish Town and Chalk Farm stations nearby and a bus stop right outside. So now the hard work begins – designs, bags, bubble wrap, decoration, payment methods, rotas for manning – and, oh yes, making! Going to be a frantic few weeks I feel!
Bridget Macklin 