Summer 2022
I’ve had a busy few months since my last post so haven’t had chance to write one until now! Since June I’ve taken part in 6 shows which have all been amazing, here’s a little roundup of each one:
Staffordshire University Degree Show
June 2022
As part of our residency at the university me and Soyida got the opportunity to show our work as part of the 3D Designer Makers degree show, it was so nice to see all of their final pieces come together after 3 years of their hard work and to celebrate with them.
New Designers week 1
June 2022
For New Designers week one, I was part of One Year In, an exhibition of new designers one year into their businesses. Located in the Business Design Centre in London this was such an exciting opportunity and I met so many other amazing business owners! It was also my first time going to London on my own and setting up my display alone, very scary but I was very proud of myself and my work by the end of the week!
New Designers week 2
July 2022
For week 2 of New Designers I was lucky enough to go down with my old uni course and this years graduating students to exhibit my work alongside their’s. This was even more special because my year group missed out on this opportunity as a result of the pandemic. It was such a fun few days seeing everyone’s work displayed together and I even got chance to go and see Yayoi Kasuma’s infinity rooms!
Art in clay
August 2022
This year I went back to Art in Clay for the second year. This year was just as lovely as last year with all of the other makers there being so friendly, I even got to see some familiar faces from last year and have a catchup with them.
London Design Festival, Shoreditch Design Triangle
September 2022
This was another amazing few days surrounded by recent BA and MA graduates from staffs uni. As part of London Design Festival, Shoreditch Design Triangle gave the uni space for us and other unis to exhibit our work in Old Spitalfields market. Whilst we were there we went to visit other exhibitions across the festival in different parts of London. This exhibition was definitely one of my favourites this year.
Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair
October 2022
My most recent show was Great Northern, which is another of favourite shows so far this year. This year my stand was in the deep end of the pool in Victoria Baths, the most amazing venue. It was a really friendly and busy event, and I was really happy with my stand and the work I had made. I also had so many friends visit which made the weekend even more special. I’d love to go back next year!
New work
I’ve taken my new work to each of these shows and you can see it in the pictures below.
Picture 1 shows my breakfast set, designed with texture in mind. Sesame seeds create texture within the surface of each piece of the breakfast set, thoughtfully placed where the user would instinctively interact with the products.
Pictures 2 shows my petal pots, created as a result of my ongoing experimentation into the application of waste materials within ceramics. Petals are placed within the ceramics and once fired a candle can be placed inside illuminating the delicate texture created by the petals.
Picture 3 shows the latest update to my petal pots, I added gold lustre to highlight the texture of the petals. These sold out quickly at Great Northern but will be at my upcoming shows and listed on my website soon, so keep and eye out for social media posts announcing this!
Picture 4 shows my latest product, petal baubles! These will be finished with a gloss glaze with an optional gold lustre finish. Click here to pre order one!
Studio
As of September, I’ve now officially left uni! I’m so grateful that I got the chance to have another year at uni thanks to Tim and the Artists Benevolent Fund. Although I’ll miss it it’s exciting to look ahead and to make use of the space I’ve created at home.
As a result of this I’ve finally organised and tidied my studio! The before and after pictures show just how messy it had got! But luckily it’s all clean and tidy to make in ready for my upcoming shows in the run up to Christmas!
Now I’ve left uni I no longer have access to the facilities there but I’m lucky enough to know Meg, (instagram: @mestudios.co.uk) from school and a few weeks ago I went to visit her new photography studio in Trentham to have professional pictures taken of my new work! Megs studio is clean, modern and has so many different back drops perfect for both product photography and lifestyle photos, I love the final images! Here are a few photos from the day:
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve also been working with Leighton (Instagram: @leightonjones_gd) to design new branding for MK Designs. He pitched 3 ideas to me and after a few teams calls we both decided on the final one which consists of a new logo, fonts, and a new colour palette! You’ll have seen these on Instagram and at shows by now but here are some up close pictures of the designs:
This Sunday 6th November I’ll be at the Kings Hall in Stoke for the Christmas Craft and Flea market and on Sunday 4th of December I’ll be at Wedgwood for the Josiah and Co Christmas market, my last show of the year! It’d be lovely to see some of you there, but if you can’t make it I’m also featured in this years Made in Staffs magazine where you can shop my work alongside many other talented Staffordshire makers or you can buy directly through my online shop!
Buy tickets for Kings Hall Craft and Flea here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/stokes-christmas-craft-flea-tickets-427933379257?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
View the Made in Staffs magazine here:
https://issuu.com/madeinstaffs/docs/gift_guide_aw_2022_made_in_staffs_28_
Shop my website here:
https://mkdesigns.uk/shop
Well done if you’ve made it this far and thank you for reading and following along.
Meg :) x
Upcoming shows and new designs
It’s been a while since my last blog post but lots has been going on behind the scenes!
I’ve been so lucky to get into 3 really exciting shows, New Designers week 1 - London at the end of June, Art in Clay - Windsor in August and Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair - Manchester in October.
In preparation for these I've been busy designing and making two new collections, a breakfast set and petal pots which I’m so excited about! I’ve also been further developing my existing collections. Here are a few pictures of what I’ve been up to so far!
I’ve also been putting time into setting up my workshop at home ready for the end of my residency in June - next months blog post will be all about this! Here are some sunny pictures of it so far…
And finally I’ve been working alongside a graphic designer to update my branding, you’ll start to see this on my website and social media from June onwards and I’m so excited for a brand refresh! Here’s a sneak peek:
Thank you for reading and I can’t wait to show you all of the new things over the next few months!
Meg x
The Great Charity Pot and Print Fair 2022
I’m excited to be taking part in The Great Charity Pot and Print Fair this March, alongside some very talented ceramicists and printmakers.
Over the weekend of Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th of March each artist taking will donate a percentage of their sales to their chosen charity as well as running a prize draw.
I’ve chosen The Staffordshire Wildlife Trust for my charity as they support nature, the inspiration behind my work.
On the weekend of the event, 50% of sales from a section of my website will go to The Wildlife Trust.
I’m also holding a prize draw on just giving to win one of my banana pendant lights worth £132! I’m just over half way towards my target for fund-raising and any further donation would be really appreciated.
The winner of the banana light will be announced on Friday 11th March!
Enter the prize draw here
Here are my five favourite artists taking part:
Justine Ellison
Instagram @justineallisonceramics
Andrew Walker
Instagram @andrewwalker.ceramics
Sarah Cemmick Linocuts
Instagram @sarahcemmicklinocuts
LDM Design
Instagram @ldmdesign
Folded forest
@folded_forest
Click here to view the event and the other artists taking part!
Thank you for reading and don’t forget to check my website on the weekend of the 5th of March to help raise more money for The Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and sign up to my newsletter below to be the first to hear about exciting updates, new products and upcoming shows.
Meg x
Paperdolls Handmade 2021
My final craft fair of 2021 was Paperdolls in Birmingham. The venue was the The Custard Factory in Digbeth which was almost as amazing inside as Victoria Baths with its glass roof. This was probably my easiest fair of the year in terms of setup, installation and travelling (minus the heavy snow we’d had the day before), the organisers were also very organised which definitely helped! I do think though that I’m very slowly learning with each fair how to make the whole packing, showing and dismantling process simpler.
Unlike the other craft fairs I’ve taken part in, Paperdolls was a one day event, but definitely the busiest craft fair I’ve exhibited at so far. For Paperdolls I’d created a collection of Christmas decorations with it being held so close to Christmas. These were my best selling product! And people loved the tactility of the textures within them, something which I was really happy to hear.
There was a lovely atmosphere and all the other stall holders were really friendly, one of my favourite parts was that pets were allowed! I also did some final bits of Christmas shopping , so a really rewarding weekend overall!
I’d love to take part again next year.
Thank you for reading!
Meg x
Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair 2021
My second craft fair was October 2021 in Manchester at The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair. For 2021 they offered spaces to recent graduates who’d missed out on exhibitions as a result of the pandemic. This year it was based in Manchesters Victoria Baths, the most amazing building. Each gradate had a changing room to display their work in whilst paying exhibitors were situated in the pools with larger stands.
Just like I loved designing the layout for Art in Clay, I enjoyed creating the layout for Great Northern even more! However, on arrival the measurements we’d been given weren’t quite right which meant my dad and boyfriend had to cut sections out of my display to get it to fit. Not what we’d planned but eventually we got it in and I loved my final setup.
The Friday night was a private view night which was a lovely way to start the weekend and gave me chance to go and meet new makers and fellow designers from my uni course! Some of my favourite stands were the jewellery and textile stands, it was so nice to see such a wide range of artists work in one place. Over the weekend I got lots of valuable feedback from so many lovely people, I also sold some of my new planters which was really exciting! I’ve added in some pictures below of my uni friends stands:
Soyida Akhtar - @soyidaakhtardesign Amy Jackson - @jackson_ceramics Ross Mountford - @rossmountforddesigns
As much as I loved Great Northern, I’m going to go as a visitor this year rather than an exhibitor to give myself chance to exhibit at other fairs!
Thank you for reading!
Meg :)
Art in Clay 2021
Happy New Year! I’ve finally sat down to write up my second blog post all about my Art in Clay experience. As mentioned in my last post, I was lucky enough to win The Valentine Clays - Award for Excellence 2021, with the prize being a sponsored stand at Art in Clay in Windsor in August 2021.
After the initial excitement of winning the award I did start to get nervous, I’d only ever exhibited my work at uni for my degree show, and this time I was over 100 miles away from home, selling my work for the first time alongside lots of other very talented people. I was so thankful when I was put into contact with a group of MA students from my uni who’d graduated the previous year that were also taking part in Art in Clay. They were all so helpful from the planning the layout of our stand to just being lovely, supportive people.
As much as making the ceramics should have been my favourite part of getting ready for Art in Clay, I loved designing the packaging for my work for the first time and deciding on the colours and layout of my stand. This was even more rewarding when positioned with the MA students stands to see how each of us had used the spaces differently.
We arrived to set up on Thursday which gave me chance to meet up with the MA students, Karen, Emma and Serena and the people setting up their stands around us! We were lucky enough to be positioned right next to Peter White and George Ormerod, both of whom I chatted to each day about ceramics and sales. As expected I ended up buying 2 black and white stripe pots form George that I now use everyday! The weather was sunny all weekend which meant that for the Saturday night awards, all of the exhibitors could sit outside in the sun for food and drinks, this was one of my favourite memories of the weekend. By Sunday as much as I was tired from such a busy weekend I was so sad to leave behind all of the people I’d met and been so close to for the last four days. I still keep on contact with them and find it so inspiring to follow their journeys.
I hope to visit Art in Clay again this summer, hopefully as an exhibitor but if not just to view this years selected ceramic artists.
Over my next few blog posts I’m going to write about each fair I attended in 2021, next up will be The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in Manchester.
Thank you for reading!
Meg x
Degree Show 2021
Degree Show 2021
I’ve been wanting to start a blog for the last few months but never knew where to start. So I decided my first post should be where my little business started with my end of uni degree show! I’ve always wanted to have my own business since running a jewellery business with my friend in high school, and the end of uni and my degree show was the perfect time to start.
I’m going to start by talking about my final year collection. This collection consisted of lights and planters which were informed by over 170 testers that I made during my final three semesters at uni. Waste materials were the theme of my final collection and each of these testers was used to see how waste materials reacted to being placed into ceramics and fired. After picking out my favourite outcomes, I then designed planters and lights to compliment the textures created in my testers by the waste materials.
The run up to degree show and my final 2 years at uni was always very uncertain given the pandemic, however, finding out that the plan was to have an in person degree show really helped motivate me throughout the final few months of my degree. Our degree show opened on Monday the 7th of June and getting to see and show my work alongside my course mates to family, friends and industry was so rewarding.
As a result of our degree show, I was lucky enough to win two awards: The Valentine Clays - Award for Excellence 2021 1st Prize and the Potclays Graduate Award 2021. The prize for the Valentine Clays award was a sponsored stand at Art in Clay in Windsor that summer. This was such an exciting opportunity and one that will be the topic of my next blog post!
Having my first craft fair lined up during my degree show week was really exciting and gave me something to focus on with uni coming to an end. This was also my first business opportunity! Around the same time as degree show, I found out that I’d been successful in my application to take part in Staffordshire University’s BeInspired programme, which provides mentoring and funding to start up businesses. This paired with Art in Clay put me in such a good position to start my business.
I’m aiming to write a blog post each month with a little round up of what’s been happening and any exciting updates such as new stock, discounts, and upcoming shows, if you want to be the first to hear, please sign up to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!
Thank you for reading!
Meg :)