flow gallery

Festive Pinecone Brooches

2011-12-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

New in!

Pinecone brooches and Abacus pins..perfect festive gifts!

Best wishes for the Festive Season from flow

flow will be closed between the 24 December - 3 January

2011-12-08T06:16:00.000-08:00

We are open late tonight!

flow will be a part of Notting Hill Late Night Shopping evening

Please join us for drinks and nibbles and to see our Wood show ...We are open till 8 PM.

2011-11-05T05:21:00.000-07:00

Showing next at flow...

COVERED
beauty and art in contmporary bookbinding
8-14 November 2011

On Repeat

2011-10-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

The photographer Sylvain Deleu came to the gallery to photograph Stine Jesperson's work. Here is a lovely image of our show 'On Repeat' !

SANTA FE SOFA

2011-08-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

Somehow even doing a trade show in Santa Fe is relaxing. Is it the effect of soft adobe architecture of the convention centre or the open and friendly and relaxed atmosphere of the locals? So lovely to meet new collectors who invite you on the first meeting to see their collections. So will be delivering the work sold to the local collators in person! I hope there are lots of deliveries as at the astronomical shipping costs we do not want to ship much back. Humming birds everywhere!

SANTA FE SOFA

2011-08-05T07:40:00.001-07:00

The Best Bits at Flow Gallery (in my opinion!)

2011-07-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

Ciara Bowles, Jewellery Design Student

Coming to be an assistant at a gallery like Flow, to a wide-eyed young designer, is like being a child in a sweet shop. Although as I have been working at Flow for the past two weeks, progressively certain objects have been becoming more and more successful in getting my attention, twinkling out amongst the array of beautiful objects affirming themselves as my favourites. My selection of artists’ works will no doubt express my love of complex details, pattern and bold colours, but to judge whether I am right or not you will most definitely have to come to Flow and take a look for yourselves!

Amy Jayne Hughes

Part of the current ‘Blue’ show at Flow, I think Amy’s two blue vessels are fantastic. The general shape and colours used on the ceramic are everything you recognise from traditional French ceramics, but the texture of the surface and the illustrations of the patterns and details that might once have been bring them right up to date.

Mia E Göransson

It is the simplicity and the colour in Mia’s porcelain vessels that I love. The geometric centrifugal parts are contradicted by the thin rough edges and the cast elements of nature that appear only for decoration, and a sense of serenity and innocence in created by the texture of the porcelain fragility of the objects.

Bruce Nuske

Bruce Nuske’s teapots are stunning. The beautiful floral patterns covering the surfaces are there to celebrate nature. My favourite is the black and white, in which you can see the attention to detail and the intricate patterns that the artist strives for. Purely decorative, gorgeous objects. Fabulous.

Carola Bauer

Carola’s work thrills me because of its ability to appear simple but be so complex at the same time. I have found myself spending ages trying to work out how she constructs these beautiful liking chains, creating a beautiful infinite looping aesthetic.

Tania Clarke Hall

Leather is Tania’s material of choice because of its versatility. These fun earrings intrigued me at first, I picked them up, and they sprung to life quite literally and now I have fallen in love with them!

NEW IN! Glass Platters by Edmond Byrne

2011-07-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

Trip to Venice Biennale

2011-07-01T04:47:00.000-07:00

‘Glasstress’ exhibition 2011

This contemporary art exhibition is set in a disused glass blowing workshop. Major, international artists explore their creativity trough the medium of glass, expressing the limitless potential of GLASS!

‘The theme of this year’s exhibition is the complex relationship that ties art, design and architecture together in an age thought to have moved beyond modernism. Comparing the opinions of various curators, Glasstress addresses this issue through glass sculptures specially made by major artists on the contemporary scene and through objects and sculptures made by designers, whose research was influenced by the formal aspect of the use of the object’.

The tranquility of Pembrokshire

2011-06-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

Have recently discovered a book by a Welsh photographer, David Wilson on my favourite part of Wales - Pembrokshire. I am spending a weekend getting to know the Welsh Ramblers Association and their walks.After a very busy opening of our Blue show being here is quite a contrast. David's photographs capture the mysterious character of this wonderful landscape. Check out the Grove Hotel in Narbeth! Amazing food.

Collect 2011

2011-05-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

Great to be meeting up with all our friends, artists and collectos at the Saatchi Gallery. Two more days left so hurry if you have not been yet. There is some great work from all over the world.

Fashion shoot by Gayeon Lee at flow

2011-01-13T09:53:00.000-08:00

Wonderful to some some activity in the gallery. More fashion shoots please!

2010-12-03T07:32:00.000-08:00

Kota Fukunaga jugs and vessels new in!

A fresh take on the ancient Japanese art of Birch Vessels. These beautiful vessels are can be functional pieces as water jugs or ice buckets. They utilize new techniques while still retaining a traditional Japanese feel. All the materials were sourced locally by the artist in Hokkaido and this is reflected in the finished piece.

The Darkroom

2010-12-02T01:39:00.000-08:00

Discovered a fantastic concept store last week in Lamb Conduit Street. Bought a wonderful hat by a German designer from Berlin, Rike Feurstein. Certainly keeping me warm in this weather. So if you don't find what you need or want at flow do pop into the http://www.darkroomlondon.com/ for your Christmas shopping. I hear they are also at Bon Marche in Paris!

Lizzie Farey ar City Art Gallery, Edinburgh

2010-11-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

Just got back from Lizzie's wonderful show at the City Gallery in Edinburgh. Looks like everything has grown in scale! The work we had at Collect this year trebbled in size and I think Lizzie should do large corporate or hotel commissions! I also enjoyed the handmade truffles from Castle Douglas!

Going Dutch!

2010-11-20T07:50:00.000-08:00

flow is Going Dutch on the 13th January – 5th March 2011

Our next exhibition looks at makers and designers using materials in an exciting and subversive way. Giving the objects they produce playfulness and originality typical to Dutch design.

We are really excited about our forthcoming exhibition at flow. We have been deciding on what colours for

Christien Meindertsma's wonderful Urchin poufs.

The exhibition highlights the strong connections between a makers lifestyle, culture and surroundings. We wanted to show you a a few of their beautiful homes. Enjoy!

Maxime Ansiau

Marian Bijlenga

Margo Slingerland

Kayo Saito Jewellery

2010-11-19T08:23:00.000-08:00

Kayo Saito’s special Christmas Jewellery showcase

Kayo Saito, will be showcasing her new work at flow

from 11th November 2010 – 8th January 2011.

Saito’s work is closely linked to nature and the environment: Organic forms, rustling sounds and swaying movements. Through carefully selected materials and subtle sculptural forms, she creates beautiful jewellery of unequal delicacy and sophistication. Saito studied metal work in Japan and later obtained her master’s degree at the Royal College of Art. Her jewellery is represented internationally, in Europe, the US and Japan.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

2010-11-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

Seem to be spending quite a lot of time in Birmingham these days and loved the new show Queering the Museum there. It opens today and runs till 30 January. This is what Matt Smith says about the show he curated: "There is a need to collect, to collate and to curate. Collections attempt to impose order on the world – to define, catalogue and differentiate. Museums are complicit – deciding what society deems valuable enough to preserve, which objects should explain our lives to future generations.

Now and again it is refreshing to stop trying to impose order and let random chance take over – letting fleeting ideas and day dreams collide. The objects on show are mementoes of these random coincidences, pinned down like butterflies or photographs and preserving their memories. They are curated without care for others’ definitions. They are modern day reliquaries holding fragments of the current, soon to be the past."www.matt.jsmith.com

Whilst visiting the Birmingham Museum you must see another show, Routes to Revolution which features the work of refugee and newly arrived women from diverse cultural backgrounds as part of a partnership project between Craftspace and Community Integration Partnership. Routes to Revolution is a start of a craft social enterprise which will enable the women to develop new craft skills through collaborations with different makers and provide a source of income for them. I was delighted to be asked to be involved in this project.

Paris

2010-10-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

The highlight of this month has certainly been my visit to Merci www.merci-merci.com in Paris. Quite an inspiration. I love the cafe with delicious coffee at the entrance lined with old books which are for sale too. Really buzzy atmosphere. And the shop assistants were so helpful! In the fashion department they did not mind dealing with more voluptuous figures which was a relief after a few Parisian shops told us that they only dealt with European sizes and not British or American!!!

London Design Festival in September

2010-10-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

My favorite installation/event during the London Design Festival in September was created by http://www.studiotoogood.com/ in the Brompton Quarter. Brought back all those memories of getting up at 6 am during my summer holidays so that my grandmother would show me the best place for chanterelles and ceps in the local forest. I am not sure why such an early start was necessary!

Summer holiday

2010-08-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

flow will be closing today until 1 September. For anyone heading for New York I recommend the Bamboo installation on the terrace of the Metropolitan Museum. What a wonderful structure.
I also loved the ceramic show by Shio Kusaka at http://www.antonkerngallery.com/ The artist has created a wonderful installation comprising 100 pots inspired by late Bronze age, Yayoi period and ancient Egypt but all fabulously contemporary in appearance. Seems to be quite a trend now for fine art galleries showing ceramics.

Summer exhibitions

2010-07-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

It seems that all my continental colleagues have packed up their city galleries and set up pop up galleries in castles and chateaux and festivals. I am determined to do the same next year and looking for an interesting place somewhere near the seaside preferably! So please call me if you know of a nice exhibition space near the beach and I shall come and leave steamy hot London and encourage holiday makers to fall in love with crafts! Off to Belfast for the Craft Month next week, then New York for the Handmade show and finally Pembrokshire for the beach. Guess where this is.

June

2010-07-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

1st prize Jess Zimmer Hansel

2nd prize Ewa Orzechowska 3rd prize Year 4, Park Walk primary school

flow has been sponsoring Leighton House Schools Art competition for the last 10 years awarding prizes to the best craft submissions from the Borough. This year we were delighted to award prizes to pupils working in 3 different media.

May

2010-07-05T03:23:00.000-07:00

May saw the opening of Alison Crowther's, Gary Breeze's and Sue Halls's show of Crafts for the Garden. I sometimes wish I had a garden on the top of the gallery for these types of shows. The work looks stunning in the gallery. Alison's image is by Jacqui Hurst.Interesting article by Liz Hoggard in the Independant on 27 May about the use of Craftmanship in big brand marketing. So do read Reweaving the morality of Fashion.At last Craft is cool!

What happened to April?

2010-05-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how quickly the whole of April has whizzed by. On the last day of the month I visited Bilston Gallery in Wolverhampton ( http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/) featuring a wonderful exhibition earth/atmosphere of Seiko Kinoshita's textiles and Salima Cassell's ceramics within the shape of things initiative supported by the arts council. The museums and art galleries taking part in this programme demonstrate that contempoary craft has a distinctive contribution to make to our cultural identity and heritage in Britian's diverse and intercultural society. There are in total nine artists taking part in this exciting programme throughout the country. Bristol Museum launched the programme in February 2010 with Rosa Nguyen's and Alinah Azadeh's installations. flow will be opening the shape of things exhibition in september with all the selected artists'work.

An exciting month

2010-03-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

Just come back from a wonderful Arts Council sponsored trip to Brazil. Apart from looking at art, design, architecture and crafts in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte we have had the opportunity to talk Craft with the best curators in the country! In fact on the last day someone said that they would prefer to go to a football match rather than see another art gallery! I think we all suffered from cultural overload.We hope to organise exhibitions or seminars on what we have discovered. Our itinerary was pretty full with some meetings still taking place at 10.30 at night. So there is much to absorb and process. Here some photos of the highlights!

Paperworks at Devon Guild

2010-02-22T00:31:00.001-08:00

The New Year started with the opening of one of flow's shows - Paperworks at Devon Guild ( http://www.crafts.org.uk/ ). I really enjoyed working with such a professional organisation with such a beautiful gallery space. The show was slightly enlarged for the new space and it looked really wonderful in the spacious gallery. The objects had more space to breathe and the curved wall proved a great backdrop to Claire Brewster's Bird Installation. The snow blizzards reported in the news at the beginning of January made me slightly nervous about driving to Devon and on the way back I experienced one myself! It certainly cramped my driving style but at least prevented me from getting more points for speeding! I stayed in am amazing B&B run by Rosie an artist who is also a member of Devon Guild and would highly recommend it.

Amsterdam

2009-10-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

Just returned from a research trip to Amsterdam and a few other places in Holland including Eindhoven where I was a student many decades ago! It is home to Design Festival in October. Found lots of interesting work at the Eindhoven Design Academy so hopefully flow will feature a Dutch Design Show soon. One of my favorite places was Frozen Fountain in Amsterdam, where I finally succumbed to a Hella Jongerious pot painted with red car paint! Henk Wolvers and his wife Irene were wonderful hosts and amazing chefs! I think good design and good food seem to go together. I always manage to stay during my business trips in amazing places. Henk's and Irene's garden room this time and last autumn a summer house on the beach in Bornholm which belonged to one of the Danish curators. It was such a privilege to be accompanied by Marian Unger on the first day of the trip. She is so inspiring. One of flow artists Berdien Nieuwenhuizen took us around Eindhoven shows. We had lunch in a machine room of an old Philips factory. The cutlery arrived in toolboxes!

Kilkenny Crafts Council tomorrow.

Flow's Birthday Party Celebrations

2009-10-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

For the last month we have been celebrating flow's 10th Birthday. It is amazing how quickly the ten years have gone. Fantastic to be receiving so many presents,flowers and macaroons from flow friends. More fun than my own birthday celebrations this year!

Continuing my pilgrimages to other cities of culture, I was really impressed with the exhibition, Slow Craft curated by Helen Carnac for the Birmingham Museum (http://www.bmag.org.uk/) and Craft Space( http://www.craftspace.co.uk/). I had a sneak preview this week and loved the space where the exhibition is installed. Also loved the new Selfridges designed by Future Systems. What more do you need Art, Culture and Shopping!

Gormley Men on Crosby Beach

2009-10-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

After flow's 10th Birthday Party I took some time off to visit a friend running the Bluecoat Display Centre(http://www.bluecoatdisplaycentre.com/) in Liverpool. Saw a fantastic exhibition of Australian Jewellery at Bluecoat and spend Saturday morning on Crosby Beach. The 100 bronze figures on the beach are truly amazing! A bit of blue sky would have helped the pictures though. We did most of the sights in one day! Tate Liverpool(www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions) had a great show featuring sculptures of the human body which one had to view with free headphones listening to eighties music. Everyone was dancing around the sculptures! There were even silver mirror balls and a dance floor. All the kids had so much fun. I love the area around Hope Street and the hotel opposite the art deco concert hall/cinema with the two cathedrals at each end. Sadly the Walker was closed for Health and Safety reasons so could not see the Bridget Riley show.

Workshops

2009-09-15T10:52:00.001-07:00

We have starting running wokshops during our Paper Works show for anyone interested in having fun with paper. I have also realised how difficult it is to produce the work that is any good. When I tried my hand at ceramics. I really enjoyed the making but the results of my efforts were only appreciated by my mother. When I tried basket making in Wales my ex-husband promptly lit a fire and burnt all the willow vessels. They did burn well in the wood burning stove! So I think I will stick to selling crafts rather than making them. You need real talent for that!

In the first workshop we produced paper dioramas under Lizzie Thomas' direction.

There were some prominent artists in the second Paper Jewellery workshop ( Mary Butcher who is V&A's artist in residence at the moment- www.vam.ac.uk) who produced wonderful work. Michelle Holden's whose paper and texile jewllery we have been selling for a while at flow enthused us to make several brooches in a three hour session.

Arty Outings

2009-08-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

Having missed out on proper art education ( my parents encouraged me to study Business Admin!), I am always eager to learn more. So in the last year or so I have started arranging arty outings with my friends. We have done Henry Moore at Much Hadham, Stanley Spencer at Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere. A journalist friend, mentioned it to her editor and was asked to write an article for the Evening Standard on some new arty outings.I was in my element researching all the places we could go to. And this time we were acompanied by a lovely photographer Rebbecca Reid who took the photos.

So here is what Liz Hoggard of the Evening Standard writes on our latest outing to the de la Warr Pavillion in Bexhill on Sea and Charleston:

Something happens to women in their 40s. You start planning road trips with your female friends. Blame Thelma & Louise, but there's something exhilerating about just taking off for the day - and escaping real life. Yvonna my gallerist friend is the catalyst. She is a one-woman tornado. Every day she finds a new exhibition, stately home, museum, beach, garden, Garde II-listed graveyard "that we simply must visit, it's only an hour from London". Yawning, I idlely agree. Never expecting to have to put it into action.
But here we are on Saturday morning again, car packed, maps printed off, a copy of Pevsner in the boot. Marion (McGilvary), the novelist, and I are still brushing the sleep out of our eyes (it is indecently early), but Y is raring to go. "Maybe we'll meet three nice single men like us," she observes. "Christ, I hope not," says Marion tartly. "Any single man who plans day trips with his male friends would be a complete tosser. Besides I don't want to meet someone like me. I've had quite enough of me."
She has a point. Arty roadtrips are girl heaven. Men don't quite get it. Too much planning probably. The aim is to try and do at least two national treasures in a day (preferably in the same county). You need the right "guilty pleasures" soundtrack (James Blunt, Damien Rice, Dolly Parton... though we do have to keep Y off the Leonard Cohen).
You book somewhere lovely for lunch ( the museum will recommend a Michelin-starred joint). And then on the way home there's a garden centre.

Yvonna and I were in raptures about the Pavilion - a great big sexy spiral of a building overlooking dazzling blue sea. Sitting on the balcony, drinking wine under the bright sun, was a moment of pure happiness. It's the first ever place in Britain to have mixed bathing. So I like to think it's quite radical, even though the grey rinse brigade are out in force today.
It's important to dress up for a day trip to the coast, as only Londoners can. Marion says we should be sponsored by L K Bennett as we're working the Mother of the Bride look in our frocks (it's true, the unkind East European shop assistant actually asked me 'when's the wedding?'). Meanwhile Yvonna has brought two outfits so she can change if we meet those mythical men.
After lunch we motor on to Charleston, where our wardrobe (and voices) are a bit too loud for the genteel guides. We admire the painted furniture (and sexual morals) of the Bloomsbury set. Then drive over to nearby St. Peter's Church in West Firle - with murals by Vanessa Bell and her gay lover, Duncan Grant (who are both buried in the churchyard)'Isn't it lovely,' breathed Yvonna with a dreamy smile on her face. "Why don't we all buy a house in the country and have an art's commune where we spend our days block printing and painting. We could all cook together and be surrounded by nature."Marion and I exchange horrified glances. I fear the country full-stop. "Nothing short of an open marriage is going to get me to settle down in the bosom of the countryside or a commune of arty women," Marion insists.
But actually next weekend is Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, followed by Goodwood Sculpture Park. We're very excited about the idea of Field & Fork, the restaurant at Pallant (run by a former executive chef at Kensington Place). And, yes, there's a bloody garden centre on the way home. So I'm not writing off the idea of the commune yet.

Visit to Antwerp

2009-07-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

Have not been to Antwerp since my student days when I worked at Phillips in Eindhoven. Antwerp was a lovely escape at weekends from Phillipsville. It is still a very stylish city with a fab Museum of Fashion which strangely enough had a Paper Fashion exhibition on. It was great to see it just a few days before the opening of Paper Works at flow. There must be some paper zeitgeist happening as the Museum of Art and Design ( http://www.madmuseum.org/ ) in New York is also having a Paper Show in September. I had a fantastic guide in Antwerp, Sofie Lachaert (http://www.lachaert.com/) whose gallery I have been admiring for years. She also runs a great B&B next to the gallery. It was a very inspiring stay which will hopefully culminate in a new project between flow and sofie lachaert's gallery in the future. The gallery space is truly wonderful and uplifting. To be surrounded by so much beauty and purity of line can be a very spiritual and deeply moving experience.

Welsh weekend

2009-07-26T11:53:00.000-07:00

Went to the opening of the Wood Show at Oriel Myrrdin (http://www.orielmyrddingallery.co.uk)in/ Carmarthern on the 11 July. I love wood. Managed to persuade a few fellow craft curators and one journalist to visit this remote part of Wales. We all had such fun! Still dreaming of a craft commune with galleries, workshops, cafes and beautifully crafted B&B accomodation for craft lovers. The highlight, however, was First Leaf salad. My neighbour in Brynberian runs a company producing edible flowers and micro salad leaves - www.firstleaf.co.uk. Delicious.

Installing a new commission

2009-06-26T02:20:00.000-07:00

The highlight of my week has been the installation of Alison Crowther's sculpture in the most beautiful private garden I have visited. The design, planting schemes and colours were amazing in June as well as the scent of the roses. I could not tear myself away from smelling each rose in turn as we walked through the garden. It took eight men to install the bench which probably weighed over a third of a tonne and it was a spectacle seeing it placed on site. Alison created a wonderful sculpture which fitted so well into the space. The carving on the oak was so fluid and accomplished. One could not help touching and stroking it.

Missing Banksy

2009-06-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Some two weeks ago our Banksy Rat was chipped away. All we have now on our party wall is a horrible hole. Maybe it was shipped off to the Bristol Museum for the show and will make a come back one day. We are missing you.

Land Marks Opening

2009-06-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

Land Marks opened over a month ago and has generated a lot of interest amongst our collectors. There seems to be a Danish theme running through at art galleries this summer with Tate Modern showing Per Kirkeby http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/perkirkeby and GVArt showing another Danish artist, Ina Rosing, http://www.gvart.co.uk/ina_rosing.html

Post Collect

2009-05-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

Have just unpacked the last box from Collect, the art show we have just done at the Saatchi Gallery (www.craftsccouncil.org.uk/collect). We had such a wonderful time in such beautiful surroundings ( http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/) only marred by a burglary at flow. So much damage just to steal a laptop! Having dealt with the police, insurance company and glaziers we are now enjoying our first quiet moment listening to Jan Garbarek. The lake that features on the picture is somewhere I would like to be at this very moment! I wonder if anyone can guess where it is. The Danish Show, Land Marks is continuing to do well after the intial opening was televised by the Danish TV.

Guest writer's impressions of the current show

2009-05-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

And so to flow for the annual contemporary bookbinding exhibition. Working in the arts - where everything is begged, borrowed and apologised for (no one has any money, these days), it's frankly lovely to meet people who are obsessive about their art form. And who have no embarrassment about investing in tomorrow's heirlooms. You can smell money as you come through the gallery door. Not silly money. Just passion. Prices range from £50 for a simple embossed leather notebook to £4000 for a finely bound Private Press book.And Covered teaches us that a book - that traditional literary structure - can be anything: a landscape, a picnic basket, a concertina-ed snake, a jewellery box embellished with silver and moonstones. With over seventy works by fifty binders, the exhibition showcases the best work from bookbinders across the UK. Organisers of the show, Designer Bookbinders, are a society devoted to the design and craft of hand bookbinding. And they definitely have their groupies. There are rumours of sealed bids and silent auctions. Several of the pieces were bought by anonymous fans before the show even opened.I rather admire the book binding crowd. Unlike most people attending chic-chi events in the applied arts, they aren't overly dressy. No doubt there are too many scarves and interesting necklaces and bird's nest hairstyles for the minimalist set. But the binders drink like fish, are hugely knowledgeable and enthusiastic. For once you can relax, people watch - and gasp as the serious fans get on with the bidding. Gallery owner, Yvonna, the serene presence behind the whole shindig, makes sure wine glasses are topped up, and everyone has access to the interesting men. Things can get slightly rowdy. There's a smell of unwashed vellum in the air. But you know, it's one of the friendliest events in the arts calendar. Liz Hoggard/Evening Standard

Craft in action

2009-05-01T04:28:00.000-07:00

When you visit our current show of bookbindings you may see one of the artists in full action. Not book binding but knitting a hose! We have found Paul Henry such inspiration that we are planning to run craft workshops at flow during our paper show, Paperworks.

Covered

2009-04-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

Two new shows opening in the space of two weeks! Covered is in its fourth edition featuring the most amazing bookbindings by the leading lights in the bookbinding world. There are nearly 100 exhibits on show and a large proportion of them sold on the first night. Bidding by phone and in strict rotation! I dont think Sothebys have such a fair and well organised system. I think it must have been invented after I had sold all the best bookbindings to one person in the first year not really understanding the real demand for the limited output of some artists' work. Now I keep my actitivies during this show to operating the credit card machine and taking the empties to the bottle bank(after the largest private views that flow has ever had). In spite of the recession collectors are still buying books. How wonderful that their support for the arts has not diminished in their enthusiasm or patronage. I have recently written a letter in response to an article in the Daily Telegraph when one of the most passionate collectors of crafts was described as a footballer's wife because she commissioned contemporary makers to furnish her new house in the most tasteful manner. I wish the crafts world had more people like her!

The next show, Land Marks opening on the 12th May will be televised by one of the Danish TV Stations as it features crafts from Bornholm. I visited Bornholm last Summer at the invitation of the Danish Embassy in London and the Association of Bornholm artists. It is a truly beautiful island and the crafts on show reflect this. There is a large concentration of art and craft workshops on the island. This exhibition of seven artists using a variety of materials, and techniques to achieve simplicity of form and harmony. Working with mostly natural decorative elements and ideas of fluidity and light in ceramics and glass, the exhibition reflects the artists' preoccupations with their immediate surroundings.

Scandinavian Day!

2009-04-01T07:29:00.000-07:00

In spite of the French Exhibition being shown in the main gallery space, everyone seems to be interested in Finnish and Swedish artists today! Is it because of the Spring like weather and their inspiration from Nature. So Mia E Goransson is the favorite today. I must say I do have some of her work at home myself. Ther other popular artist today is Maria Jauhiainen who creates Lehti. One of the YBA's bought it today for their collection.

also known as jewellery

2009-03-31T09:36:00.000-07:00

also known as jewellery has been an eye opener! What amazing range of jewellery in this show curated by Ben Lignel and Christian Alandete. Our customers are surprised to see such edgy jewellery in so many new materials from France. I suppose we all expected a lot of gold and silver and big stones being used to seeing mainly fashion French jewellery here. The show is going to Alternatives Gallery in Rome next and then to Velvet da Vinci in San Francisco but without one item of jewellery by emmanuel lacoste which emanated too much of an odour and had to be sent back to France. The silicone necklace was full of decomposing food which attracted too many negative comments from the customers and made me feel slightly queasy.

First Craft Workshop March 2009

2009-03-31T09:07:00.001-07:00

What a busy month it has been! I have given the first craft workshop in my life and greatly enjoyed it. It was for a group of street kids in Phnom Phen is Cambodia in a school when my youngest son was teaching in his gap year. The school is run by The Indochina Starfish Foundation and does a great job for the least privileged part of society. Provides education and a way out of poverty for children who used to survive by collecting rubbish. They get a fantastic education now, free food and medical service. My workshop consisted of showing 8-10 year olds on how to stitch and embroider little heart cushions donated by The Little Experience Company, on of my exhibitors in New York. Julie Arkell, one of flow gallery artists donated tons of embroidery thread and plenty of advice and a book of instructions. It was a wonderful experience to see the kids having such fun and being so grateful for such a small thing. I had never had so many hugs in my life in one afternoon. Worth going all the way to Cambodia just to see those wonderful smiles! Cambodia was not all fun. Visiting the Killing Fields and the notorious prison where Khmer Rouge used to torture their victims was a deeply moving experience.