Category: Professional Practice Year 3

I found working out the pricing a little tricky for my pieces as it was hard to realistically work out the time it took me and the amount of paper used to make each for. All I know is it was a lot. I also wanted to be conscious of my place as a newly established artist/ soon to be graduate and have my prices reflect that. Although the price reflects the length of time they took to make the initial raw materials were fairly cheap. The total cost for the five forms worked out to be Rounded retail price of £2,060

Moving Forward beyond uni, I wanted to start to think of ways I can progress in my professionalism as well as find opportunities that align with my skills, interests and values as a maker.

I have always been interested in running my own paper making workshops, but lack the experience to be able to do this. The best place for me to start is to attend one to understand what is involved and how it is run. after doing this there is potential for me to contact my previous college or art foundation ( Peter symonds and Barton Peveril in Hampshire) to arrange a paper making class as they do not currently run these is either, and I formed good relationships with my previous tutors. This would not only be a good way to create contacts with the art departments in both. It would be good for me to gain the experience for my CV.

To progress my paper making skills and find opportunities for myself, I want to reach out to a prominent artist inspiration from my project, Jane Ponsford. She seemingly has very close values to mine, working from location and using natural materials and this could be a very valuable opportunity for me to gain knowledge of working alongside an artist and finding out what is involved. she also runs paper making classes at west dean college so could be a good opportunity. I have put together an email explaining myself as a new graduate, my interests and why I am looking for help.

Paper making is currently a red list craft and this could potentially be an interesting route to explore as a project. If I were to do this I would contact HCA Heritage Crafts Association.

These are some of the artist that took my inspiration from during my project. I wanted to do some research regarding who they were represented by and the pricing of the work, I wanted to keep the research relevant so found artists who primarily use paper and paper making processes.

Although these artists fall within the higher price range, this is the field of work ( and pricing) that I would eventually like to sit within.

Currently my own pricing needs to be relevant and realistic to where I am as an emerging graduate. I don’t expect to be selling my work for the prices shown above, although the price of my work isn’t necessarily in the cost of materials. The cost comes from the labour intensive paper making processes of the work, reflecting on time taken and amounts of paper needed to make the forms. the first set of costings were based on limited Equipment. these frames were not really adequate for this project as they could not keep up with the demand. and I got through 3 cheaper frames as they warped and bucked after repeated use.

As a result I purchased and invested in more professional Equipment, buying three different sized mould and deckles and papermaking felts. Not only will this be beneficial for me long term, in the short term the actual process of making the paper speed up drastically making the process a lot faster and inevitably cheaper and the price is better reflected on my experience and stage in my career.

In order to make myself unique, show my creative flare and stand out I decided to make my own typeface in, this is not something I have ever done but it was recommended to me to use calligrapher. I wanted a text that would be legible and easy to read as well as unique and hand written as I think this suits my style of working and represents me. This was surprisingly easy to edit and add to my desktop so that it can be types like normal using any program.

This is how the text looks when it is written

This is something I would like to use to be consistent in my work and in my presentations and my book as I believe it adds to my professionalism and makes me stand out from the crowd.

Found on Craft council England

(https://www.artsjobs.org.uk/arts-job/post/artist-in-residence-paper-artist/)

This is an opportunity for the 21st of june for 3 days teaching paper and paper sculpture workshops to children at Eaton Square School. This directly adheres to my skill set and would be something I would be very interesting in experiencing. I have a ambition to run workshops and this would be an extremely valuable experience . The advertised job closes on the 10th may. This would give me a chance to take lead on a workshop as well as develop my own skills in teaching others. I do feel I don’t have enough experience to undertake this but I don’t want to rule it out and it is something that is worth applying for to me.

The national trust offers opportunities to artists for residencies to use the National trusts heritage and landscape for inspiration for their work.

This would be something I would be interested in pursuing as an end goal. Having the availability of natural inspiration, a place to collect and forage materials and reflect. from what I can see they only usually except established artists so this would be something to aim for after the initial 5 years. this would also be a great opportunity to widen my inspiration beyond locally.

The National trust looks to be connected to arts council England and Currently offers commissions and residencies for a number of their properties. They are currently advertising the Holy Island of Lindisfarne for an artist residency. This shuts this year, although I am not in the position to apply yet, it is interesting to see how often these get offered up and the variety of locations they offer.

From what I can see, they like the artists to have work that is inspired by nature, developing and widening their process, working from site. I have found a previous application PDF document for a residency for Quarry Bank, Wilmslow, Cheshire. Explaining the selection process and the opportunity. Although I would not be interested in this residency it is helpful for me to see the application process.

This is interesting to see what is required for application, they state on their website that they take any artist at a professional stage of their career, although this could potentially be me after graduation I think it would be something I would get more benefit from when I have settled into my practice further.

It is beneficial to know the funds and what is covered in the residency, an artist fee, travel and material costs. It also states in the document you get given a 3 bedroom apartment form the duration of the residency.

In order for my work to be seen by the right people, I need to be making very specific hashtags. I looked at artists and paper makers I follow, especially the more successful ones to identify who they target through social media and how, do they use photos or videos?

I recently created an art instagram account and I intend for this to be a professional platform to blog what I am doing and what I am creating. I’m not the most confident person with social media, so for me this will be trial and error. I am hoping to use consistency through having a website, pinterest and instagram account that people can recognise me through all platforms.

During professional practice Ingrid mentioned that you should be making your hashtags so that the right people see then e.g where you want your work, rather than what your work is.