What Are We Like

This is to be a very quick post as this exhibition finishes tomorrow!

Held in the Northlight Gallery in Stromness, Cary Welling (the gallery owner) has brought together

 `a collection of artworks that challenges the simple dictionary definition of a portrait as a likeness of a person; it includes a range of approaches to portraiture, from the straightforward (but difficult) attempts to capture a likeness in pencil, charcoal, paint or photography to abstract representations of person, family or state of mind.`

Overview of exhibition

Second from right is my intaglio plate family portrait (2016)

On the left is a self-portrait made using perspex, pins & monofilament.

Each `portrait` was unique in it`s own special way with the artists using 

various techniques to capture the `essence` of the people being portrayed.

There are to many works and artists for me to name individually so I have 

chosen a few that I particularly liked.........

Deanie Welling, self-portrait.
`Out of the bag`, monoprint.

Tom O`Brien , `Organ Maker`
Gum bichromate.

If you have a few moments this afternoon, tonight or tomorrow,

I highly recommend you pop along and see this show!!

Maeshowe Jewellery Competition

To celebrate the Year of Architecture, Innovation and Design, Historic Scotland in collaboration 

with Ortak Jewellery announced an exciting competition to design a range of jewellery 

that reflected the history and mystery of Maeshowe, a 5000 year old tomb set in the 

Heart of  Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site.
It was available to all creative students across Scotland with the winning design
being manufactured by Ortak, to then go on sale at both Edinburgh Castle and Skara Brae. 

My story starts back in May when I picked up an entry form from a canteen table at Orkney College, little did I know then that I`d become the over all winner of this fantastic competition and

have my designs transformed from sketches on paper into beautiful pieces of jewellery.

Summary of my design process to jewellery production!

The project brief given by HES & Ortak was to design a contemporary but commercial range

 of jewellery using key themes such as but not limited to, Neolithic life, Viking runes or

 the Winter Solstice. The aim to reflect Maeshowe and it`s themes in a design which could include a necklace, earrings, ring and bracelet. The format was for the designs to be illustrated or sketched, and presented alongside a 500 word document detailing your inspiration and vision for the range as well as documenting your creative process.

Research and inspiration

Maeshowe is an iconic structure within the Orkney landscape and is illustrative of Neolithic society`s belief system and world views through it`s architectural form, alignment with the mid winter sunset and its association with the other monuments with in the area.
I went to visit Maeshowe, to `get a feel` of the area, it made me aware that people going
there today have the same visual experience as those of the past and because Maeshowe has `stood the test of time` we can still observe the phenomenon of the winter solstice, a time that was special to the Neolithic so I centred my design round these concepts.

View  from top of MH  with surrounding landscape , in the background
is the Stones of Stenness and Brodgar. (my own image)

Ariel view of MH (image from The History Hub)
http://www.thehistoryhub.com/maeshowe-facts-pictures.htm

Winter solstice from inside MH (image by C.Tait)
http://www.maeshowe.co.uk/index.html

I also understood the importance of the Barnhouse Stone with it`s alignment to MH 

and introduced it into the design with a symbolic reference to the other monuments.

Barnhouse Stone looking towards MH (my own image)

Preliminary sketches

These are the initial sketches/notes and my way of visually exploring
the ideas/concepts of the final design.

Final design

After a number of weeks researching and doodling the finished design emerged with
a range of jewellery that consisted of a necklace, ring, bangle and 3 pairs of earrings
with the option to use oxidisation or enamel to enhance the design.

Drawing of oxidised necklace with Barnhouse Stone and jump ring fastener.
The jump ring had 12 points engraved to represent the calendar months.
The profile of pendant (bottom L) was to reflect the topography of landscape.

Example of  enamel earrings using elements from necklace. 

Suggested colourways to reflect the natural features
such as water, landscape and sunlight.

At the end of my entry form document, I made this statement "my design has been inspired by the circular form of Maeshowe, it`s status within the physical and symbolic landscape and their inextricable link with the winter solstice. The piece has layers of meaning that are the legacies of Neolithic Orkney which still can be experienced today. I see it as a piece to evoke the timeless relationship between then and now keeping alive the history of this wonderful landscape." and this basically sums up my inspiration and vision for the piece.

I emailed my submission to Historic Scotland and on the 4th of August, a panel of judges 

declared my design as the over all winner of the competition. Needless to say I was absolutely delighted and in September the process of transforming my sketches into actual jewellery began.......

The end result

Ortak made a fantastic job of interpreting my drawings 

to create these wonderful pieces of jewellery. 

Below is a small example of range with 11 pieces in total......

....and these will be available to buy from Edinburgh Castle, Skara Brae

 and on line from  Historic Scotland in early December 2016. 

As part of this incredible experience I worked with Historic Scotland`s communications team,

 these are the people who organise all the publicity surrounding the launch event.

This began in November with an article in HS members magazine.

And on the 21st of November an official news release was issued

 to the media and it went out live on HS web site. 

These are links to some of the web sites featuring the my design and it`s story

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/news/budding-designer-wins-jewellery-challenge/

http://www.orkneydesignercrafts.com/blog/orkney-designer-wins-jewellery-challenge

http://www.thenational.scot/business/14919041.Winning_jewellery_design_inspired_by_cairn/

http://www.jewelleryfocus.co.uk/18236-orkney-based-student-wins-jewellery-design-competition

http://www.jewellerymonthly.com/budding-designer-wins-jewellery-challenge/

http://diamond.gift/diamond_news/129847/orkney-based-student-wins-jewellery-design-competition/

http://travelprnews.com/historic-environment-scotland-orcadian-student-norna-sinclair-wins-maeshowe-jewellery-competition-536464664/travel-press-release/2016/11/22/

 I have also been amazed by the response from family, friends and well wishers.

A BIG thank you to everyone for the lovely comments made and I really appreciate those 

who have `liked & shared` me on Facebook, Twitter etc.

That just leaves me to say it`s been a real privilege to have experienced ALL this 

and I can`t wait for it to go on sale!!

Introducing MoTI

`Introducing MoTI` is the first exhibition to be held by this recently formed group of artists.

Together and with the backing of the National Creative Learning Network, they intend to 

provide one another with support and career development, post graduation.

The theme of the show is `time` and was chosen to reflect the transition from student to 

emerging artist with each of them approaching this subject in their own particular way.

Overview of gallery

Louise Barrington

`Mu-5`(2016)
These works are beautiful and capture the essence of movement and time.

Susan Boyd

`The Lodge at Germount`
Digitally manipulated images bringing new life to old discarded family photos.
There was 6 in total but this one caught my eye, it`s true
what they say `a picture can paint a 1000 words!`

Frances Scott

`75 hrs, 21 mins`
These digital prints record the time, distance and snapshots of 23 individual walks
taken by the artist over a 7 month period. These reminded me of Dan Lee`s
alternative mapping methods used during his `Map Orkney Month` last year!

Sigard Smith

`Fragmentation 1, Fragmentation Collection & Fragmentation IV`
These works reflect the free-flowing processes of memory, capturing an abstract
 moment in time relating to the Orkney landscape.

Mary Grieve

`Waiting`
Mary uses stop frame animation to document small human interactions
and enjoys making them into stories. This piece demonstrates this with a
small turn of a handle , one of the characters starts gently rocking a baby. It was
subtle but very effective, I even started making up my own story!!

Kristyn Grieve

`Boy`
These water colours on baby wipes was such an innovative way to bridge the gap
between the creative urge of an artist and the necessities of everyday life in motherhood.

It is well worth going to see this exhibition, not only to support these young emerging artists but to enjoy the individual  `time themed` perspectives they have which is both evocative and delightful!!

Illuminate Exhibition

 The Loft Gallery in St Maragret`s Hope invited art students from
Orkney College UHI to put together a Christmas exhibition. Seven students from
the BA Fine Art and Fine Art Textile courses took up the offer using the title
`Illuminate` as inspiration for the works on display.

Poster advertising event!!

Below the pieces I submitted .........................................

Exhibition Set Up
Part of setting up an exhibition is curating the pieces, this can be a difficult process where you have to consider the wide range of ideas and media used in relation to the theme and how they will flow within the galleries space. Myself and Beccy May took up the challenge of this and I think we did a good job, it`s great experience for us plus we had fun doing it!!

First of the pieces hung....still lots to do

Opps, their a little bit squint!!

Finished overview
Works in their final positions, straight and labels on.......

All the pieces in the exhibition are for sale with prices ranging from £8 - £500.
This is probably the most difficult thing for an artist to
decide `how much do I want and what will someone pay??` especially
when your a student as there`s no exact science to this.
But as my husband says ` market sets the price` so it`ll be interesting to see
 how I and the others fare in this particular market!!

The exhibition is on from the 12th Nov - 17th Dec 2016
with opening times Mon - Sat, 10 am til 5 pm.

So please feel free to pop along........ you don`t need to be in the market
for buying to enjoy the show!!!!!!

This is an up date to blog........
Photo of us at opening in this weeks Orcadian (17.11.16)

Pop Night 2016 !!

On the November the 5th  every year in Stromness a `certain type` of artistic skill makes an apperance that of neep carving or more specifically creating a pop!! And here`s Thorfinn`s one!!

My husband Bruce craved this neep head and what a fantastic job he made!!
Now it`s ready for painting (my job)...........................

What do you think?? Scary!!!!!!!!

As is the Stromness tradition, Thorfinn braved the cold and spent the afternoon going round

 doors asking for `a penny tae burn me pop`! That night we went to the local bonfire and met all the other bairns `pops` before they finally got thrown on the fire with a spectacular fireworks display ending the night !! 

Below is a screen shot taken from the Orcadian showing the assortment of pops created

and the winners of the competition!! It really is great (and important) to see this tradition being 

kept alive and hope that next year is even bigger and better!!