The Magic Know-How, Laura Buckley

Beautiful new show at Site Gallery in Sheffield by London based artist Laura Buckley.

Image courtesy of Site Gallery

Image courtesy of Laura Buckley

Image courtesy of Laura Buckley

Image courtesy of Laura Buckley

Image courtesy of Site Gallery

Image courtesy of Site Gallery

Polish Cold War Neon

I've been thinking a lot about Neon recently, since Richard William Wheater has returned to Site Gallery for Platform: In the Making. His latest work, 'Neon is Neon, Sex is Sex' is a beacon to passers by, celebrating neon as a medium, from all angles - the craftmanship, artistry, literary references and design. Wheater alludes to neon's alternative purposes, at a time where this glowing material and it's history is re-peaking our interest. Probably because that glorious beacon of neon is quite simply a light, vibrant and optimistic sight.

The "Neonisation period" - an excellent term coined by photographer Ilona Karwińska. Watch this fabulous short video interview with her - via the BBC.

Wheater's imperfect handproduced neon is quite different to these graphic socialist post-Cold War Polish Neon signs, which Karwińska says were in English words to add glamour, how after Stalin's death the call was for "Western magic in the Polish cities".

- Neon in bespoke handwritten fonts

- Neon designed for particular buildings 

Check out Richard William Wheater's year-long public art project with artist Victoria Lucas; '12 Months of Neon Love'  (I designed the book and now I love neon even more...)

Potato and parsnip printed Christmas Cards

This Christmas at Site Gallery we've been running a series of Christmas Card and Decoration Making Workshops on Saturdays. I decide to impliment potato printing (along with collaging and stamping), since sourcing a life changing book, by Helen R. Haddad, published 1981 'Potato Printing' (as recently featured by Present and Correct).

Here's some snaps of the workshop and the cards I proceeded to make at home after a little experimentation during the workshops!

Little wonky robin is my only Christmas Card design this year. I ran out of potatoes and switched to a parsnip which I must say worked fine.

Take a look back at past Christmas designs I made if you like:

2011 - Watercolour squirrels & robins scene

2010 - Lino cut Robin prints

2009 - Repeat watercolour Christmas pattern for cards, advent calendar and tags

2008 - Re-interpreted Victorian Christmas Cards - Handpainted

12 MONTHS OF NEON LOVE Book Design

This summer I designed a book for artists Victoria Lucas and Richard William Wheater for their project,

12 MONTHS OF NEON LOVE.

Pages reveal a selection of the most beautiful, compelling images of neon artworks, which changed monthly to read lines extracted from songs (all containing the word love) for a short time blazing gloriously over the industrial town of Wakefield. The book has four essays which explore the various outcomes of the project.

I'm delighted to have designed this book for Victoria and Richard, a difficult task to reduce down to the final collection of images, and to communicate the affecting and profound nature of this year long public art commission. I hope I did their wonderful project justice.

Special thanks to my good friend Jon Cannon for his time and assistance on the production - there's a gorgeous frame pattern on the inside page for which I am indebted to him!

You may buy a copy from Site Gallery - here 


12 MONTHS OF NEON LOVE 
Victoria Lucas and Richard William Wheater

This limited edition book includes full colour images of the installed neon lyrics, in addition to documentation from behind the scenes and essays from Victoria Lucas and Richard William Wheater. Each copy is numbered and signed.

12 Months of Neon Love is a collaboration between Victoria Lucas and Richard William Wheater, and began on St Valentines day 2011. The project is formed using a sequence of twelve lyrical statements, borrowed from well-known songs that feature the many configurations of love. Presented over a year in large red neon text, twelve expressions are visually re-presented to an unsuspecting audience going about their everyday lives on the roof of Neon Workshops in Wakefield.

We are open!

New menu board for Site Canteen at Site Gallery, Sheffield

Spring Clean and other news of Sheffield

Cripes. That's a long time to not say anything. Despite the fancy Faram Au Fait blog re-branding (thanks to Victor Simao of Random Object) I have been unable to do justice to the glorious gingham, et al).

I'm busy working hard at Site Gallery and Article Magazine - which leads me to point out some highlights:

• Stocking crockery by Sheffield based illustrator Sarah Abbott in the Site Gallery shop is a dream

• Working with Jeremiah Day and learning more about the shadows of political struggle cast over lives in Berlin, particularly from the perspective of a US born artist now living in my favourite concrete city besides Sheffield.

• Reading OWT Creative's latest zine 'Trial and Error' is inspiring for anyone making and failing. Often disasters or little trips along the way lead you to make something far more interesting.

• Talking to Mass Observation about everything they do, all of which is brilliant - thinking about shops, what they could and should look like and should definitely sell, like this '132kv PL16' single colour ofset print >>>>

• Otherwise, I'm about to have some slide photographs enlarged and will share these - they're from last summer, and as the weather has improved they're appropriate again!

Excitedly I announce via Article Magazine the news of the next issue launch - April 18 2012...

BROKEN

 

"ARTICLE magazine is back, with a new issue available on April the 18th! With a £5 cover price, the magazine will be available nationally. You can order subscriptions now and receive a gift.

The new issue of Article will take on what it means for something to be ‘Broken’. It’s timely. Watch the news, read the papers, listen to people talk in the pub: The whole world is going to shit, and no-one is really doing anything about it, apparently.

Through a range of features and design we will explore the obsession with abandoned buildings, the failings of city centre planning, the rhetoric of Broken Britain, and what the recession actually means for art. Our interviews with artists and designers ask why people don’t study repair instead of design and what it means to break something intentionally... read more

 

Image courtesy of Garry Martin, Hyper Real at Backlit Nottingham

Faramaufait: Collage!

 

A collage I produced at Site Gallery during an Elizabeth Rowe 'Collage Party'

DIY Making in the summertime

I had the pleasure of planning a series of workshops and events at Site Gallery, Sheffield during this summer simply named 'DIY Summer at Site', and I squeezed in some cheeky moments to join in the making and diy-ing. It definitely quenched my thirst for learning some new tricks, DIY Summer exposed me to new techniques which I'd love to employ later. I had the joy of working with Crow and Dunnage screenprinters to make my (shameful to say first ever) screenprint, on a tshirt, of a caravan!

Secondly I joined in with a crockery workshop run by Lianne Mellor of Mellorware, namely 'Crocolage' a lovely combination of collage with transfer decals and glazes, onto a 'pop' mug, cereal bowl and plate. I once had a chintsy ship cup so very similar to this and it mysteriously disappeared. After a few years of pining it was a great day receving this ship mug back from the Mellorware kiln, so similar to the first that I can rest easy. Plus I have a trout in the bottom of my cereal bowl which I defy anyone to say isn't ace.

 Earlier this year Bloc Projects in Sheffield ran a Collage Party with artist Elizabeth Rowe, and I had such a great time that I asked Elizabeth to return to Sheffield to run a larger scale Collage Party in Site. I was full of a bad cold but still absolutely loved it. We collaged the gallery walls and even the gallery exterior - and this time around some of the cuttings and collages were amazingly intricate, some disturbing and others almost accidentally beautiful.

Collage Party at Bloc Projects

Sign writing for Site Canteen

Site Canteen at Site Gallery, Sheffield has gone into summer with a new tact. New lovely food. Longley Farm yoghurts always win me over. I did the frieze map months ago and just made some amendments. So if you're in the vicinity, check it out - find out where your bread was made or even where they sourced your tea cup.