abscraft's photostream  

Here is the official blurb about me and my career.

Me from about 1990.

Metal MIlliner meets Techno Cannibal


I make lots of different things from wire from old tellies and sweetie wrappers. Most of my work is for sale. Please credit me if you use images of my work and if possible link my web site www.abscraft.com and my blog abscraft.blogspot.com/
and the group I am part of oxtonartfair.blogspot.com/

Most of the images of my wire work with the white backgrounds are taken professionally by Richard Jennings of Cetra in Heswall, Wirral. The model is Anh.

My other hat (how appropriate an expression in my case) is as a co-ordinator other people's artwork both as part of my job as Art liaison officer for 2Bio in Liverpool http://incubatingart.blogspot.com/ and also as part of the Oxton Art Fair. I am always on the look for artwork and craftwork for exhibitions by North West artists (North West of England). I am also trying to compile lists of Wirral based contemporary craftspeople for some future projects. I have set up on Facebook a group called "With These Hands" as a creative networking get-together for people in Wirral, North West of England (if you don't know where it is it's porbably not relevant to you).

In sorting old images, I have found that it is a great way to look again at favourite pictures and decide what I might like to look at again and noticing patterns in the recording of my own visual memories.

My newest range of work "Junk Jewellery" is more obviously made from rubbish/trash/garbage. But I am starting to realise that we can't afford to lose these quality plastics to landfill when they can be re-used, recycled, re-purposed or up-cycled.

I am a frugal Scot abroad in England.

Cheers
Alison
abscraft.blogspot.com/

Hello, here all my blogs and sites

My Blog for my job as art laision officer for 2Bio Ltd, Liverpool, England
http://incubatingart.blogspot.com/

Blog for my own work
http://abscraft.blogspot.com/

My web site for my wire worrk made in 2004 and sadly not updated
http://www.abscraft.com/

Blog for the Oxton Artists who I have exhibited with since 2004
http://oxtonartfair.blogspot.com/


My own selling sites (with not much listed currently but much more will be coming)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/abscraft
http://www.folksy.com/shops/abscraft

PS an update for 2011

Made a bit of a radical decision for 2011 and pulled most of my work from galleries (still to collect from some in Wirral and 1 in Liverpool). I am going to go online and do some more direct selling eventually. The market seems to have dropped out of galleries and shops....might do exhibition work for galleries but the more "stock" like items will now be direct from me. I will ramp up my online Etsy site There is also Folksy but seems not to have the same audience as Etsy yet. By not having my work in galleries with the necessary mark-up for them to be able to run, I may be able to charge slightly less for my work - making it slightly more financially viable for me as a business (which as many of you know is not really my reason for creating).

Thank you to all my galleries who have supported me over the years. I hope it has been a good experience for you too...not generated loads of money for any of my galleries but at least I have contributed to making the place look interesting. I enjoyed the exerience this year of making "Encompass" for The Six Rooms Gallery and in 2008, I really enjoyed and felt proud of my piece "On My Way Here ii" made for the Red Dot Exhibition at the CUC, both pieces with more personal reflections that my regular craftwork.

The current climate means luxuries have to be cut from the shopping diet of the average person and my work comes in that category. So rather than fight the inevitable, I am going to concentrate on the online/direct selling, workshops and curating shows. I am involved with an exciting new project for March and May. I will be working with Jim Smith and Daniel Molyneux who are seconded to Wirral Council, we worked together in 2010. This year I will be creating an exhibition from my old kitchen, asking artists from Merseyside to create something from the remains of my old kitchen. I have collected together drawer fronts, door fronts, broken plates, my old patio table (used in another project 2 years ago). After posting my plans on Facebook, I was approached by lots of Wirral and Liverpool artists who want to get involved - painters, mosaic artists, craftspeople. The exhibition will coincide with an environmental conference in the Pacific Road Arts Centre in March and will then have a second outing in Birkenhead Park in May.

I am also involved with "Waste Not Want Not", a fashion show organised by Kath Shaw who is based in the North End of Birkenhead at the St James Centre, there will be short workshops offered (for free) to create fashion items for the fashion show. The community workshops will be based at the St James Centre and at the Green Community Shop and Centre in Oxton.