The first workshop is done and a new community emerges!

The web marketing workshop tour of Scotland 2010 commences!

Producing new work is demanding. It requires investment in time, money, focus, inspiration, invention and hard work. The first two of these things, ‘time and money’ are usually in short supply. It is easy enough to ‘buy in’ custom made tool and materials if you have enough money to flash in front of your suppliers, […]

Documentaries are the new black. At a time when reporting is dominated by the rolling bulletin and breaking news, we need documentary-makers to take the long view, to get behind the headlines, to tell the stories that can change our view of the world forever. On BBC2 last night, Julien Temple’s film ‘Requiem for Detroit’ achieved just such a paradigm shift.

I always love getting new images sent through to me, whether it is for the crafts newsletter which we send out every month, the online galleries or for Making Progress web pages on the HI-Arts website – it’s great to see examples of makers work from throughout the Highlands and Islands. We are also putting together […]

What kind of TV event would get you out of bed early—a General Election, the Oscars, the Olympics? For me, many years ago, it was an opera. At 6am one Sunday morning in 1992 I was huddled before the TV in pyjamas and dressing gown to experience a live relay of the last act of Puccini’s ‘Tosca’. This was, however, no ordinary relay. The producer had had the bold idea of staging the opera in the three actual Roman locations in which it is set (all largely unchanged since 1800, the period of the opera), and, even more ambitiously, at the times of day at which the action was supposed to happen: noon, evening—and dawn.

Taking Time   Taking the West Highland train home from Edinburgh takes around 6 hours compared to 3 ½ hours in the car. It is a spectacular journey in daylight and one I have done numerous times since childhood but more often I drive because taking 6 hours out of my life somehow seems wasteful. […]

Adding a recent picture.

Wheweee! I now know that I wasn’t stupid about the blogging, just BLIND. The menu bar is right at the top of my screen, which being a Mac, all the tab lines and catagories are on a grey bar which is EXACTLY the same colour as the Northings – My Account . . . etc. […]

My work is created using both ceramic and bronze materials, work is either hand built or thrown using earthenware or porcelain clays, some pieces are formed using a selection of parts, which are then assembled by hand and fired up to temperatures of around 1100 degrees for earthenware and 1300 degrees for porcelain. My new […]