Crafts For Christmas Glasgow

We returned home from the Glasgow Crafts for Christmas show and unloaded by midnight last night. It was a reasonable first show in Glasgow for us. I expect we will do it again next year, all being well.

Here is a picture of the stand to give you an idea of what our 4-day gallery looked like.

We have another similar show coming up. The stand will be the same size but will look a bit different at the English version of the show, which we set up this Wednesday.

It's still called Crafts for Christmas but is held at the Birmingham NEC from Thursday to Sunday. It's bigger and was more expensive for the stand but there should be more visitors to help us compensate.

Just arranged to meet up with good friends Peter and Sally on Saturday and it coincides with a fireworks display at Kenilworth castle. Jolly exciting!

Glasgow Photographs

I now have 14 rolls (140 shots) of Glasgow photos. Included are George Square, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow Green, Peoples Palace, Merchant City, Squinty Bridge, Clyde Arc bridge, Bells Bridge, Glasgow Tower, Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow University, Willow Tea Rooms, Glasgow College of Art, Italian Square area and more. It will be a few weeks until they appear on the web but keep an eye out for them if you're interested.

Crafts for Christmas in Glasgow

We are half-way through the Crafts for Christmas show at the Glasgow SECC. A bit slow so far but okay!

I had no photos of Glasgow so have spent last 2 nights and part of yesterday and today during show-time taking photographs, about 9 rolls so far.

Lots of interest in our courses, especially Lakes and Northumberland.

Just finishing meal in one of the many Wetherspoons pubs in Glasgow. No camera tonight as back is aching so took night off. Will try another pint on medicinal grounds!

With luck we may be home by midnight Sunday then it's down to Birmingham NEC on Wednesday morning to set up for similar show down there.

Sevenoaks Art & Craft Fair

Last day of the Craft in Focus art & craft fair in Sevenoaks Sunday 23rd October. http://www.craftinfocus.com/sevenoaks_october_11.html

It's been a bit quieter than we hoped. Pretty much all shows this year have been hard work to make sales but most have worked in the end. Will keep fingers crossed this one works out too in the end.

Local bakery is closed tomorrow so no bacon roll for breakfast. Jolly disappointing!

Great Peak District Fair

It's the annual Great Peak District Fair in Buxton this weekend. We will have our usual stand in the Octagon in Pavilion Gardens, along with 16 other members of the local art organisation Peak District Artisans. If you come you will be able to browse through several hundred of my photos in sizes from 25 x 20 up to 100 x 50 cm. There will be posters too at prices starting from just £10. All 3 of my books will be on sale too, plus 2012 courses.

The show is open from 10am to 5pm on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th October. Over 100 exhibitors from the Peak District including photography, art, craft, farmers market and beer festival. Free entry. What more could you ask for!

If you are interested I also have a permanent exhibition in Pavilion Gardens in the Gallery in the Gardens, just a few yards from the Octagon in the same building. I am also a member of High Peak Artists who run this gallery as an artists co-operative of 39 artists and craft workers.

Rain Again

It's raining again in the Peak District, some of it heavy. Reservoirs will be rapidly filling up. Fortunately it started after we ran our last photo course of 2011.

Yesterday's post did finally appear on Facebook, about 19 hours after I posted here on Blogger instead of the usual 5 or 6 - so my changes slowed it down. So I still haven't stopped my posts automatically being picked up there. I removed the final links to Facebook from this main blog page, maybe that was where it was getting my id from, can't find it anywhere else on my Google account.

The reason is the Facebook policy on use of pictures posted there. I will continue to post new pictures here but don't want them on Facebook. I don't put pictures on Twitter anyway, the 140 character limit makes it a much more immediate thing so I will just drop links in to this when I have new pictures. Much quicker.

Jan is still doing the Craft in Focus show at Richmond on Thames. Hope the weather is better down there, it usually is!

Richmond Craft in Focus Event

We have a stand at the Art and Contemporary Designer Craft Fair run by Craft in Focus at the Queen Charlotte Hall in Richmond on Thames, near London. If you need the sat nav to find it use TW9 2RE. It's open from 10am until 5pm from Friday 7th October (today!), Saturday and Sunday. Jan is running our stand on her own as my back is still a bit painful and I can try and catch up on a few other things at home.

There are a couple of large new prints, 1 metre by 0.5 metre, framed. One is of snow with aspen tree trunks and their shadows, jolly difficult to get to as the snow was deeper than it looked and I didn't bother putting my snowshoes on, big mistake, it was way over my waist. I ended up lying on the surface and crawling into position to take the shot to stop me sinking in as far. The other new large shot is St Paul's Cathedral from the Millennium Footbridge in London at night. I have printed it small before but it looks spectacular at this large size. Both were printed by Ilford Lab Direct from a digital file of the scanned negative as this is larger than I can hand print in my darkroom (I print up to 60 x 50cm).

There are lots of new small prints too from £15 to £270 and some of the posters are reduced to just £10 for this show.

If you can get down there could be a good one. Oh, and nearly forgot, there are another 70 exhibitors there too and lots of parking behind the hall, so no excuses!

Next weekend is the Great Peak District Fair in Buxton Pavilion Gardens. There will be lots there too with over 100 exhibitors. Our stand should be in the usual place near the entrance to the Octagon. The fair is a mixture of art, craft, farmers market and beer festival (so best to come early if you want any sense out of me!); all from the Peak District. Make a note now, Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th October, 10am to 5pm, free entry.