CCA newsletter 13 July 2010 CCA NEWSLETTER Strawberries cream cake and chat Photo Daryl Harber EGM and B B Q at The business at the EGM Trelowarren 17th June was completed in record time! Vivien called on James to present the ‘Progress on The Business Plan’ and he explained that an EGM had been called soon a%er the AGM because the accounts had to be approved at a formal meeting. The previous AGM could not be delayed until the accounts were ready because the maximum time between meetings was set by our constitution. The meetings had now been brought back to an appropriate time of year so that in future years there would normally only be a need for one 1 Trelowarren meeting, the AGM, probably in June. James was able to report good news. Commission based income was up. Roger has been able to claim back dated Gi% Aid, expenditure has been reduced mainly through the reduction in staﬀ hours at both galleries. Consequently the surplus for the year was about £12,000, although £5,000 of this was in the form of debts – the gi% aid back dating and the remainder of our Arts Council grant more on development of the Association. The CCA now has almost reached the target £40,000 reserve so that it was hoped that the Committee could now focus on developing the CCA’s role for the future. Approximately 70 members and friends came to the gallery to enjoy the good summer show and partake of really good food and company. Samme arranged the book swap that made an interesting event and a proﬁt!. Thanks to all the “Social Committee” for the organisation, tasty food and a grand evening. (Elinor, Rod, Nicky Mills and her husband +everyone who donated food) CCA NEWSLETTER 13 July 2010 TRELISSICK NEWS I am sure you will all join me in welcoming George Elsworthy as the new Manager for Trelissick, (along with Trerice, Glendurgan & North Helford). The outcomes of a very positive meeting with him were that: The Play Boat has been move to another part of the courtyard allowing free access to and from the Gallery – Signage is being refurbished and will give the Gallery a better proﬁle. The Trust is keen to emphasise the “Localness” of their properties and to include us in their publicity and activities. They would like to involve our members in a series of 1 & 2 day paid cra% workshops this autumn and Christmas and again in Winter 2011. So if you have anything to oﬀer from tasters to master classes please contact Elinor with you proposals, via e-mail or phone, by 30th July at the latest. The galleries have been going from strength to strength with Trelissick’s May ﬁgures the best for at least 5 years. Carol Scott Foyer show at Trelissick Gallery 2 Foyer Show Carol Scott, Ceramics I work with a smooth white earthenware clay, throwing on the potter's wheel or sometimes rolled out and placed on a former that I have made. The pots are decorated with coloured slips and then raw glazed and fired just once in an electric kiln to cone 3 (1100 degrees C). I have a studio on my smallholding converted from an old threshing house where I work surrounded, at one time by my grazing cattle, nowadays by our embryonic forest planted by us in 2002. Visitors are welcome, but please telephone to arrange a convenient moment. CCA NEWSLETTER 13 July 2010 sell lecture study talk participate members opportunities “Twinkle Trunk Show”. At our Trelowarren Gallery, over the 10th, 11th and 12th December 2010, limited places are available for this Christmas Trunk Show. Bring your own “Trunk”, a suitable Christmassy box, or even hamper as a display for your work+lighting to ﬁt a 2m wide space max. The cost is £70.00 for the three days to include publicity, heating and electricity. Apply to Elinor at Trelowarren for an application form. Spaces will be sold on a ﬁrst come ﬁrst served basis. Succession You have heard me refer to this at several meetings, and also seen references in the Newsletter. So you know that by this time next year I will no longer be a Trustee on the Committee, and while James will be a Trustee, he will no longer be Vice Chairman. If the CCA is to have a Preliminary Notice future, (and the alternative is to wind The Committee is at an advanced stage in it up), we need to elect successors at planning for a “Kaﬀe Fassett, Glorious Colour Exhibition”, due to open at Trelowarren to the the June 2011 AGM. The only general public on 15th May 2011, with the successors are within the CCA Private View on the 14th. The show will run membership – so this means you! until the 17th July. In conjunction with the exhibition Kaﬀe will be giving the Wyndham Gooden Lecture on the 2nd June at the Princess Pavilions, Falmouth, followed by a 1 day Colour Patchwork Workshop at Trelowarren on the 3rd May. Brandon Mably, from the Kaﬀe Fassett Design Studio, will be giving a colour Knitting Workshop on the 4th also at Trelowarren Booking for the lecture and workshops opens on the 1st September with concessionary tickets for members and association friends You will all receive the ﬂyer with full details by the middle of August. “Pub Crawl” Members of the committee will be visiting a pub near you in September to give you the chance for a get together, informal chat and to meet other members in your area. We particularly want to hear your ideas for the future of the CCA, what we are doing well and what we need to change... Marazion 14th September, The Godolphin Arms. Falmouth 15th September, Gyllyngvase Beach Gylly Café Tywardreath 16thSeptember, The New Inn Plan to meet at about 19.00 for 19.30. We’d like to allocate about an hour and a half, but there is no ﬁxed time to ﬁnish. 3 I know it is daunting, but please remember that over the past two years the Committee, James & I have invested enormous time and energy to bringing the CCA back from ﬁnancial disaster. We now have much better reserves and a viable income so that the challenge for the new Chairman and Vice Chairman & Committee is now to focus on the main objectives of the CCA – to bring cra% to the public of Cornwall. It’s also a priority to involve rising generations of makers in the CCA, and forge closer links with students and colleges. These tasks are important, but, now, entirely manageable within a reasonable time commitment. Please don’t delay in putting yourself forward, or nominating a colleague! Thank you, Vivien Prideaux [email protected] CCA NEWS LETTER 13 July 2010 The John Crowther award for the best new member was awarded to, Rosanna Martin Ceramics Jenny Pelmore award 2010 Stephanie Johnson, Jeweler Craftsmanship 2010 Jenny Pelmore award 2010 Stephanie Johnson, Jeweler John Crowther award for the best new member was awarded to, Rosanna Martin Ceramics Stephanie has developed a range of contemporary jewellery using pleated, folded and crushed silver, delicately textured and embellished with gold detail. She fuses, imprints and manipulates metal using traditional tools, but with a creative and experimental approach to processes and techniques. Some qualities in her work are a response to patterns and textures observed in nature, others reflect her fascination with contemporary Japanese textiles. Stephanie works in a studio over-looking the Fal estuary in Cornwall. Rosanna graduated from University of Wales Cardiff, School of Art and Design in 2008 with a BA (Hons) in Ceramics. “I produce hand thrown porcelain cylinders that can be used in the home as pots or vases or simply admired for the visual and tactile qualities they offer. Interested in the consciousness of the body in daily life I am hugely inspired by the making process and my physical relationship and responses to it. My most recent body of work explores the process of turning and how it can become an integral part of the decorative quality of the piece”. She graduated from Loughborough College of Art & Design in 1980, with a first class Honours Degree in silversmithing and jewellery design and began work a year later in shared workspace before setting up her own studio in the Lake District in 1986. Stephanie moved to Cornwall in 1990 where the new environment and tropical gardens in particular have provided inspiration for her latest work. Her work has been exhibited and sold in galleries and outlets nationwide. Recent work includes commissions from Kneehigh theatre, Cornwall and Royal National theatre, London. 4 For Sale 1 Brother Convertible Home Knitter Model KX395. Little used with Handbook+ all accessories £100.00 1 Toyota Knitting Machine KS901 vgc £100.00 1 Toyota Rib Knitter KR506 vgc £65.00 1 Toyota Transfer Carriage K65-1 £35.00 1 Toyota Knit Tracer K33 £20.00 1 Keyto Knitting Cabinet + bench £100.00 1 Toyota Pop Punch for making Pattern cards £5.00 1 Mat with grid for pressing ﬁnished pieces £5.00 Many assorted cones of wool, courtelle + cotton £1.00 each Box of pattern cards (Toyota) £1.00 each, 10 card set Assorted books foe machine knitters £1.00 each May be view at Leedstown Hayle 01736 850387 CCA newsletter 13 July 2010 Professional Images PHOTO SHOOT for CCA members. We have arranged a photo shoot with Simon Cook to be held at Trelowarren on Saturday 11th September. The cost will be £25 per person for up to 4 images. You will receive high quality images suitable for web use and other personal publicity. Booking will be on a ﬁrst come, ﬁrst served basis, cheques made payable to CCA at the time of booking please. Delivery of your work to Trelowarren on Friday 10th September to be accompanied by a loose label for each piece of work, with your name and simple description of the work (for editing identiﬁcation purposes). Also please provide an identiﬁed blank CD/memory stick plus correctly stamped return envelope. Collection of your work by arrangement with Rod. CHINA TOUR: Indigo & Clay 19th March – 4th April 2011 From the tribal areas of Guizhou Province to Jingdezhen the porcelain capital of China Within the secluded, mountainous, tribal area of Guizhou Province we visit musicians and artists in paper making, weaving, embroidery, batik, indigo and silver. Each tribe having their own style of dress and architecture. Thence to the ceramic area of Jingdezhen, famous for its porcelains. Visit traditional & contemporary workshops & studios. (There is an option for an additional stay of 1-3 weeks on a residency at Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute to work with the local clays) Total cost (including all flights): £2,600 Enquiries: Christine-Ann Richards Chapel House, High Street, Wanstrow, Nr. Shepton Mallet, Somerset BA4 4TE Tel/Fax: 01749 850208 [email protected] www.christineannrichards.co.uk ! 5 ! ! ! ! CCA NEWSLETTER 13 July 2010 THIS IS A PERSONAL VIEW FROM A MEMBER The devil and the deep blue… An Essay BY Maxine Symons The work is done, the teapot/necklace/poker/scarf is made, now the vexed question of pricing. A matter of some complexity: whether to start at the cost of making said item, or whether to consider what I like to think of as ‘the accountant’s little joke’ i.e. the time it has taken to complete the work. Perhaps adding that 40%/50% of gallery commission, or maybe to come at it from the other end and consider what a member of the public will pay for it (particularly important with the middle-income customer) or just to think of the next gas bill. Whatever the decision we make, there will always be an element of compromise. We all discover that we have to accept less proﬁt on some items and more on others, although it is always a mistake to undercharge as people have a way of remembering lower prices – sadly. In this consumerist society, price really has become an indication of value, which means that the moremoneyed folk, who love an item, will spend whatever it takes whereas those in the lower income bracket whose cries of “Six pounds? I could make that” hang menacingly in the air will never spend money on our work. (Don’t we all love the customer who truthfully says, “Oh! How beautiful! I’d love to buy that, but I just don’t have the money.”) The middle-moneyed classes are the grey area and this is the place where careful pricing can, literally, pay dividends. For instance, during the recession, I have noticed no change in the sales of lower or higher priced items – in fact sales of higher priced pieces have actually increased – but the £50 - £90 price bracket has been very quiet. Price parity is absolutely vital, which means charging similar prices for work in all outlets and areas of sale. It really is self-defeating to charge a lower price in a Cra% Fair than in a gallery. The bread and butter ‘paying the gas bill’ items are still a priority for most of us. But in contrast to the CCA, F which takes a ﬁxed percentage of the price of all items sold, so that lower priced items give a majority of sales but a smaller percent of proﬁt, the maker herself can sometimes produce more proﬁt on the smaller items than on those vast creative projects. We cannot have the luxury of making that big, new, gold piece very o%en. That supreme artistic impulse might have to be put on the back burner – if there is any gas in it. But the moment when we really land in the ‘deep blue’ is when the compromise is too great, when the gallery commission makes it impossible to sell the piece at all. When is a teapot not a teapot? When it becomes an objet d’Art. In other words, when a teapot loses its function because of the price. Function and beauty have always gone hand in hand, but function and price can become enemies. Would you mash your tea in a pot costing £150.00? What about our relationship with the Galleries? They are, for most of us, a necessary evil – better the devil you know. I am o%en very happy for a gallery to be open 6 days a week and dealing with the public on my behalf, coping with packaging, display, insurance, etc. I am less pleased when items are returned that have not been looked a%er – where there is damage or accumulated dirt – we can all tell similar tales. It might be a good idea to remind these commercially minded galleries that without us, they would not have a business. Where else could you get stock without having to pay for it? When it comes to marketing, we have a range of options as makers: the Private Workshop open to the public, is all about ‘location, location, location’; or years taken to build up a reputation and mailing list, or relying on attending the ubiquitous Cra% Fairs which are o%en expensive and time-consuming, and can be somewhat depressing. Then we must consider the Galleries who take a large commission, which is not o%en earned, and ﬁnally, selling at trade prices – another mineﬁeld of working out how much less a trade price should be – instant cash v less money? We do not all have the option of the maker who has – if you’ll forgive the pun - ‘made it!’ Let’s face it, especially in Cornwall we cannot sit back and expect the world to come to us. We must nowadays be not only artisans, but also camera experts and computer buﬀs, and we must be familiar with emails and websites. If we do not learn all these skills where will we ﬁnd the money to pay experts to do it for us? I hate to mention the gas bill again! So to conclude my thoughts on this most vexed of subjects, and with many apologies to William Morris, here is my triumvirate. Maxine Symons [email protected] Function – Beauty – Compromise. www.maxinepearls.co.uk 01209 831420 And the best of Cornish luck to you all.