Blog Entry

Blog

Please come to our first artists in residence exhibition!

Shoot!

Next week we have our big photographic shoot....we have all our new Swedish Collection in the office and our upholsterer, curtain makers etc are very busy making everything for our new photography....! We are hiring a Shepherds Hut to decorate.....and are hoping for some sun next week..

Smokeless Stoves in Nepal

This school now has a waterproof roof ...... and here are the smokeless stoves being built..

The project we are helping in Nepal, is called The Tilden Project. It was started in Tilden's memory by one of the most wonderful ladies you will ever meet. Her son Tilden tragically died in a motor accident.

Respiratory disease ia a major cause of death in Nepal and burns are common, particularly among smaller childern. Cooking is still traditionally done on open fires in a hole in the kitchen floor. The new stoves, made from local clay, provide a heat source and a place to cook, but the smoke is removed from the house via a chimney. A smokless stove changes a whole family's life giving them a smoke and fire free, living area. Vanessa Arbuthnott Fabrics is paying for the lady builder in Aruchour, where the project has now provided 800 stoves, to teach people from neighbouring valleys the necessary skills to build stoves in their own villages, 200 have now been completed. The costs only £5.50 per stove! For more info please see www.tildenprojectnepal.org.uk

Artists in Residence - Jan 2012

We are looking for artisits in residence to come and work in our new sudio space:

The Parlour - ARTIST RESIDENCY,

The Parlour is the creative space at the heart of a new dynamic artistic community. It is a shared living space for up to 4 artists residents to fill with warmth, energy and activity. It is set in one wing of the Arbuthnott family home.

Our home is surrounded by four acres of grassland and newly planted woodland, Nicholas’s garden in progress. Nearby is proper woodland and a pig farm. We keep ducks, chickens, an incredibly muse-full whippet and a cat that boasts being born here. Vanessa Arbuthnott fabric company functions out of the bottom of the barn

The top of the barn has been readapted to be The Hedgehog’s Studio with new insulation and windows, a big sink and lots and lots of space.

We have some equipment for printmaking, for woodcut and etching.

We have an electric wheel and kiln for potting already to go.

Presently living on site are Nicholas- sustainable urban design oxford student and all round enthusiast

Vanessa – textile designer who wants to learn printmaking as a tool for her creative process.

Jessie – landscape painter, with a degree in sculpture, with ambitions towards gardening and landscape conservation work, pianist and culinary maestro.

Rose – a painter, poet, thinker, who is currently exploring healing practices. She hopes to gain from the project by the potential of experimental collaborations.

Roland - a painter, poet, art tutor and art entreneur, using teh residency to consistently develop a new approach to his work.

John Hainsworth - is exploring romantic modes of thinking through a narrative look at the relationship between human presence and geological transitions of the planet see:www.john-hainsworth.co.uk

The space would also be used for approximately three teaching sessions a week.

The idea is that the residents would receive the studio space and housing for free, in return for basic teaching/skill sharing with local groups. The artists do not need to have had previous experience in teaching, but be open to skill sharing and community engagement.

The living quarters are in one wing of the house with a rudimentary garden, the parlour itself with a kitchen and bedrooms and bathrooms.

Residencies would be on a two to eight month basis, and started in early January.

The residency would work towards a group exhibition in the studio space, and also offer support for developing artist business skills on departure.

The applications should be in the form of a proposal and should include details of how long you want for your residency/what you propose to do, with a potential lesson outline (but don’t worry we are not expecting you to have teaching experience!)

New ventures on the horizon - Nairobi!

I am working with an amazing young man, Edmund Page who started a charity in his gap year helping the Congolese refugees who are flooding into camps around Nairobi, firstly with schooling and secondly with jobs through micro finance. He has now moved out to live in Nairobi full time to work. Edmund is trying to find out what textile skills these people have and how I can work with them to produce some beautiful products.... he has been fund raising whilst at St Andrew's University to sponsor Congolese children into schools, and now he aims to help the refugee parents into work so they can be self sufficent. This is where my investment can help: so far we have given £1000 from our open day last June to help Edmund research and develop a very small fabric printing business. I would sell these fabrics through my web site and then plough the money back to them....this is the idea anyway....

So keep your eyes pealed to my blog and I will keep you in touch with our progress and some photos!

This is Edmund's web site: www.xavierproject.co.uk