July 20th, 2010
We are taking part in the New Forest Show as part of the New Forest Trust’s Fine Crafted Wood Exhibition, the show runs throughout the event from 27th to 29th July.
The New Forest Trust is concerned with the sustainability of Forest life, raising awareness of the potential supply of timber from the area and its use. The exhibition is one of the few places where professional and trainee furniture makers can exhibit together, it’s a great opportunity to see a broad cross section of makers work, combined with a great day out for the family.
Simon Thomas Pirie will be exhibiting their beautiful ‘Banquet Table’, made in bleached and scrubbed native ash and elm. The marquee for the New Forest Trust can be found close to the entrance of the show on Solent Avenue. Simon will be at the show on Tuesday, so do please pop in for a chat.
For further details about opening times and ticket prices please visit the New Forest Show website:
http://www.newforestshow.co.uk/website/about_the_new_forest_show.aspx
Tags: Banquet Table, Dorset Furniture Maker, Fine Crafted Wood Exhibition, Furniture Maker Dorset, New Forest Show, New Forest Timber, New Forest Trust, Simon Pirie, Simon Thomas Pirie
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June 17th, 2010
The Long View
Well perhaps more of a medium range view.
The signs are down, Liz Tyler, Martyn Brewster, Aline Johnson and Martin Debenham have gone, taking their work with them. We are busy returning to normallity which means reclaiming lots of workshop space to make things in. Even though we took on a neighbouring empty space this year, Dorset Art Weeks always turns the whole place upside down. John and Mike will be relieved to have their benches back.
I’m really pleased with our visitor numbers, even though we missed that magical 1000 mark by 30 or so. In 2008 we had 560 through so it’s a massive increase on that. On a quick calculation we sold about £20,000 worth between us, but that does not include follow on commissions, sometimes these things can take years. For example, I’m off to see someone tonight about a commission for a console table and mirror. She has been on my mailing list since DAW 2006 when we fiirst started talking about this. That’s not unusual – but that really is the long view.
The last weekend was very interesting in having the chaps from Winterborne Bakery here. It brought out all sorts of people locally who i’ve just not meet before, some of whom are very good contacts. A quality food culture in Dorset is increasingly deep rooted, and Dorset Art Weeks echos that in terms of visual arts. People do seem to care about what they buy, where it comes from and supporting skills and talent within their own communities. That can only be good and promoting that is a core value behind DAW.
It has taken me a couple of days to even start to function properly again. It seems silly to say that doing 16 days of open studio’s is exhausting, but it is. Saying that having so much direct contact with the public and hearing what they have to say about your work is also very rewarding. It was lovely to see Martin Debenham grow in confidence over Dorset Art Weeks, it was his first experience of it. For many visitors that stainless steel wire eagle out the front of the building was not only a highlight of this show, but DAW full stop. It came as no surprise to me all all that someone from a very high brow international art brokers came along to talk with him. I guess we will have to watch this space, but DAW can be transformative in an artist or makers career, as long as you don’t expect it to happen and the work is genuinely good.
There was something very final about taking all the signs down though, ‘they think it’s all over, it is now…’
Tags: Aline Johnson, DAW 2010, DAW Venue 269, Dorset Art Weeks, Dorset Art Weeks Diary, Dorset Furniture Maker, Liz Tyler, Martin Debenham, Martyn Brewster, Purbeck Art Week, Simon Pirie, Simon Thomas Pirie, The Courtyard Gallery, The Courtyard Workshop, Winterborne Bakery
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June 13th, 2010
4.59
Just an hour to go before it’s all over. It’s been another frantic day here but great fun. Matt and Andy from Winterborne Bakery have been sweating in the sunshine to keep up. I baked myself a pizza for lunch in the clay oven but it took me over an hour to eat it as we were so busy. Not huge numbers today, about 85 again, but real quality which is terrific. 
People also stayed for hours with their kids which means having the events in the Courtyard has really worked. Martin has been busy doing portraits as well, another draw. There was no pun intended, honestly.
So the big wind down starts, packing up and getting back to the daily routine. In some ways I’m glad to get back to normality, getting work done without interuption and less talking. After 16 days Liz, Martin and I are knackered, it’s the 3 of us who have been here every day with Aline here most of the first week, and Martyn Brewster here for some of the second. Truth is though I always miss it when it’s over. 2 years seems a long time until the next one, but perhaps I can let you into a secret, watch this space for something Dorset Art Weeks like in 2011. It won’t be the same as a DAW but it will share some of its better characteristics. I’ve probably said too much already, very hush hush you know!
Time to lock up and go home now, it’s 4.59 on Sunday 13 June. Time for an evening walk with Bridget and George, there is life beyond Dorset Art Weeks.
Tags: Aline Johnson, DAW 2010, DAW Venue 269, Dorset Art Weeks, Dorset Art Weeks Diary, Dorset Furniture Maker, Liz Tyler, Martin Debenham, Martyn Brewster, Purbeck Art Week, Simon Pirie, Simon Thomas Pirie, The Courtyard Gallery, The Courtyard Workshop, Winterborne Bakery
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June 13th, 2010
Signs
An integral and important part of DAW is the signage and banners. Dorset in late spring becomes a sea of vivid green with marker bouys of yellow and red seemingly on every verge and signpost, no-one can miss them, even if they have no interest. For a few weeks everyone becomes aware of how creative this county is.
I have a love hate relationship with the signage, we can’t do without it, but we are just one of so many events trying to get noticed at this time of year the world starts looking like a giant bring and buy sale, everyone fighting to be ‘more’ noticed with bigger and brighter signs. We have had spats with the 
Highways Agency about putting stuff on the A31, in 2008 they were taking stuff down as fast as we could put it up, I think partly on principle because stuff for other events was being left up. To clarify Dorset County Council are very supportive of DAW and are fine about signs on the smaller roads, it’s just the A31 / A35 where there is a problem. (And the whole of Poole and Bournemouth but don’t get me started on that.)
So now I’m forced to put up huge stuff just off the roadside on farm land. It’s a catch 22, I feel like those people who park lorry trailers in fields next to motorways which I hate, but how else are you meant to promote a rural event and get people safely to your venue. The alternative is people dithering at junctions with a brochure in their hands trying to read instructions. At least the event signs are graphically clear. We do just about hold a higher moral position than the mysterious Persian Carpet Sale that is everywhere and nowhere.
Still could be worse, we could have 2 rival art weeks open studio events on at the same time. Hang on, that is happening…
Poor, PAW, DAW
I did say I would mention the whole Purbeck Art Week / Dorset Art Weeks thing, and while I’m on ’signs’ it leads quite nicely in to this. When I drove out to the Purbecks last weekend the sea of yellow signs was divided between those that are yellow & blue PAW, and the yellow & red DAW ones. Langton Matravers looked particularly manic with signs on every lampost, verge and hedge vying for attention.
Till this year PAW has always happened in DAW’s year off, and that’s been a great way forward, with PAW developing it’s own identity and profile. I take part in both, although for me I’m right on the outskirts of the Purbeck area which is very much focused on Swanage and Corfe Castle. We always get 4 or 5 times more visitors in DAW.
Now I have to be honest here and say that i’m not a completely unbiased bystander. I’m one of the founding Trustees of Dorset Visual Arts, the organisation that runs DAW, and was it’s unpaid director from 2005 until 2009. Recently I’ve taken more of a back seat and we do now have a paid director which allows me to be a furniture maker again! This is the first year that DAW and PAW have happened at the same time and that the understanding of opperating in alternate years has broken down. It’s a great shame and is from my perspective hugely counter-productive for visual artists in the area, the public and the press alike. Part of the reason for the ’split’ is the cost of participation in each event, DAW is double the price for an individual artist (around £250). Again I have to be careful here – as a furniture maker my stuff sells for big ticket amounts, although we also have far higher outgoings; believe me despite those bigish prices I’m not a wealthy man through my creative practice. So here is my take; £250 to £300 is not a lot of money to market yourself on the back of something like DAW. Considering the costs and professionalism of the brochure, two websites, the PR and marketing, signage and general organisation i think that cost is unbelievable value. Others, particularly in Purbeck don’t share that perspective and I respect that. What I have more trouble with is that they choose to run at the same time and for the same 16 day period – PAW is normally run over 9 days. So it does fell like PAW is taking advantage of the fact the larger event is running in it’s normal year and time frame. It must be difficult for artists in either event to explain, I suspect it sounds a bit ridiculous to visitors. It has not done anyone any real favours long term. PAW wants to develop into more of a Purbeck Arts Festival, which I think is a great idea, but they need to be brave and honest enough to put it in a different time slot and to not undermine the county wide open studio event. If they did they would have my whole hearted support, along with of many other artists, funding bodies and a less bewildered public.
Tags: DAW 2010, DAW Venue 269, Dorset Art Weeks, Dorset Art Weeks Diary, Furniture Maker Dorset, PAW DAW, Purbeck Art Week, Simon Pirie, The Courtyard Gallery, The Courtyard Workshop
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June 12th, 2010
Long Summer Days
That was a long busy day, full of kids making pizza, lovely bread, local cheeses and people turning up with things on the spur of the moment – Anthony Hedgecock turned up as he promised with a bottle of his home made spanish olive oil, so it was a real feast today. Matt and Andy looked a bit shell shocked by the end of the day, being bakers they had been up for half the night anyway, don’t think they stopped talking for a moment! We had around 85 today, although it was hard to keep count. I was hoping to get over a hundred, but hey, it was a lovely atmosphere anyway.
Tags: DAW 2010, DAW Venue 269, Dorset Art Weeks, Dorset Art Weeks Diary, kneading art, Simon Thomas Pirie, The Courtyard Gallery, Winterborne Bakery
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June 12th, 2010
Smoke
Saturday morning and we all smell of wood smoke, the clay oven is on and Matt and Andy from Winterborne Bakery are baking, mostly pizzas for the kids but it’s just the start! I’ve already helped myself to the croissants, as has Lotty the farm labrador. More later as the day progresses…
Tags: DAW 2010, DAW Venue 269, Dorset Art Weeks, kneading art, The Courtyard Gallery, The Courtyard Workshop, Winterborne Bakery
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June 12th, 2010
Wind
Our big roadside banner took a hit last night, first job today is to get it back up. I don’t think I’ve done a DAW without some horrid weather sometime over the 16 days. There is a link between weather and visitors obviously, ideally we hope for nice weather, but not too nice, otherwise everyone heads for the seaside. Which is where my big banner nearly ended up!
I took a short break to see my neighboring venue, we have a connection apart from being next to each other in the DAW brochure because Birgitta Debenham is Martin Debenham’s mum. Blimey what a stunning place, tucked away along a tiny lane at Turnerspuddle in an unused church, it would be enough to justify a visit in itself. Now I’m not someone who is normally particularly moved by textiles work, but I can see the pure craft and subtlty in Birgitta’s work. It’s both Martin’s and Brigitta’s first Dorset Art Weeks experience and they have both done really well in terms of enthusiastic comments and sales. I’m really pleased I took an hour away from my own venue before the weekend rush, I only regret I didn’t take my camera to take some exterior shots of the decommissioned church and the show itself.
Matt, Scott and Andy are putting the final touches to the clay bread oven today and firing it up on a test run.
Tags: Aline Johnson, birgitta debenham, DAW 2010, DAW Venue 269, Dorset Art Weeks, Dorset Art Weeks Diary, Dorset Furniture Maker, Liz Tyler, Martin Debenham, Martyn Brewster, Simon Pirie, The Courtyard Gallery, The Courtyard Workshop, Turnerspuddle, Winterborne Bakery
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June 10th, 2010
Ryhme and Reason
I’ve been searching for ryhme or reason, but have found none… Visitor numbers I mean. Now i’ve been doing DAW since 1998, or is it 2000 (can anyone tell me?) and I’ve done a fair few Purbeck Art Weeks in between, but what makes visitors come on a particular day is still a mystery.
One thing I do know is that things slow down during the second week. We had been averaging around 50 a day during week one, more at the weekends. On the second Monday we had 17 and I wasn’t surprised. Then on Wednesday we had over 50, I was surprised – we had a mad rush in the morning, then a very quiet afternoon. So today I thought we might get more of the same – a nice steady build up to the final weekend with our bread making event ‘kneading art’ with the guys from Winterborne Bakery. We hardly saw a sole all morning, then mid afternoon it all went crazy again and we ended up with a respectable 35ish.
We did have some lovely comments today and people that had come on word of mouth recommendations, a lovely compliment we have had lots of over this week. Still my quiet morning did mean I could get some work done, there is a plus side to everything. I’ve been doing a joint submission with my architect friend Adam Zombory for a series of public art works in Shaftesbury, should be fun if we get short listed, even better if we get selected. We have been planning to try to work together for a long time and this project may just be a first opportunity to marry contemporary architectural practice with furniture craft. Watch this space.
Back to DAW, so far we have had around 750 visitors, which was my target this year (last time we managed just under 600). We might even do the magic 1000 with the weekend to come and the live events in the courtyard. We managed 1000 during @slepe3 during DAW 2006, perhaps it just takes time for word to get around that we have moved and we have a great collection of artists in Martin Debenham, Liz Tyler, Aline Johnson, Martyn Brewster and Simon Pirie.
Weather looks set fair for Saturday and Sunday, perhaps by then I will have found my DAW banners again after they have been blown away to Devon. Last weekend is always busy, if you can come along it will be lovely to see you, share some warm bread, cheese, hot things from the clay oven and a glass of something and toast Dorset Art Weeks for another 2 years.
Did I say the last weekend would be busy, that may be tempting fate.
Tags: Adam Zombory, Aline Johnson, DAW 2010, DAW Venue 269, Dorset Art Weeks, Dorset Art Weeks Diary, Furniture Maker Dorset, kneading art, Liz Tyler, Martin Debenham, Martyn Brewster, Purbeck Art Week, Simon Pirie, The Courtyard Gallery, The Courtyard Workshop, Winterborne Bakery, ZMMA Architects
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June 9th, 2010
Something’s Going On…
Something is happening here at the Courtyard Gallery and Workshop, it started yesterday morning and will culminate over the weekend with something very tasty I hope. As we believe in going out with a bang rather than a whimper, we are making the final weekend of Dorset Art Weeks something to remember. Our friends at the Winterborne Bakery have been building a clay oven and will be firing it up on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th between 10am and 3pm, producing all sorts of breads and edible delights for visitors during ‘Kneading Art’..
Matt Wilding is a bit of a dark horse: He is not only a master baker but has a background in performance art work, his degree piece involved a bread making performance ‘in the round’, so even I don’t know what to expect, bread making with an edge? I do know that he runs my local village artizan bakery and that bread has never tasted quite so good.
The Courtyard at venue 269 is be the place to be over the last weekend of DAW we hope you will be able to join us for a glass of something cold and taste of something warm and 5 of the most exciting visual artists to be found on your art weeks tour.
Tags: DAW 2010, DAW Venue 269, Dorset Art Weeks, Dorset Furniture Maker, kneading art, Liz Tyler, Martin Debenham, Martyn Brewster, Simon Thomas Pirie, The Courtyard Gallery, The Courtyard Workshop, Winterborne Bakery
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June 8th, 2010
Our ‘Grand Day Out’
On Monday it rained. In our morning workshop meeting we decided that instead of working we’d have a ‘workshop day out’, so that’s what we did: A jolly to see other people’s workshops, catch up with other furniture makers we’ve not seen for a while and meet a few who’s names we have known for a long time but never actually met. I think the isolation of your own practice can be stifling sometimes, even when like in our case there are 3 of us. Still good to see what else is going on and emerce yourself in a bit of DAW culture. As well as the cultural argument it’s also a great excuse to be nosey and see what the opposition are up to! The dozen or so furniture makers in Dorset all know each other and I don’t think there are any simmering rivalries.
We didn’t manage to get round all of them, in fact a modest 5 is all we did, but it was great fun nevertheless. First up was Guy Mallinson and his fantastic woodland workshop. Actually the rain only served to make it more atmospheric because the wood burners were on under the open parachute canopies sending that lovely burnt wood smell through the forest. I think it was particularly resonant to me because it reminded me of Hooke Park College so much. Guy is a very clever chap, has done his time making ’straight’ furniture and has now returned to the primeval wood so to speak. If you can only visit 2 venues, make it ours at the Courtyard Workshop and Guy’s.
I’d been telling John and Mike about James Verner’s beautiful new building – his big exhibit, so we had to go there. It was a real contrast to the sunny Friday when I went with the family, but no less stunning in the rain. We spent ages looking at James’ furniture as well, again with a wood burner creating an atmosphere to trigger all the senses.
We also planned a visit to Petter Southall’s place at Sladers Yard but didn’t read the brochure opening date properly – I spend all my time moaning about visitors who don’t read ours properly, but now I can’t take any moral high ground at all – Just to be clear at venue 269 we are open from 10am till 5pm every day including lunch times because people always turned up anyway!
On our return leg we also dropped in to see Nicholas Dyson, who despite having been a designer maker for years, is exhibiting in DAW for the first time having recently moved from Oxfordshire. I guess he is now one of the wise ‘old dons’ in the furniture designer maker world and his experience makes very interesting conversation, he has seen and done it all, almost. Then on to Lee Petherick’s place at Abbotsbury. I’d meet Lee once before very briefly in the Arts Week office in 2008, but it was nice to see him in his own place and off course see the work. It is much more sticking in real life than the images portray, beautifully detailed and perfectly made. I didn’t realise that he had been one of the cabinet makers in John Makepeace’s Parnham workshops.
Final stop of the day was JM Designs at Dorchester. I’d never meet Jonathan but have known of him for the best part of a decade now. Nice to put a face to the name and see his work. It was lovely having a day out on the spur of the moment, even the rain somehow added to the day.
Tags: DAW Venue 269, Dorset Art Weeks, Dorset Furniture Maker, Furniture Maker Dorset, Furniture workshop, Guy Mallinson, James Verner, JM Designs, John Makepeace, Lee Petherick, Nicholas Dyson, Petter Southall, Sladers Yard, The Courtyard Gallery, The Courtyard Workshop
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