Noah!

Apologies for the big delay between posts recently, I've had a lot going on. All very exciting stuff - moving house, going on holiday, moving studio, re branding and developing the website (not done yet) and most excitingly - I have become an Aunty! I now have a gorgeous little nephew called Noah. He is a real cutie!

As a congratulations on being born present I wanted to get him something special that he could keep, rather than some clothes he would grow out of in a few months. With that in mind, I commissioned an illustration from the fab illustrator Rachael Smith (www.rachaelsmith.org) I decided a long time ago to commission something from Rachael, as I fell in love with her character Danny the Dragon and I decided it would be a perfect present for the baby. Rachael had the outline all sketched and ready to go but we had to wait for the baby to be born to find out if it should be a pink dragon or a blue dragon as that had been kept as a surprise.

This is the finished illustration:



I think it's awesome!!!! It looks lovely and has created a really special present. Not going to put up any photos of Noah the baby (though I wish I could to show him off!) so you'll have to make do with Noah the Dragon (though they don't look very similar thankfully!)

Jen xx

I'm Famous!!

I'm famous! Well nearly anyway, I feel like it at the minute. I have a fantastic 3 page feature in a national craft magazine! 'Craft & Design Magazine' (formerly Craftsman) have done a brilliant feature on my journey into craft. It is out in the current issue (July/August 2010) and if you want to know more you can buy it here: http://www.craftanddesign.net/buyacopy/

Very exciting! It is very surreal to see myself in a magazine I normally read. FYI, Craft & Design Magazine is a really great mag if you're interested in craft, I find it much more accessible than some of the other craft mags, and it has lots of good info on galleries and exhibitions near you - so very informative also!

Here is a sneaky look at the opening page of the article....


.....just to prove I'm telling the truth!!

Hope you like it!

Guess What?

I was invited to showcase my work at the BVC Awards on 9th June. It was a great evening and it was a pleasure to be there and I was delighted when I won an award!! I won the Enterprise Inc Business Development Award 2010. Very exciting! Below are photos of me receiving the award, which was presented by one of my mentors Bill Everard.







I've finally put these photos up today as it's my last day on the Enterprise Inc program and I'm feeling a bit sad :( Now off on holiday to cheer myself up!

Best Comment Ever

I took part in the Art House Exhibition last weekend. Art House is an open house trail of about 8 houses, each house hosting about 5 different artists. I wasn't sure how well my work would go down there as it was a completely new environment for me but it was actually fantastic. Made loads of sales and had a lovely weekend, and reading this comment made my day:



I especially like the spelling - byoutafull!

Meeting the Lord Mayor

In May I was invited to meet the Lord Mayor of Leicester at a "civic reception to recognise the young entrepreneurs of Leicester." I had anticipated that there would be lots of people there and we'd probably just listen to a speech by the Lord Mayor and not even get to meet him but I'm happy to say I couldn't have been more wrong. There were only about 10 of us there plus the Lord Mayor and Mayoress. It was good to meet everyone and find out what they all did. There were some secondary school pupils there who were studying business and were members of the young chamber of commerce. I was really impressed with them - some of them are already planning on setting up their own businesses at 16 when they leave school!

We also discussed as a group some ways businesses could get involved with start ups and with giving work experience to students studying business and marketing. One of the other things we discussed was how we could encourage others to set up their own businesses and getting graduates to stay in the area. It was quite a good discussion actually and it was a great chance to get my voice heard. All in all, a lovely evening.

AIR exhibition

I've put it off for long enough - it's time to update my blog!

AIR Exhibition (see photos below) went extremely well. Despite some last minute hiccups, everything came together and we all had a great time at the private view. The flyers didn't arrive til 5 days before the exhibition opened (nightmare!) but despite this we had a regular flow of people through the doors and the exhibition has been one of the most profitable I've done. Words can't express how rewarding it was to see it all up and hear the great comments from the public. Organising that exhibition was incredibly hard work and took up a lot of my time, diverting it away from making and preparing for other exhibitions, so for it to do so well and get such great feedback was lovely. Job well done.


Setting up the exhibition


Setting up the exhibition

"AIR" Exhibition is nearly here!!

AIR Exhibition is just around the corner. Still lots of little bits to do - printing statements, picking up the wine etc for the Private View but I'm now very excited. It has really been a lot of hard work and I can't wait til the exhibition is open.

For those with an eye for a bargain, there will be a special 10% discount on everything at the Private View. If you would like an invite to the Private View please feel free to send me an email: jennycreasey@hotmail.com

The exhibition will be running 12 - 20 May (Monday - Friday) at the LCB Depot, Leicester. We also have a very pretty website with more information (including details of how to get to the LCB Depot) at www.airexhibition.co.uk

The exhibition is the culmination of a years hard work for us as Artists in Residence. We will each be showcasing the new body of work we have developed and produced whilst on the residency.

Hope to see you there!
Jenny x

SOCK!

Better late than never I guess. I have been so rushed off my feet recently that it's been well over a month since my last post - bad me!

In the run up to Sock (27-28 March 2010)I was slightly manic. I had a new display to finalise, new ranges and I was having big problems with the kiln so was scared that I wouldn't have any work to sell!

In the end everything came together. I had lots of comments from the other exhibitors about my display (see the photo below)and I had a great reaction from the public, helped fill up my comments book at any rate!

The photo only came out when the flash was on which means you can't really see that all the pieces on the back row are lit up, as is the one in the perspex box on the left hand side.

FAME and Trevor Nelson

Photo by Lighthouse Fashion Photography http://www.lighthousefashion.co.uk/

On Wednesday I was on the panel for a Q & A session for FAME - The Creative Industries Show. Being on the panel meant that I got a VIP pass and was invited to the special lunch with Radio 1 broadcaster Trevor Nelson (see image above!) He was a really down to earth guy and had time to chat with everyone, which was really nice. Being on the Q & A panel was a really good thing for me. It was about setting up your own business and it was really great to hear that all the others were experiencing the same things as me - the roller coaster of emotions, finding it hard to get motivated and then finding it hard to stop working etc etc. Made a big change for me to hear all that; nobody ever discusses the bad bits when you're in business so you can feel quite isolated when things aren't going exactly how you planned. But it was also really motivating to hear that not one of us would change a thing about it. Now I've set up my own business I really can't imagine doing anything else, and I don't want to either! I really have to thank my colleagues on the Enterprise Inc Program for their honesty and helping me kick myself back into gear. In particular, the lovely ladies from Kindred Sole, Rachael Smith from Rachael Smith Illustration , the gents from Head and Griffiths, Michael from Lighthouse Fashion Photography and Yaqub Shabudin from Pigment Design Studios. You guys made my day.

Trevor Nelson's keynotes speech was really good too. He talked passionately about the path of his career, integrity, longevity and being your own brand. He also said to keep going and keep trying and eventually you will get there. You can never truly gauge how well you're doing in terms of the public's opinion and building your brand and reputation, and sometimes it can feel that no-one is paying attention but they are and you just have to keep going. I thought this was good advice and made me feel better that everyone goes through the same thoughts and feelings. Trevor said the most important thing was to do something you were truly passionate about. I am and it has made me more determined to really go for this and do as much as I possibly can. The lows can be terrifying, but the highs are extreme. I know it's all worth it in the end so I just have to keep going - with a smile on my face.

Over and Out,
Jenny

@DJTrevorNelson
www.lighthousefashion.co.uk @LHFPhotography
www.kindredsole.com @KindredSole @lizze_leary @bethellie
www.rachaelsmith.org @rachael_
www.headandgriffiths.co.uk @HeadGriffiths

Features - How Exciting!

Just a quick post. I just wanted to share with you some lovely bits of web lovliness where I have been featured.

This is a short but lovely write up from Art at Heart (one of my favourite websites so I was thrilled to be featured) Check out the nice comment below too :-)
http://www.artatheart.co.uk/artatheart/2010/02/paper-thin-ceramics-by-jenny-creasey.html

I was also featured on Creative Boom which is an exciting online magazine:
http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/leicester/2010/02/08/jenny-creasey-ceramicist/

Last but not least, I won some free advertising space through twitter and the lovely guys even designed my advert!
http://www.handmade-crafts.co.uk/

Check them all out!

Twitter Names
@jennycreasey
@ArtAtHeartUK
@Creative_Boom
@RebekahHarriman
@ukcrafts
@KevJaques

Over and Out,
Jenny x

Exhibition Update 2: Need a Venue!

So maybe I jinxed myself the other day. Despite us all falling in love with the venue we saw the other day, it may not be for us after all. When I went to book the dates I was informed (as an "Oh by the way....") that for that particular space they are hoping to get a longer rental as an office so if someone wants to rent it for longer than us then they will move us to a different space or cancel us altogether up to 2 weeks before!! Can't help thinking it would maybe have been nice for them to mention it as they were showing us round - or in fact not show us it at all if they want to rent it as an office?!?! There's only really 2 spaces that are suitable for us so I don't really want to risk booking it only for them to move us somewhere we don't want. They've been unwilling to keep the second space free for us either - have been advised maybe to book our space for an entire month to secure the booking - £600 for a 12 day exhibitions - I don't think so!

So all in all I think it's a no on that one. Which brings us right back to square 1 - looking for a venue again! Good times! This business with the venue has (as you can tell) put me in quite a bad mood. It's just very stressful as we are on such a tight schedule. Today is 15th Feb. The only possible dates for us are around the 23rd April. Due to Easter holidays, I won't have kiln access for over 3 weeks which means the deadline for my last kiln firing is around 22nd March - that gives me just over a month to make: new body of work for AIR exhibition, all work for selling at SOCK craft fair (a 2 day event), pieces for a gallery order AND all my work for an exhibition that will start during the time we're hoping ours will be on. This is on top of finding venue,booking venue, getting sponsorship, marketing and promoting event, getting website sorted. In short, a lot of work just to keep my head above water. Don't get me wrong, I work well under pressure and I'm excited that I'm busy enough for it to be a problem. I just wish things would start working out with the exhibition. Once that's under way I can really start to focus on my work.

Today (with help from Enterprise Inc) we drafted a letter asking for sponsorship. That was always going to be a toughie as none of us had a clue where to start or what to say, so I'm just glad I got something productive done today.

Over and Out (for some 'recovery chocolate!')
Jenny

Exhibition Update

Our exhibition now has a name! It is called 'Air' as we commonly abbreviate our titles as Artists in Residence to that. After much hunting, we think we may have found the perfect venue. We went to have a look at it yesterday and we all fell in love with it.

We were initially thinking about holding the exhibition in a disused shop, but then we'd have to pay rates and write a proposal to the council and then undertake a fair amount of work to make the shop fit for our exhibition. The venue we are hoping to get has big shop windows, its own private entrance separate from the rest of the building. New carpets, freshly painted walls - in short, it's lush! Fingers crossed we can get it now.

Today we bought the domain name for our exhibition and have hired a fantastic web designer (Mark Spiers Interactive Design - http://www.mspiers.co.uk) Mark did my web site and I love it. For anybody looking for a website I can highly recommend him: great designs, tailored to suit you and competitive rates. He's already come up with some good ideas for the web site and I'm excited about getting it up and running. Mark Spiers Interactive Design is also our first official sponsor for the exhibition!! The last 2 days have been very busy!

We are now having meetings almost daily as in this initial period there is so much to organise and we are running on a fairly tight schedule. On that note, I'd better get on with some of it!

Over and Out,
Jenny

Exhibition Time!

At present I have been selected for the following shows:
Sock (27th & 28th March - Loughborough Town Hall),
Made in Leicestershire (1st May - 30th June - Ferrers Gallery, LE65 1RU)
and Fresh (31st July - 12th September - Beetroot Tree Gallery, DE72 3PP)

Very excited about all of those shows as they look to be good quality and organised and selected by the best people :-) But I will also have another show coming up....

As Artist in Residence (AIR) at De Montfort University (DMU), I have to put on an exhibition with my fellow AIRs to showcase a new body of work by each of us. We are hoping to collaborate with the AIRs at DMU's partner course in Banbury, but we're not yet sure whether there's 1 or 2 of them. I'm excited about the challenge but I know it's going to be a lot of work and we have to fund it off our own backs (which will probably be the biggest challenge seeing as none of us have any money!) I'll hopefully keep you updated with the progress of the exhibition and how we manage to organise it. I've got a lot of good ideas so it could (should? - touch wood) turn out to be a good event.

On another note I thought you might like to see some more photos to brighten up my blog a bit....

Grand Designs Might Explode My Mind!

On Monday I received a call from the organisers of the Grand Designs Live show in London. They said they had seen my work online and wanted to offer me space in their Design Arcade at a discounted rate (about £1000 cheaper than normal)I had to make the decision pretty fast as "spaces are selling very quickly."

Very excited, I rang my parents and we decided I should go for it. Whilst I was waiting for the contract to be emailed through, I emailed my mentor who questioned whether I maybe needed a bit more experience before embarking on something this big. This was just the beginning of the circle - for every person who has told me to go for it, there has been someone else telling me not to. Everyone has very valid points so round and round I go in circles!

Great experience, potential sales and exposure vs lots of money involved, is it the right environment for my work? Am I ready for it?

I feel like my brain might explode. At the minute I'm edging towards not doing it and giving myself a year to develop my products more before I try but that's by no means a final decision. The sales man rang again wanting answers and I told him to give me til the end of the week to sort things out. He said that all the stands might have gone by then but if they're gone they're gone. At least that would be a decision made!

Over and Out

I'm Excited!

Let me begin by saying I don't normally blog quite this frequently but due to me not blogging at all for a month I have a lot to tell you all about! Thank you for reading :-)

Ok, so I had been feeling a bit below par mid January, what with being ill etc etc. In November I made the decision to stop doing the smaller craft shows. For 3 months I had been doing a craft show near enough every 2 weeks. I enjoyed doing the majority of them but it wasn't worth it for the cost of the stand, petrol, car parking, my time there for what I was making at them. I found that at the local type craft shows you could be thrown in with anyone - being called a 'craft' fair didn't necessarily mean everyone was selling craft. There was a jumble sale at one and as you can guess, people's expectations of what they were willing to spend would adjust accordingly. So all in all, not really worth it. I'm now aiming at galleries and more upmarket "proper" craft shows that actually sell craft and where you have to be selected to get in as they are really attracting my target audience.

I'm delighted to have been selected for 'Sock' which is a craft show in nearby Loughborough and is rapidly gaining a great reputation, despite only being in its second year. But this also presented something of a dilemma as I'm not entirely happy with my display and I want everything to be perfect to give me the best chance of making money at Sock (and any other future shows). Never fear, help is at hand!

I mentioned in an earlier post about my being on the Enterprise Inc program, which has provided me with 2 brilliant mentors. I met them both separately yesterday. Bill is great and always coming up with exciting new ideas for me to try out to expand my product range. Rachael owns a gallery and has a lot of experience with displays and retail and she gave me some really good advice/ideas for my display. One of the suggestions was genius in its simplicity but is something I would never in a million years have thought of. However I can honestly say I'm really excited about the prospect of 'getting back on the horse' as they say and can't wait for Sock. All I want to do is start making as quickly as possible! However, I'm still recovering this week so will have to wait until Monday. There was also maybe a possible mention of me having a 2 page spread in a craft magazine!!!!!!!! Really hope that pans out as it'd give me lots of great publicity and would just be fantastic!! Fingers Crossed!

Over and Out,
Jenny (and her rediscovered motivation)

Mary Queen of Shops

Well now, as I said, January has been an exciting month for me. Not least because of my exciting opportunity with Mary Queen of Shops!

Through a Society of Designer Craftsmen email I was made aware of a great opportunity. The producers of the television programme ‘Mary Queen of Shops’ wanted up and coming designer/makers to produce pieces to help change the fortunes of an independent retailer by giving it an edge over the high street with interesting products and pieces.

I applied (with my lovely new photos)and was thrilled when I was selected as one of only a few makers to go down to London, meet Mary Portas and the shop owners and show my work. The craft day took place on 14th Jan 2010 in Kingston upon Thames. It was a long but exciting day, with a lot of filming.

It was a bit nerve wracking to be pitching to Mary and the shop owners, especially in front of a film crew but it went quite well and I was able to talk confidently about my work.

Unfortunately my work wasn't picked to be stocked in the shop as they had changed the theme of the shop to 'new and old' and picked pieces that reflected that. I did find out however, that we hadn't just been selected by the tv company and that Mary herself had selected us, which is a big deal! The clip will probably be edited to only show the makers who were selected, but there is still a chance my work might be featured on the show when it airs this spring. I've been invited to go back down for the relaunch of the shop in early Feb, but it's a bit too far for me to travel (nearly 3 hours each way)so I don't think I'll go. Fantastic day though, really enjoyed it and met some other interesting makers. Will hopefully have some photos of my work being filmed if the man emails me.

Over and out (until tomorrow because I have more news!)

Time to Catch Up

Apologies for lack of blogging this last month, I have been busy and poorly in what seems like a never ending circle. Still now recovering from something particularly nasty that left me unable to hold any food down for a few days so I'm not feeling my best - please bear with me!

Well to catch up - December was eventful for me, I had commissions coming out of my ears and had just launched a range of Christmas decorations so it was pretty hectic getting everything ready on time. I also managed to get my work photographed professionally by the lovely Joanne Withers from Nine Photos (www.ninephotos.com)I've posted a few of my favourites..........






More to tell you, but that's for another post!
Over and Out (for now)

Post 2 - Not Enough Time

So here is my second and final post of 2009, originally posted 10th December 2009 (and then I was busy!)

I know it’s not been long since my last post but thought I would just keep you updated with things.

I’ve barely made a dint into that foot high to do list. I’ve been quite poorly this week so haven’t had chance to get much done. I’ve sold quite a lot of my Christmas decorations over the last week or two so I wawt to get some more made so that I have some for my own tree this Christmas!

I’ve started experimenting a bit more with the shape of my vessels and managed to get quite a bit of commission work done which was great. But sadly the pr to do list still remains mostly intact.

I’ve been updating my accounts and closing off the November accounts and looking at getting a business bank account. I know I need one but it’s all so daunting when you suddenly see all these terms and conditions and different interest rates etc etc. Each of the major banks have several different Business accounts that you can have. It’s a job knowing which one to go for. I think I will probably end up sticking with HSBC, as I have my current account with them. Also, in the studio today a lot of the 3rd years were complaining about their respective banks and the terrible service they offered. Good old HSBC didn’t get anything but praise so I think that’s cemented my reasoning! I guess I can always change if they’re not up to scratch.

Now I’d best get back to the mind boggling world of Excel spreadsheets. It’s been so long since I learnt about the Excel formulas at school that it’s proving to be a challenge getting to grips with them again. Steve (from the Enterprise Inc team, who is helping to teach me about spreadsheets) must have the patience of a saint. He made all the spreadsheets and formulas for me, all I have to do is learn what they do and input the correct information, but we’re constantly finding issues that need ‘tweaking’ with the spreadsheets to help tailor them better for my business. I’ve no idea how he’s managed to cope with teaching me about each new spreadsheet, I would have given up long ago!

Best get back to business,
Over and out.

"My First Post"

Changing over from blog.com to blogspot.com and copying over my 2 posts!haha!
This post was originally posted on 5th December 2009:

Hmmmm, the first post, a slightly daunting prospect!

For those who don’t know, I’m Jenny Creasey a ceramicist currently living in Leicester. MY current work is a collection of porcelain vessels, all designed to reference and imitate paper. After graduating from a Design Crafts course at De Montfort University in Leicester I’ve now gone on to become Artist in Residence there and am working hard setting up my own business. I’ve also won a placement on the fantastic Enterprise Inc program, which gives me office space and a LOT of support in setting up my business.

We (businesses on the Ent Inc program) have a lot of talks and workshops put on for us covering all sorts of business-related topics: finance, marketing, HR, etc. This Thursday just gone we had “How to Write a Press Release,” which was put on by The Phoenix Partners. The workshop itself was very useful and informative, but it was the one to one talk I had with Rachel from the Phoenix Partners that really sparked my interest. We came up with a number of good ideas for my work and how I could use it to generate my self some publicity. It was also a really useful exercise to think about what I wanted to get from any publicity and where I’d need to think about sending my press releases in order to achieve those aims.

I’m used to writing a lot and I really enjoy it, but press releases have me stumped. I find it really difficult to big myself up in third person (“Jenny’s work is absolutely fantastic because….”) without feeling like a prize idiot! With the ideas Rachel and myself came up with I’m going to have to just suck it up and get down to business and start approaching companies with different ideas. It’s scary but exciting though. Following the chat on Thursday I now have a to-do list about as long as my arm! Set up a blog was on my list, at least I’ve crossed one off now!

Over and out.
Jenny