It's been a good but busy week so it's taken until this Friday evening for me to realise it's been a whole seven days since I decided to start a blog and all I've managed is one post....oh dear. I have been thinking about it at various points over the week and, rather than me providing random thoughts when they occur to me, I decided that it would be good to have a bit of focus with it.
So I think a good direction would be to share with you the lead up to my third trade fair for my business -
Pulse Launchpad. This one feels quite different though as I won't be under the supportive umbrella of "Spotted" or "Spotted Plus" by
Charlotte Abrahams at
Top Drawer where there was just twelve of us embracing the world of trade fairs for the first time! However I've heard everyone in the Launchpad area has a similar camaraderie, so I'm sure it will be fun too!
Anyway, I thought I would begin the life of my blog by telling you a bit more about Laura Spring and how I am where I am...
Originally from Stoke-on-Trent, I travelled to Glasgow to study Visual Communication at The
Glasgow School of Art back in 1999 and upon graduating in 2002, I decided to stay and Glasgow became my home. I've often left for various periods of time from three days to three months to do other things, but it's a great city and despite the rain (which obviously inspires my work, so it's not all bad!) I do love it here.
After graduating, I went down the route of working in the theatre mainly doing costume jobs and was lucky enough to work with some amazing people and do some wonderful things. A wonderful lady taught me most of what I know about sewing and I'll never forget the fun days and laughs I had at the world of
Scottish Opera.
However, I missed making my own work and I'd always loved screen printing so a friend and I from art school set up our textile printing studio here in Glasgow that we worked collaboratively out of for three years. Now we work on separate things from the same studio and it was at the start of last year that I began dabbling with making luggage. A good friend knew I loved vintage patterns and gave me a great pattern for an old 1970s style suitcase made from fabric. I had already begun thinking about the patterns we see and if there was ever a relationship between them and their function, so with this in mind, I began creating patterns for luggage that would relate to the destinations of where we might travel to. During this time, I was very lucky to be awarded the Scottish Craft Residency 2011 at
Cove Park where I got to develop these ideas further in the most amazing setting. I can't speak highly enough of this experience....six weeks to just make work in a beautiful studio with lots of incredible people around me was one of my highlights to date.
Anyway, from there I was invited by Charlotte Abrahams to exhibit my luggage at Top Drawer as part of her "Spotted" stand (although at the time of being invited all I had was one suitcase so it was a busy summer!) and things went from there....
So here I am. Eleven weeks from Pulse Launchpad. I'm branching out from luggage, so wish me luck....
Inspired by the meteorological kites that I have researched, I am creating an exciting, new installation that will be shown alongside my existing collection. I don't want to give too much away, but here's a sneak peek on the right of what's to come.