March Meet The Maker on Instagram

Morning my lovelies, just popping on here with a quick post about the fabulous March Meet The Maker over on Instagram. I’m sure you will have been following this anyway if you are on Instagram even if you are not taking part in the challenge yourself.

Day 4: Tools! This is a set of steel punches that Ellie Ingram, one of our much loved jewellers, uses on custom text pieces. There’s lots of icon punches around now on eBay and other sites but these ones are extra special because they’ve been hand made for Ellie by a man named Ian!

After getting a little frustrated that she couldn’t find an Instagram Challenge that she wanted to take part in, Joanne Hawker decided to make her own instead! This is how #MarchMeetTheMaker was born.

Day 8 Where – Joanne is still based in the South West of England but since the last #marchmeetthemaker she has moved into a lovely new house near the town of Taunton in Somerset. She’s not too far from the shops but is still within touching distance of fields, the Quantock Hills and the coast. But should she need a city adventure Bristol is only 30 minutes away by train.

This challenge is to help small businesses such as Joanne’s to tell the story behind the brand. It also aims to give an insight into the face, process and hard work that goes into creating all of the beautiful products that artists/designers/makers have to offer.

Day 3 | Workspace
Tanya is one of our jewellers and her studio is in the stunning setting of the @hylands_estate near Chelmsford in Essex. The Stables were converted into the @hylandsartiststudios 10 years ago and she is so lucky to be based there. Her studio has changed over the last month! It’s doubled in size. TANYA LOVES IT! She now has a space to sit with her customers to discuss commissions & she can do group lessons. Such exciting times!!

The challenge kicked off on Wednesday 1st March 2017 and I have really loved dipping in to Instagram when I have had time to spare to see great images. Jewellers, ceramicists, artists, makers have all been posting a daily photo to Instagram relating to the prompt of that day and they have tagged it with #MarchMeetTheMaker.

Day 6 raw materials – This is the post from Julia Davey, ceramicist. Nothing more raw than this stuff clay/clayslip . Here it is being poured into moulds. All Julia’s pieces are now cast off site using big vats of slip as her business grew from humble beginnings to the point there was just no keeping up with demand but Julia does miss this slippery stuff being physically in her studio. Raw materials back at Julia’s studio are mainly the transfers they use once the products arrive back before firing.

Many of Heart Gallery’s artists/designers/makers have taken part and they have really risen to the challenge; loved all the Boomerangs! I am really enjoying seeing all the images of them, their tools, their materials etc and looking forward to March 20th when the prompt for that day is ‘Sketchbook’.

I do wish Craig Fellows had joined in with March Meet The Maker as I always drool over his sketchbooks whenever we meet!

I’ve really enjoyed seeing the creative community come together with this challenge have you?

Day 9 – Work in Progress
One of our jewellers with us for Spring 2017 is Caroline Reynolds and she has been working on this silver, 18ct gold & Labradorite pendant and it’s lovely to see new work in progress. Her collection is currently with us and we do love Labradorite here at Heart Gallery

If you would like to see Joanne’s posts be sure to follow @joannehawker on Instagram and you can read an interview with her here over on Folksy.