Happy Holidays!

This year's flock of red & gold folk bird decorations have flown the nest. Each year I create a new bird design just in time for Christmas. The birds are then screen printed by hand in two colours onto kraft recycled card. Once the ink is dry each bird is glued together, cut out & threaded by hand so it's ready to hang.

Birmingham Open Studios 2018

September is going to be BUSY! This month I'll be taking part in Birmingham Open Studios https://artsbrum.com/open-studios/ for the first time. Now in it's second year Open Studios takes place in Moseley, Kings Heath and Stirchley. The event means artists can display their artwork in their own homes or studios where members of the public can visit them. Gosia Weber www.bagshandmade.co.uk has very kindly invited me to exhibit at her home in Kingsheath. I'll be displaying my colourful greetings cards and screen prints alongside her beautiful leather bags, purses and accessories. You can find us at 10 Milford Place just off Kings Heath High Street on Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th of September. 

Screen Printing Workshop at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

This workshop is a chance to learn to screen print tote bags at the wonderful Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Design and print your own colourful tote bag inspired by Dippy the dinosaur or the museum’s collection of birds, nests and eggs! 

In the workshop you will create a bold design or pattern inspired by dinosaurs, Jurassic plants, birds or something of your choice. You will then use a scalpel to hand cut stencils based on your design from either paper or thin plastic. Using your stencils you will screen print your design onto tote bags with a silk screen, squeegee and bright coloured fabric inks. All materials and equipment will be provided including two plain tote bags each, plain fabric to test ideas on and bright coloured and fluorescent water based fabric inks. 

For more information or to book a place please use this link.
http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag/whats-on/adult-workshop-dinosaur-and-bird-tote-bag-printing-c494a7ef-eb5b-40a0-8f18-d41d0c76bc78

Dippy The Dinosaur on Tour

 

To celebrate Dippy the Dinosaur coming to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery I've created a dinosaur themed workshop to deliver during the school holidays. I drew four new black & white designs; a stegosaurus, diplodocus, tyrannosaurus & triceratops. I then printed each one out onto transparent film & exposed all four designs onto silk screens.  

Next I screen printed almost two hundred dinosaurs onto fabric using bright coloured textile inks including fluorescent colours. It was hard work especially as all the dinosaurs also had to be ironed to fix the inks! They are now ready to be decorated by children in workshops at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. I'll be there on Friday the 3rd & Friday the 10th of August. More details about Dippy on Tour & activities at BM&AG are on their website.   

http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag/whats-on/family-art-workshops-all-things-dinosaur

Cream Teas & Screen Prints at Debbie Bryan in Nottingham

Nottingham is one of my favourite cities to visit especially as it is only about an hour away from Birmingham. I've had the chance to spend more time in the city since regularly traveling there to run workshops. It has some excellent art galleries, lovely independent shops and plenty of great places to eat. I was particularly happy to discover Debbie Bryan's shop and tea room on a quiet street the Lace Market. It's like a haven away from the busier parts of the city. I always try and stop by for a cup of Earl Grey and one of their delicious cream teas! After a few years of visiting it was lovely to finally meet Debbie and arrange for some of my work to be displayed. There is now a whole wall of my framed limited edition screen prints in the shop alongside a beautifully curated selection of art and craft. https://debbiebryan.co.uk/

 

Corita Kent: Get With The Action

Back home after a whirlwind tour of East Sussex visiting galleries including Farleys House and Gallery and the Jerwood Gallery. The reason for the trip and definitively the highlight was a screen print pilgrimage to see Corita Kent: Get With The Action at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft. Sister Mary Corita Kent was a nun who screen printed bright bold posters and banners during the 1960s and 70s. Her work was a combination of protest and religion which also incorporated elements of popular culture. She was an important part of the Pop Art movement but doesn't seem to get the same recognition as her more famous male contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg. 

Seeing Corita Kent's colourful screen prints is always so inspiring and uplifting. I was surprised there were so many on display at Ditchling Museum and it is well worth traveling to visit the exhibition www.ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk. But if it's too far to go I've posted photographs of almost all of the work on my facebook page! https://en-gb.facebook.com/karoline.rerrie/

Artwork at Artlink Hull

In January I was invited to have a selection of my limited edition screen prints, greetings cards, tote bags and tea towels on display in the shop at Artlink in Hull. My work was only meant to be there during March and April but luckily this coincided with the launch of Artlink's new website and online shop. I was pleased to be their first featured seller https://www.artlinkhull.co.uk/featured-seller-karoline-rerrie/
My work is still available at Artlink and also from their online shop  https://www.artlinkhull.co.uk/shop/

Summer Screen Printing Workshops for Adults!

This summer there will be lots of opportunities to learn to screen print on either tote-bags or paper! I am running several different workshops in Birmingham including;

14/07/18 Dinosaur & bird inspired tote bag printing with hand-cut stencils at BM&AG
11/08/18 Dinosaur & bird inspired tote bag printing with hand-cut stencils at BM&AG
http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag/whats-on/adult-workshop-dinosaur-and-bird-tote-bag-printing
25/08/2018 Screen printing on paper with hand cut stencils at the RBSA
http://www.rbsa.org.uk/workshops-learning/adult-workshops/course-list/screen-printing-with-hand-cut-stencils/

We will be creating bold designs and patterns, hand cutting stencils using scalpels and screen printing with silk screens, squeegees and bright coloured water based inks. All materials and equipment will be provided as well as hand outs with instructions. For more information about these workshops and to book places please use the links above.

Limited Edition Posters for Oscillate

Earlier this year I was commissioned to design and screen print a series of limited edition posters commemorating Oscillate for a retrospective exhibition at Centrala Space in Birmingham as part of Flatpack Festival 2018 http://flatpackfestival.org.uk/. It was a challenge as Oscillate was a club night I went to back in the 1990s... quite some time ago! I drew the artwork for the posters by hand in black and white before screen printing it in two or three colours using fluorescent inks. The designs and colours were inspired by Oscillate at Bonds and electronica from the early 1990s. The particular tracks that defined the experience for me and which influenced the posters are Chatter by Autechre, Simon from Sydney by LFO, De-Orbit by Speedy J and The Fires of Ork by The Fires of Ork. Music like this was the reason I went to Oscillate. At the time it was new, exciting and seemed to be about the future. It sounds as good today as it did back then and instantly reminds me of those nights at Bonds.

Made by Hand Cheltenham 2018

In March I exhibited at Made by Hand England in Cheltenham www.madebyhandengland.org.uk. The organisers also run The Contemporary Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey and Made by Hand in Cardiff. This was their first time in Cheltenham and it was also my first time taking part in such a large high profile event. I wasn't sure what to expect and  I didn't have much time to prepare but I did my best to make new work as well as take part in the social media campaign in the run up to the event.

My stand was only a small one but it was still much more expensive than the events I had previously participated in. Added to this was the cost of getting prints framed, travel, accommodation and food. It was alot of work to get ready for such a large event and also took quite a few hours to install everything on the day.

It was a great opportunity to exhibit my collection of limited edition screen prints at a high quality event alongside many well know established designer makers. I am glad I was able to take part though I am still not sure it was right for my work. With hindsight there were things I could have done to display my work better and make more of the experience. Perhaps one day I will try again!