Islington Contemporary Art & Design Fair 2010 ........reflections on......

Two weeks has given me the chance to reflect on my participation in the Islington Contemporary Art & Design fair at the Candid Arts Trust.  Well in truth it was a mixed bag.  Whilst I may not be financially better off the public seemed to respond well to my new work and I gained lots of valuable feedback.  To top it all I met some amazing new designers too, here are a selection of just a few.....

Gabrielle Vary

Gabrielle creates beautiful knitted fabrics for the home and fashion accessories.  She had some absolutely gorgeous throws and really unusual knitted fabric stools!  You can catch her at the Selvedge Christmas Fair, and see her work at www.gabriellevary.co.uk 

Anna Woodall

I was lucky enough to be opposite Anna Woodall, who had some wonderfully tactile screen prints on display.  Her floor covering drew lots of attention from the public too.  This piece had lots of lovely intricate layers of screen print, beautifully composed and coloured.  You can see more of Anna's work at www.maude-design.co.uk

Suzi Mclaughlin

Suzi's work I only discovered later on in the show, and I'm not sure that the venue did her work justice.  Her beautiful laser cut papers and origami flowers were just amazing, such detail and wonderful use of colour.  Her work is currently appearing in many shop installations in London and beyond.  You can see just how unique it is at www.suzimclaughlin.blogspot.com

Overall Islington was a really valuable opening experience to bigger fairs in London, it's certainly not put me off applying for more in the future, so watch this space.......