Back to basics residency at Arteles, Finland - 2017
This is the first in a series of posts about my residency in Finland in 2017. The residency was made possible by the generous support of Creative Scotland and Arteles.
This blog is an edited version of one you may have read on my previous website.
2016 was a year with many highs and lows. I found an amazing new studio which I loved but I was struggling to find meaning in my work and I was finding it difficult to keep my business afloat; between July and September I hit a particularly low point. I wasn’t enjoying the work I was creating for my wonderful galleries and it made me sad that the work I was giving them to best represent myself wasn’t up to the standard I expected of myself.
So in September I took the month off from paid client work and decided to do more things that would nourish my creativity: going for hikes with my friends, meditating, visiting galleries and exhibitions, and working in my sketchbooks again. The month was over all too soon but I knew it had been beneficial. I had found myself emerging from it with a sense that there was a lot more creativity within me that I’d not explored and I had found a better balance thanks to the meditation and the head space that had given me. However, the business had suffered so it was back to work creating new pieces and working on collaborations.
Towards the end of September I found a residency that spoke to all of the areas I had been looking at; the Back to Basics Residency at the Arteles Creative Center in Finland.
From the application - "Back to Basics residency program gives artists an opportunity to stop the information overflow, clear their mind, get back to focus and (re)discover the very basis of their creative practice and being."
The residency theme was about lessening distractions by having no internet, no mobile phones, daily meditation, and fostering more focus. More importantly you didn’t have to pigeon-hole yourself into specific criteria with a defined end-goal in mind. I knew this was the kind of environment that would nourish me and I started my application straight away. I explained my creative rut and my desire to make jewellery that makes my heart sing. I felt my application probably wasn't long enough, but I had done my best to explain why I thought it would be so beneficial to me, so I sent it off without a thought that I’d actually get in.
On the 18th of October I received an email from Arteles congratulating me on my successful application to the residency. I was delighted and completely stunned. I couldn’t believe that I’d actually gotten in, a spark ignited within me that day! From 263 applications from around the world I was one of 36 artists selected for one of the three month long residencies to take place in April, May and June. I was given a place on the April residency with 12 other artists, (which later turned out to be 11) that would be staying there that month.
The two buildings of the Artele Creative Centre, Finland.
As the months passed between October and April I had many other things to focus on; keeping the jewellery business going, a fair few Christmas commissions to design and make, and a number of craft fairs around Edinburgh to exhibit at. I also had a new range of jewellery (now discontinued) that I’d created during my month off in September that I wanted to share with galleries.
Preparing for Finland.
At the beginning of 2017 I knew I had to start organising for Finland, I had to think about how I would survive there. I wasn’t taking my jewellery making tools because I wanted to focus on the areas I felt I was lacking in, which were all before the making process. Therefore I wouldn’t be able to fulfil customer orders, and with no way to make an income I turned to funding. I applied to Creative Scotland’s Open Project Funding to cover my expenses whilst I was there as well as some time once I had returned and I spent a large part of January and February working on my application. (This funding is no longer available and has changed to Open Fund: Sustaining Creative Development.)
I thought I wanted to create jewellery based on the landscapes and inspiration I found in Finland. However the more I thought about it, and the more time I spent talking to my sister (who’s excellent at questioning people in just the right way to bring out a solution) the more I realised that I actually wanted to research and really understand my creative process - the journey between my inspiration of landscapes and the finished pieces of jewellery. What happens along that path, and why could I easily work out what my customers wanted even if they didn't know, but couldn’t for myself?!
After planning and submitting my application for funding, I almost immediately started looking for books, blog posts, and information I could download that I thought would be interesting to research and read during my time offline in Finland. The end of March came around and with only a few days until my trip I received an email from Creative Scotland stating that I had received my funding. I was delighted, and in a few days I was off to Finland!
