Crafters everywhere love a good craft fair. One of the best is Origin – the London Craft Fair, which is based in one of the UK capital’s finest old buildings, Somerset House.

Origin replaces The Chelsea Crafts Fair, which the Crafts Council ran for 26 years as Europe’s leading craft event. Here’s how the organizers describe it :

“The Crafts Council launched Origin: The London Craft Fair in October 2006. The event brings together over 300 of the most innovative and influential international designer-makers and is a rare opportunity to meet these makers and buy their work. Objects on show range from fashion accessories to functional and decorative objects, with the opportunity to commission one-off works of contemporary craft. Glass, ceramics, jewellery, metal, furniture, paper, basketry, wood and textiles are all represented, making the fair a true celebration of the unique and the hand-made. Origin takes place annually in Ben Kelly’s specially designed pavilion in the Somerset House courtyard.”

Exhibition Information
Week One: Tues 2 October – Sun 7 October 2007, Week Two: Tues 9 October – Sun 14 October 2007

If you missed Origin 2006 you can still view the list of Exhibitors 2006 or contact us to purchase the catalogue for £6 plus P&P.

Exhibitor application packs for this year’s Origin can be downloaded from Apply for Origin 2007.

Origin enquiries – Email: origin@craftscouncil.org.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7806 2512
Press enquiries – Email: media@craftscouncil.org.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7806 2580

Have you ever wanted to paint a mural? Or maybe the bottom of a swimming pool? It’s not nearly as difficult as it seems and, even if you’re a bit short on artistic talent, the results can be very effective.

The most important part of such a project is planning. Measure the area you have to paint and then draw a rectangle to scale on a piece of paper. Decide on your design and sketch it out, then fill in with color.

The simpler the color scheme, the easier it will be to achieve once you come to paint the real thing. Probably the best is to aim at a cartoon style with its flat areas of color and no shading. The reason for this is that the more colors are used, the more mixing of paint you’re going to have to do. When working with large quantities, that can be very messy and time-consuming if you’re struggling to get subtle nuances of hue. Cartoons also outline everything and this is easy to reproduce as the basic sketch on the final surface.

When I say cartoon, don’t think I mean the kiddy Donald Duck/Mickey Mouse kind of thing. As an example, years ago I was asked to paint a picture of a mermaid and dolphin on a swimming pool bottom (it’s hard holding your breath long enough to do that – no, I lie, the pool was empty). I sketched out the design and then emphasized the important outlines with bold lines, filling in with flat color afterwards; it wasn’t Walt Disney but nor was it Rembrandt. Think of it rather as simplified reality.

Don’t be too fussy over exact shades of color to be used. When you get to the store to buy the paints, you’ll have to accept a few basic reds, blues and yellows that you can mix to get the colors you want. Theoretically, you should be able to mix any color you want with those three but it can be a painstaking task to get precisely the shade you want. Go for a few more colors that are at least close to what you had envisaged. Be sure to get a couple of cans of black and white too.

Okay, now you have the sketch and the paints (and your trusty brushes that you cleaned so thoroughly after decorating last week) and the daunting surface you’ve decided to release your artistic endeavors upon awaits. Frightening, isn’t it?

But be of good cheer – once you get started you will enjoy it immensely and in the end you will have something to amaze your friends with. But that must wait until my next post…

I know … it was only recently we had another new writer here. But Duncan Cairncross moved out into the countryside and found it impossible to get a stable internet connection. Regretfully, he has asked to be excused duty.

However, we are positively brimming with delight at obtaining the immaculate services of Clive Allen and Andrea A. Paulsen, who also write a number of other sites for the Syntagma magazine.

We’ve been calling them the Boston Bloggers for a while, but actually they live a little way outside that historic city, so I won’t use the term here. Hmm. It’s a good trademark, though.

Clive is a bit of a dab hand at interior design and wants to do some work on that. He has a degree in Fine Art, which will stand him in good stead here.

Andrea is a poet and turns her hand to anything artistic and financial, so should find plenty to do on this site.

I won’t anticipate their plans but let them unfold naturally, as all good plans should.

John

Whenever you open an older book in the library and find the paper on the inside of the cover has been “marbled”, have you ever wondered how it’s done? Probably some complex industrial process, you might guess.

But actually it isn’t. It’s a fairly simple procedure requiring only a bit of practice and a flair for creating the patterns. Here’s what you need to get started :

* Some marbling ink — obtainable from most craft outlets.
* A tray big enough to take your paper, whether letter-sized, A4, or bigger.
* Paper — not varnished or shiny.
* Some newspaper to lay out the wet sheets.
* A paintbrush, stylus, comb or feather to create the patterns in the ink.

The process is simple.

* Fill a flat-bottomed tray with about an inch of water.
* With a brush or eye-dropper put a splash of ink on the water. It will spread out quickly in widening circles.
* Drop in other colours and experiment twirling them around with a comb or stylus.
* When satisfied, place the paper carefully on the liquid surface. Wait for about one minute.
* Hold one end of the paper and draw it up and out of the liquid.
* Wash the paper under running water to dislodge excess ink.
* Place the paper on newspaper to dry.
* When completely dry leave it under a few heavy books overnight to iron out the wrinkles.

There are many variations on this craft as you can guess, and I found five or six excellent books on marbling in the local library.

This is a really interesting craft if you have an artistic temperament. Home-marbled paper is also a good conversation piece. Some artists even do this for a living, supplying printers with bulk quantities, or special commissions.