Laura Bradshaw-Heap blog is moving!!

This is a little note to my followers- the Laura Bradshaw-Heap blog is moving to Facebook-

please click here to "like"

thanks for reading!

this is me

The this is me book is now available to buy on www.klimt02.net

super exciting!

--- suspended ---

New and exciting things are on hand ----

take a look at my latest exciting project- with a blog all of its own!

'suspended' will be an exhibition curated by myself as part of Schmuck 12-


keep an eye out for further exciting details :)

Schmuck 2012 exhibition opportunity!

I am curating an exhibition tilted 'suspended' as part of this years Schmuck2012 show in Munich from 14th-20th March 2012.
The deadline, I am afraid is very tight-

If you think you might be interested please can you email me your interest with 1-3 images of your current work by
30th of Novembe, GMTr. (as i realise there is no time to create new pieces for this at this stage!)

The exhibition will take place in a small craft gallery in Munich. The selection of work will be suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the gallery.

The selected jewellers will be notified by the 1st of December.
Further details will be supplied once a selection of jewellers is made.

You are welcome to create a new piece for this exhibition or send past work, as long as it has not been seen at Schmuck before.
I will be looking for between one and three items of jewellery from each selected jeweller.

If you know of anyone who may be interested please do forward this email.

Thanks for your time,
and I hope to hear from you soon,
Laura

ohhhhhhhh....

work in progress

This is me

Please can you help fund this

 exciting project?

Via We Fund it

I have been working on the most amazing community project in co-ordination with Brent Irish Advisory Services and a group of enthusiastic Irish Traveller women. 

Little is known about Irish Traveler Culture in the wider community, with the exception of what has been seen on "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding", and what is read in the tabloids.

Yet it is a distinct and rich culture and the women are keen to share their experiences.

Through the progression of this project - and future projects within the coffee morning structure – confidence developed, confidence to aspire to bigger and more ambitious projects in the future.

We aim to produce a book, which will have a mix of the work created by the participants and the work I have made, inspired by the process of the project.

We have a great team of people trying to make this project a success, a wonderful photographer, graphic artist, social workers and a make up artist!

But we need help toward the 

printing of this book!!!!!! 

New gems

A project working with some wonderful Irish Traveller women...

The first step towards designing some jewellery inspired by the project..

Are we ashamed of our community art jewellery projects?

DO you do community/participatory projects alongside your art jewellery practice?

Does this feed into your practice as a jeweller?, does it provide well needed income, or another outlet for your creativity?

I am conducting research into how community and participatory art projects positively affect art jewellery practices.

And I would love to hear from YOU!

snow globes in progress......

here are my shiny and lovely snow globes in waiting..... 

glitter water and snow on its way....

Schmuck Quickies

 I found this fab project  today.... had to share....

The Jeweller is Yuka Oyama based in Germany..

This is what she says about the project:

"

In the march towards global standardization in our consumer society, producing things of the same quality and thus eliminating differences and gray areas has been encouraged. Yet, we still hope to be different from others. Between these contradictions, Schmuck Quickies has departed.

In a hair salon like set up – 

one mirror, one chair, and a 

lot of material—I create 

customized jewelry for volunteers 

on the spot. Questions such as, 

“What kind of jewelry shall I make 

for you?” are asked at first. Then, 

I start creating according to the 

participants’ answers.

The project aims to revive dialogues 

that were exchanged between a 

dressmaker and wearer. Ideas, 

opinions, as well as mundane topics 

were spoken while bodylines were 

pinned down.

All of the materials for Schmuck 

Quickies come from local objects that 

have lost their original use. One of the 

simplest forms of jewelry was to take 

things that were available in one’s 

environment and to put them on body. 

Making jewelry that is individual can 

also mean reassessing what is

available in our every day life." 

hug anyone?

image from here

I came across this interesing website today....

Free Hugs

'In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.'

Project: How to make this room a better teaching/learning environment?

 How to improve the teaching/learning environment of this somewhat basic and not quite functional room?

A lick of paint?, a clear out? nicer chairs, curtians that actually work? a new clean and shiney floor? IT equipment that actually works?.............. NAH!

lets love what we have got! lets REALLY look at what we have been given....

... this is a room which has had thousands of leaners between its walls, learning, developing, growing....

Every scuff, mark, pin hole, tear and scrap is a faded memory, residue left over from someone teaching, someone learning.....

Each scuff, mark, pin hole, tear and scrap is put on top of more scuffs, marks, pin holes, tears and scraps , building up a patchwork history .....

So, instead of wanting to change this environment, lets embrace it, lets REALLY look at what we have and enjoy the imperfections.

It is only by loving and enjoying what you have, that you can truly use it effectively*

So some of my starter images:

* Idea taken from Donald A. Norman 'Emotional Design, Why we love and hate everyday objects'.

Usus/Usures

'Usus/Usures explores the wearing down of architecture from a material point of view.' An exhibition at the Belgium Pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2010 by ROTOR, which shows users’ traces in a generic city.

They collect scratched benches, a prostitute’s waiting corner, eroded granite tiles surrounding an elevator’s button, a worn down door handle, or a hard-to-clean rubber flooring from the subway…

'Construction materials go through several phases over the course of their lives [...] Consider one of these in particular: the time when the material is subjected to use. When a material is used in the exposed surface of a building, it is gradually transformed by deposits, imprints, scratches and other traces of wear. [...] It can no longer be a convenient abstraction [...] and must from now on confront the uses and the users who mark and shape its very substance.

The more muddled, the richer.'

marine plastic

Global depository for images of beached marine plastic objects

This online art project aims to be a place to deposit images of plastic objects found by mainly other foragers and beach combers from around the world. It is intended it to be a space to hold not just the images of the lost and found objects, but also to record the names of those who find them, and the date and location of the find.

With no definitive end, and as long as participants still keep submitting images, the bank of objects will grow, as will It is hoped an awareness of the enormity of the plastic pollution of our worldwide oceans.

http://www.marineplastic.org/

A long side this project Steve Mcpherson creates fantastic works of art from these gathered fragments......

love me live with me

While out in London, visiting Origin I came across this fantastic stall, where everything was handmade and .. for free...

but on a condition, that after one week we would send what ever item we took, to someone else....

Here is a picture of my coat, with all its usual brooches, and one extra, one with numbers... but what do they mean?!!!

check out:

http://www.lovemelivewithme.com/  for the answer......

decorate the roads

100 Ring project. Day 15. A selection of work in progress.

The Beautiful Bundoran, Donegal, Ireland