Laura Bradshaw-Heap

Laura Bradshaw-Heap blog is moving!!

2012-01-23T06:56:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-19T06:04:00.000-08:00

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

super exciting!

--- suspended ---

2011-12-11T03:45:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-28T01:17:00.001-08:00

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....

2011-08-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

work in progress

2011-08-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

This is me

2011-08-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-07-17T02:04:00.000-07:00

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......

2011-03-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

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

glitter water and snow on its way....

Schmuck Quickies

2011-02-13T12:09:00.000-08:00

 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?

2010-12-29T13:15:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-10-30T02:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

'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

2010-10-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-04T03:01:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

The Beautiful Bundoran, Donegal, Ireland

2010-09-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

British Summer.

2010-09-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

Haris Epaminonda at Tate Modern

2010-08-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

Haris Epaminond

As part of her ongoing series 'Volumes', Haris Epaminonda creates precise installations consisting mainly of found objects and images. Adopting and then undoing conventional modes of exhibition-making and museum display, Epaminonda develops all-encompassing environments that are simultaneously familiar and new.

For VOL. VI, Epaminonda has brought  together a series of objects from around the world. Wooden carvings,  clay vases, statuettes and pages of books – all taken out of their  original context – are juxtaposed with each other to form new  associations and readings. The artist purposefully avoids stating the  origin of each element.

Viewers are invited to draw from their own  cultural and social experience and engage with the work without relying  on a predetermined explanation of origin and meaning. Though  constructed from tangible objects arranged in a specific physical space,  the work offers visitors the potential for imaginary journeys through  distant times and places.

pisa

2010-08-27T01:58:00.000-07:00

LOOK ! some one thought of pretending to hold the tower up for a photo..... how original.

Framed......

view from my hotel.....

Ooh Lala

2010-08-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

http://misterclarke.wordpress.com/

One of the winners of the Jerwood Contemporary Makers Prize 2010

beautiful boxes with dubious contents

2010-08-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

Final show at Alchimia and some wonderful work

2010-08-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

luz

helen and david

bengu

geri

luz

mary

michelle

birgit

sayaka

Last day of Alchimia Workshop... First step toward 100 ring project...

2010-08-10T01:43:00.000-07:00

Geri's Party

2010-08-10T01:29:00.000-07:00

material studies with Helen and David

2010-08-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

Inspiration from the streets of Florence...

2010-08-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

Museum of Zoology and Natural History "La Specola"

2010-08-07T09:20:00.000-07:00

Museum of Zoology and Natural History "La Specola"

Images from Florence......

2010-08-06T01:50:00.000-07:00

view from my window......

better view from my window...

artist in the streets....

2010-07-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

last year as part of their artist in the streets program, i was invited to go to Mainz in Germany, a beautiful historic city.
We where given a slightly naff theme of 'we are all one together' or something like that.
I created this object in response to my visit.

It is inspired by a very kitsch decoration found in a trinket store along the river Rhine, nostalgia and time.

David Bielander & Helen Britton: Authenticity in the age of style surfing

2010-07-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

well, I am off for a trip of a life time on Sunday, leaving at a horrible 5.30am.
I am flying to Florence to do a two week course with David Bielander &; Helen Britton: Authenticity in the age of style surfing, and I can not wait.

A course found on the wonderful klimt02 website, vital for any artist jeweller! it is in the wonderful Achimia School for Contemporary Jewellery.
Keep watching to see the results!

New Traditional Jewellery Competition 2010

2010-07-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

www.newtraditionaljewellery.com

I have finally completed, and posted, my entry for the New Traditional Jewellery Competition.

This year the brief was about 'true colours'. As part of this competition you must chose an item of jewellery which inspires your design. Mine was a beautiful bow necklace I found at the V &A; A museum here in London.

Further details and images to follow!!

MY first Blog.

2010-07-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

Hello Blogosphere!
Welcome to my first blog.
Let me introduce myself!

I am a maker of things.
my chosen field is jewellery. I am interested in jewellery as a means of expression rather then a functional tool.
I am fascinated by the idea of the 'residue narrative' found in old, battered, broken and neglected jewellery pieces. Items once cherished for sentimental reasons, long since forgotten.

This blog will document my progress through the truly fascinating world of contemporary art jewellery, an area which crosses the boundaries between fine art and craft...