Black Country Atelier is a 3D prototyping workspace. They also take design and architecture commissions and have just moved to the Jewellery Quarter.
I like the sound of their 3D printing workshops.
Yesterday afternoon I asked Twitter what I should write about next on CiB. I was given four topics and these are they (in reverse order).
Digbeth v the JQ (via @EleanorWi)
Ooh, good one – the battle of the so called ‘creative quarters’ – this could be fun. I’ve just moved from working in Digbeth to working in the Jewellery Quarter and Eleanor knows this, hence the request. FIGHT!
I shall now go on to disappoint with a bland appraisal of the two taken from my own point of view. Your experiences of the places may vary.
I’m enjoying the Jewellery Quarter. It’s nearer my house so cycling in is easier, there are useful amenities (there’s no need to get excited about cash machines around these parts) and there are some decent enough places to grab a drink after work.
The nightlife thing’s interesting. I’ve never been keen on St Paul’s Square as a place to go out but, with UAB book-ending things (with The Red Lion at one end, The Lord Cliffden at the other) and places like Vertu, The Vaults, The Drop Forge and soon The Rose Villa Tavern in between, I reckon we could start to see more people around here of a weekend. There are restaurants here too.
As for the creativity/arts/culture angle, there’s a bigger emphasis on heritage over this side of town, while a a lot of the current activity feels hidden away and goes on behind closed studio and workshop doors. Other than AE Harris (which I love) there isn’t much by way of a decent venue – there’s The Asylum and The Blue Orange Theatre but neither currently has a schedule of events that grabs me. Also, everything over this side of town seems quite managed and smoothly polished (which isn’t necessarily praise but is definitely a contrast).
Digbeth is rougher round the edges but it wears its distinctiveness quite proudly on its sleeve. It’s more performative. It feels like the art and creativity spills out of Eastside Projects, Grand Union, Vivid, Boxxed, Fazeley Studios and onto the streets. It’s a place for music and visual arts to tumble towards. If you want a night out and you like your music then Digbeth, with the Institute, Air, Space 2, The Rainbow, Irish Centre, Adam & Eve and others, can’t be beat.
Space must be cheaper there. That brings in the artist collectives, the gallery spaces and the graduates looking for their first studio space. It’s a shame a shame the developers have made such a mess of the place over the past few years though – too many decent places bulldozed leaving large swathes of cleared, fenced off land.
For a while, the Custard Factory drifted into becoming a nightclub which I’m not sure was a good idea, but maybe that was a result of trying to pack lots of activity into a fairly small area. It seems to be moving away from that again. Besides, Digbeth is sprawling away from the Custard Factory these days and that’s no bad thing.
Both sides of town suffer from a bit of a visibility problem – directing people to either from the city centre is no easy task.
So, to ramble to a conclusion – horses for courses, innit.
Comedy in Birmingham (via @RosieHighlight)
I’m going to duck this one slightly and refer back to the post I wrote a few months back about comedy in Birmingham. Although I’ve asked Ian and he’s reminded me about the Fat Penguin, Cheeky Monkey and Laughing Cows nights in Kings Heath/Moseley that are often overlooked. I’m not sure I mentioned The Drum as another venue for that sort of thing either.
The upshot of that previous conversation was that there’s a reasonable amount of stuff going on although we’re not quite world-beaters, there could be more and it could do with being more visible. Couldn’t that apply to pretty much anything we do here?
Burning Ham (via @LouisHudson)
Louis is presumably referring to EXYZT’s contribution to this year’s Fierce Festival. I wasn’t around Birmingham when most of the events were going on down there and this round-up made me a bit regretful of that. It’s good to see that they’ll be back to work on a new site for the next festival.
Bunnies (via @Ravonski)
With the whole arts funding situation having settled down somewhat and no more cuts looming in the immediate future, I haven’t had much cause to lighten a gloomy post by finishing with a picture of a bunny.
That said, I expect there’s still bad news to come as the effect of the earlier cuts comes to be felt. There’ll be a few more leaving parties, closed signs, permanently-out-of-office messages and euphemistic talk of ‘transitioning’.
So on that downbeat note, cue bunnies:
(Photo by captainsubtle)
Yesterday there was a vintage fair in the Jewellery Quarter. Charles J Davis tool some photos. The Flickr set’s here.
Design Space is a programme supported by the Birmingham City Council and the European Regional Development Fund that gives a select group of emerging jewellery artists free studio space and business classes for one year: in exchange, the participants must commit to work at least 30 hours a week developing their own design led business.
This year Design Space supports eighteen designer-makers, with participants from the United Kingdom, Taiwan, and the United States. The programme is highly sought after, and the eighteen participants were chosen from a large pool of applicants who were interviewed over the summer. In the years Design Space has been running, it has helped many new designer-makers establish themselves in Birmingham. Many of the jewellers who have relocated to Birmingham for Design Space would not have come here if it wasn’t for this scheme. Lynsey Pluck says, “I relocated to Birmingham from West Sussex solely because of the place I was offered on Design Space. Through this opportunity I have discovered the advantages of being based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and am making plans to continue living and working here.”
While free studio space in the Jewellery Quarter offers a huge jumpstart for the new jewellers, Design Space also offers a plethora of other benefits. Participants gain admission to the School of Jewellery’s studios and equipment, and this year’s participants are also being given 30 hours of access to the Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre (JIIC) to help them develop a new range of products using state-of-the-art equipment. Business courses and professional practice classes are held once a week and participants are also given one-to-one tutorials with mentors who are well-established in the jewellery field and free summer short courses at the School of Jewellery to further their training.
Since beginning the programme in September, there have been several opportunities for group exhibitions: Design Space currently shows work at the exciting new We are Birmingham shop. During the Christmas season they took part in Brilliantly Birmingham’s Open Studio event and Angel Craft Fair in Islington. In April all 18 members will be exhibiting brand new collections at the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate (stand #295).
You can see photos of pieces produced at Design Space, as well as links to individual makers’ websites, by visiting http://designspacejewellers.blogspot.com/
Visiting the Design Space studio is highly recommended: enjoy a cup of tea while getting a rare behind-the-scenes look at every stage of jewellery production. The display cabinets in the front room showcase the jewellery collections of all eighteen participants, while the adjacent studio gives you a unique opportunity to see these highly skilled makers at work. To arrange a visit, please contact Katherine Campbell-Legg or Kerry O’Connor: 0121 551 9071 or design_space@hotmail.co.uk
If you are interested in being a part of Design Space, please see Birmingham City Council’s website for information on applying. The programme runs for 12 calendar months, from October to September every year.
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By Miriam Rowe
American jeweller Miriam Rowe now lives in Birmingham and runs her business from the Jewellery Quarter because of Design Space. Take a look at her work at http://www.miriamrowe.com
Fluid Space Arts launch a new exhibition, SEEN, on 17 December, in their new Jewellery Quarter residence at 32-35 Water Street Birmingham B3 1H.
Aiming to expose upcoming artists and designers, with the opportunity to network with local artists and share talent, the launch also offers an opportunity to buy original art pieces at their first artist market which takes place from 4pm – 8pm.
The official launch will take place from 6pm – 8pm, with a live art performance by Tru-Street Dance.
The Bridge is a film made by Virtual Extreme Youth Media CIC, based in the Jewellery Quarter, to raise awareness around mental health.
More info via Screen WM.
Daisy Whitehouse is an illustrator. Murray Somerville is also an illustrator. But together they are Daze-Ray and they’re turning 48 Vyse Street in the Jewellery Quarter into an illustration exhibition from 21-28 May. The opening’s tonight – here’s the Facebook event and here’s the flyer:
TROVE’s next exhibition Show of Science presents four artists, including a.a.s., Victoria Jenkins, Lee Stowers and Luke Williams, exhibiting in the Jewellery Quarter’s old science museum. Here’s what TROVE have said about it:
All pieces hint at the historic, at first glance there is nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary, though with closer inspection there is something odd about the works. The double take allows this Show of Science to move from a series of simple objects of science to pieces that make you question its use, its reliability as official face and of the make believe.
There’s a preview of the exhibition on Friday 30th April, 6 – 8pm and the exhibition will be open from 30th April – 16th May by appointment. If you want to check it out, contact Charlie or David at TROVE.
(Photo by Pete Ashton)
Each month ARC invites regional guest curators to present an exhibition of works at The Vaults in the Jewellery Quarter. TROVE gallery are kicking off ARC’s 2010 programme with a free exhibition at The Vaults on 24th February, 6-8pm for one night only.
The Vaults Bazaar brings together a selection of regional and national artists that TROVE invited to take part in this exhibition. Each offering a different proposal of work, each vault will be different from classic painting through film to performance, a truly bizarre mix.
Artists on show on the 24th will include Jane Ball, Graham Chorlton, Coco DeVille, Caitlin Griffiths, Daniel Lehan, Bigid McLeer, Milk,Two Sugars, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Short and Steve Varndell.
A short video featuring 300-year old manufacturing company, Toye, Kenning & Spencer. Their Jewellery Quarter factory produces their metal goods and houses their design department.
The firm designs and produces a wide variety of items including medals (including MBEs, OBEs, CBEs, GBEs, KBEs and DBEs for the Queens honors), trophies (examples produced by Toye being both the FA Cup and the Davis), buttons and cufflinks (for some of the biggest fashion houses worldwide), corporate gifts, military uniform and headwear and societies regalia.
- genzai·chi » fizzPOP: thoughts about meeting, sharing and learning
Lots of good stuff about fizzPOP and the recent Howduino session - My Jewellery Quarter : Birmingham designer becomes first UK jewellery maker to open in China
“Fei Liu, who already sells his stunning designs at Harrods, Liberty and Harvey Nichols, has opened a stand-alone shop in Beijing as part of his plans to expand outside the UK” - Tindal Street author shortlisted for Costa
Raphael Selbourne’s ‘Beauty’ has been shortlisted in the First Novel category - Screen WM – TV leading light unveils code of practice plansfor media interns
“GMTV chair and Skillset chairman Clive Jones will tomorrow (November 25) set out plans to make graduate internships in the Creative Media Industries as fair and open as possible” - Erdington Arts Forum
Pretty much as soon as I came across it, this blog went quiet. Here’s hopeing it’s just on sabbatical (or has moved somewhere else – anyone know?) - Chinaplate Theatre > The Optimists
“The Optimists is China Plate’s new development opportunity for young professional makers. Bridging the gap between training and the industry The Optimists supports the artistic careers of the future” - Hippodrome chief says stage is set to help lift Birmingham’s spirits
Interview with Stuart Griffiths in the BPo
Twice Oscar-nominated film director Mike Figgis will be coming to Birmingham on 12 March as the latest speaker in the Boilerhouse Voices series of events staged by Jewellery Quarter based communications consultancy Boilerhouse. Figgis will address an invited audience of Boilerhouse guests, but a limited number of tickets will be available to creative industries professionals on an application basis.
Mike Figgis, whose Hollywood credits include Leaving Las Vegas and Internal Affairs, is a visionary filmmaker who thrives on taking artistic risks. For the last decade, he has been working at the cutting edge of creative digital video. His film Timecode was a product of this, shot in a single day without a script and using four digital cameras to create separate stories unfolding simultaneously in real time on a quadruple split screen.
If you would like to apply for a ticket contact Rob Adams: rob.adams@boilerhouse.co.uk.
Birmingham Flickrers met for a photo-taking wander around the Jewellery Quarter yesterday and the photos are starting to go up online. Here’s the slideshow:
New people are always welcome so if you’re interested in going along then join the Birmingham Flickrmeet group. The next Flickrmeet will be on Sunday 8 Feb (location tbc).
I mentioned a few weeks back that it’d be nice to know of a few people blogging about jewellery in Birmingham. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
Jewellery Quarter – the newly launched site has a blog which Andy Munro (of the JQ Regeneration Partnership) and David Louis will be contributing to. David says:
I will also be mentioning other people in the Jewellery Quarter that are blogging about their new products, both new and established businesses that are taking technology and applying it to there own businesses sharing their ideas with all who are interested, there are 4 blogs ongoing from the Jewellery Quarter that I know of and I invite any one in the Jewellery Quarter that is blogging to send me a link and I will do my best to get you a mention here
So far he’s found:
- Design Space 09
- Clare Victoria Pardoe
- Centrepiece; and, of course
- David Louis
I have to thank Clare Victoria Pardoe for using the comments after my previous post to mention:
There’s also the Brilliantly Birmingham blog and, not solely dedicated to jewellery, the jewelleryquarterbirmingham.com blog and MyJQ.
Any more I’ve missed? Put a link in the comments and I’ll see about adding them to this list.
Apparently this video will be used on the new Jewellery Quarter Regeneration Partnership website which will be launched soon.
Found via a tweet from Gecal.
Any thoughts?
