Knitting @ Phoenix

On the third Saturday of every month Phoenix Art Group is taken over by “Knitting @ Phoenix.” From 10am till 3pm a regular group of knitters come together to share projects, technical knowledge, and to enjoy the relaxed and friendly Phoenix atmosphere.
Here are some quotes and photos from October’s “Knitting @ Phoenix”

” I’ve started knitting for my blankets as I have gained confidence because expert knitters are on hand to help”

“I’m enjoying the relaxed atmosphere and knitting is good exercise for my hands. I usually only come to the knitting group but I got involved in the etching workshop”

“Since seeing a sock knitting demonstration at Knitting @Phoenix I have increased my experience and made many pairs for christmas presents. I find that knitting is an easy craft to pick up when you fancy it”

“I’m currently being rather challenged by knitting my first sock. I enjoy Phoenix knitting week as it alows me to devote time to crafting instead of other art activities.”

The next Knitting @ Phoenix is Saturday 19th November, why not come along and meet our friendly group, have a go at learning knitting, take advantage of the experts on hand, or just spend time working on a knitting project.

The normal Phoenix fee of £4 applies to Knitting @ Phoenix, and there are the usual tea, coffee and biscuits available.

“100 Transporter Bridges Project”

Members of Phoenix Art Group recently got involved in making an etching to celebrate the Transporter bridges 100th Birthday. Alongside regular Phoenix members we had three people attend the group one Saturday in September especially to engage in this workshop, one of whom is an artist for spiderman!

“100 Transporter bridges” now has 34 images of a wide variety of marks, tones and subjects, from abseiling down to a very dark and spooky clock tower and an image of the Transporter and Temenos made by a young budding artist of six years. Images of the fantastic work created so far can be seenthe project’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/100-Transporter-Bridges/248090081899062?sk=info), why not go and have a look,  you will be amazed!

If you have not taken part in this project and you want to be one of the one hundred people contact Adrian Moule 07970202135 or adrianmoule66@hotmail.com for information on future workshops.

Some more information about the project, from the recent press release:

Adrian Moule (painter and print maker) and Glynis Darlow (Designs in Silver) have come together to celebrate the Centenary of the Transporter Bridge and want to involve the public in this by offering workshops in Etching, a printmaking technique, at a reduced cost so that they can create a tableau of 100 sketches of the Transporter Bridge.

We are hoping to capture the public’s imagination by creating this collection of one hundred individual views of this iconic bridge that will be exhibited together as a single image.

This is an opportunity for the public to be a part of a collective approach to the making of a piece celebrating this great piece of engineering in Middlesbrough. This is a chance to learn the printing technique and to be a part of this unique event. Each workshop covers the drawing and etching of the plate, printing a print for the collection and two prints for the individual to take away with them. Further prints can be made at the cost of the materials.

The workshops are open to all people over the age of 11yrs (under 16’s must be accompanied by an adult).

Fee to cover materials and expenses £8.00 per participant for a ½ day workshop. Places are limited at each workshop to give a good working space and must be booked in advance.

To book your place contact the artist Adrian Moule E-mail adrianmoule66@hotmail.com Tel 07970202135

Updates coming soon…

Hello Phoenix Art Group readers!

We apologise for the lack of posts recently, we have all been very busy with different projects, but we are back now, say stay tuned for some new posts coming soon, including Adrian’s 100 Transporter Bridges project, a review of our recent trip to Newcastle and Gateshead and much much more!

Don’t forget, Phoenix Art Group meets every Saturday at Portrack Community Centre in Stockon-on-Tees, from 10am to 3pm, £4.00 per session, all welcome! Come and visit us and have a go at something creative!

Phoenix Art Group at NEIMME – Part 2!

With the summer school over it was time to focus on preparing for an exhibition.  This was to start at the end of November and finish January 2^nd after Christmas 2010.  Jane was tied to finishing the Clippie mat and the appliqué that the young people had started.

I started to look at painting in the dark and set about a series of water colours of the miners lamps the Institute has in its archive.  I set them out on a table and lit them with a single tea light and then tried to capture this whilst working in the dark.  During this process I photographed what I was doing and this led on to doing a series of photographs of the miners lamps and then I thought it would be interesting to compare them with the seven sisters, the constellation of stars called Pleiades.

Each of these is a development in the design of the miners lamp and then the safety lamp.  I like the idea of the light travelling from the candle and reflecting off the object to the lens.  I am interested in this representing time and the illumination representing ideas forming and that these ideas are trapped by the time and organic progression.  Sometimes I feel the world is moving /progressing at a very fast speed but then there are things that not only seem timeless but are also as old as we know and haven’t changed.

Glynis Darlow was commissioned to produce some jewellery for the exhibition and the ideas I wanted her to look at came from the notion of the wait/weight of death.  These pieces were to be from silver.  A lift with a piece of peacock coal in it; A lift balance with markers of the explosions at Nicky Nack mine in Seaham and a Shovel with a load in the shape of a water drop.

These pieces were to compliment a series of poems I produced and one of them was called the shovel, a seemingly unfinished poem because I wanted the reader to make up there own ideas of which shovel would be used for what emotion.  The Royal Wedding had just been announced and so there is a poem about Kate and William…well Kate’s humble beginnings.

I was busy during the development of the project and started a book about a young man called Blue John and an idea that coal comes from black dragons and used to be a renewable source of energy but due to the outcomes of the story it is no longer.  For details about these things you could e-mail adrianmoule66@hotmail.com I will be glad to share them with you.

As part of this book I produced three etchings and two lino cuts to help illustrate it.  I also used this to develop workshops in the community getting young people to try to illustrate the ideas.

The exhibition was put up by Jane Pearson and myself and included the work done by the young people in the Summer School as well as the school residencies.  We had an exhibition open day and met with some friends and a lot of the people that volunteer at the archives attended.   We were surprised when the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineering asked if we could leave the exhibition up throughout January as they thought this was a good show that illustrated what can be achieved with schools.  Doubly fortunate the work is in the background of Grundy’s Northern Interiors.

Guest blogger- Adrian Moule, Phoenix Art Group’s Co-ordinator.

Phoenix Art Group at NEIMME (Part 1)

Phoenix Art Group co-ordinator Adrian Moule developed a project in 2010 with the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineering and the Heritage Lottery Fund, along with three local primary schools and the Coal Regeneration Trust. One of the project’s aims to help uncover new ways of working within the art group. We were able to develop skills and use new ways of developing ideas through history, research and industry.

Working with Jane Pearson we looked into the historical archives of the mining industry and tapped into the arts and craft that miners and their families engaged in. We came across murders and public hangings, explosions and mining disasters, news of finds and insights into how the gains of the mine owners were spent on parties and entertaining.

The Institute was set up for the safety of miners and it was after an explosion at the Nicky Nack mine in Seaham that a group of people got together and discussed the value of taking care of the workers, the introduction of safety lamps soon followed.

At the three local primary schools we found that there is still a mass of objects associated with mining to be found, which is owned by the workers. We saw lamps and medals and, from other areas of history, Women’s Institute cards, old money and a pigeon clock.

This project was set up so that we were in the institute for a summer school and the young people would get the chance to use the library to inform and inspire their work. They looked at geology, the formation of the earth, maps and what their towns looked like a hundred years ago. They looked at the building and designed T-shirts from the decoration, printed the earths strata and made a clippie mat looking at the faults that happen when the tectonic plates crash together.

Most of the time during the summer school the young people were buying minerals, eating, drinking juice and enjoying themselves while we were rushing about and getting tired out for the bus journey home. They photographed, drew, stretched paper, printed, sewed and clipped their mat, they screen printed, listened to lectures about mining lamps, watched films about shovels and plaited things.

The Summer school was a long week but everyone really got down to it and had a happy time sharing jokes and meeting new friends from different schools.

The finale of this project was an exhibition, held at NEIMME at the end of 2010, stay tuned for the next blog to find out more!

Hello world! – from Phoenix Art Group

Hello World,

This is the first post on this new and fantastical blogsite/website for Phoenix Art Group!

Just a brief intro to the group…………

Phoenix is……… an arts group for those with an interest in social and mental well being, attempting to improve well being through the arts!

We provide a welcoming atmosphere for those with an interest in art to come along and create things, with support from our resident artist if wanted.

Some facilities, materials and past workshops include: printmaking, watercolour painting, acrylic painting, wet felting, needle felting, mosaics, jewellery making, and lots more! We have some materials to get you started, and can help you source more if you need them. As a group we have also been involved with a variety of exhibitions, projects and events around the Teesside area of the North East of England (lots more info on this on the “About Us” page – which we will update as we go).

We are a friendly crew of characters, and are always looking for more members, so if you are interested, get in touch, come along one Saturday and see for yourself! (We meet every Saturday, from 10am till 3pm)

On this site you can find out more about us, contact us, learn how to find us, and find out about our knitting group, knitting @ Phoenix. The site is a work in progress so more contact will be added over the next few weeks. We hope to blog once a month with content from members of Phoenix Arts, as well as accounts of past workshops.

Don’t forget to join our mailing list on the contact us page, and we will send you information on any projects, events or workshops we have coming up!