Babble + Yak

Hello!  I n May myself and Jess took part in the Whitley Bay carnival online.  The following is a ‘brief’ take of an interview that we took part in as part of that event.  For ease of reading we have highlighted the questions and bullet-pointed the answers; the original transcript is over 5000 words……. E-Right, Im recording J-Here we go…… Hi Everyone, we are Emma and Jess, we run babble and yak together which is a blog we started about a year ago.  It is all about the creative, working for yourself but not by yourself being each other’s sort of virtual cheerleaders-it seemed quite fitting to share our understandings on a blog for other creatives to share their experiences.    Emma and Jess  We have known each other a long time and had planned to show together this year at Whitley Bay for the first time but for obvious reasons this didn't happen! So, we decided to do something virtually together instead.   Last week we put out a call for...

Yak:Emma I think that its fairly safe to say that most makers (including crafters and artists-I am just using the one word for convenience) have a peak selling time, and that for most makers, their peak time is the run up to Christmas.  I applied for my Edinburgh Christmas show in May, my November show shortly afterwards.  Me and Jess have been talking, thinking, and planning Christmas really, since the summer.   For the best part of last week I have been home home.  I walked by the sea, always a head clearer, worked on some new screen prints and if I am honest watched a few (too many according to my Dad and Jess) Christmas films.  Now I am not talking your 'classic' Christmas films like Elf, the Grinch or a Wonderful life but Christmas at Pemberley Manor, A Very Country Christmas and my most recent watch; Switched at Christmas.  You may laugh, roll your eyes or judge, or think what has this got to do with being a maker but bear with me I ...

Yak: I am writing this post, sitting in the sun, in John's garden (possibly my favourite print) after a walk on the coast with not a care in the world.....well, I say not a care but that's a bit of a fib.  As a over-thinker I always have something brewing, and at the moment its Christmas.  Yes Christmas.  I think any creative has a peak selling time of year and mine is definitely the Christmas period, from October onward.  John's Garden Lino print (c) E Pinnock  Shows have already been applied for, accepted on and payments paid, what I have to do now is think of where will my work be at that time.  What new or existing products I will have, how will they suit the shows I am taking part in, is there little one off pieces I'd like to do, what can I do to prepare? Will my to do list ever be finished? (answer:no, it gets longer and multiplies) You may have read in earlier posts how this year was supposed to be about balance, part of hav...

Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” – PabloPicasso Yak: Emma  I have found it increasingly difficult to make art without the purpose being to sell it.   When deciding to start a creative business, the work I was producing was made for me.   I was creating work because I wanted to create it.   As time has gone on, with some of my work, not all of it, there has been a little voice in the back of my head questioning is this for me? Or am I making it because I know it will sell.   Now the purist out there might think I am a sell out, I am not, I am simply a creative who loves to make and wants to make a living out of what I love so must find a balance.  Or do I? even in the  writing of this short post I have wrestled with myself about this point.  Its good business sense to be commercial, but is it good for me as an artist? Is there a balance? Or is it a case of unleashing what's within and letting the a...

Yak: Emma  Rejection is one of those things that everyone experiences.  the fear of rejection probably has some roots in early caveman behaviour, but I am not a scientist or  Anthropologist (I hope that's the right "ist"?) but I am human and I have felt rejection.     Whether its a job, a partner, social or familial its guaranteed we will all feel rejection at some point.   In life you have to take risks and this fear of failure is part of that risk, you have to make yourself vulnerable and put yourself out there.  At the beginning of the year I did that. I decided to enter in to an open call, for a design to cover a Elmer the Elephant as part of the Great North parade for St Oswalds Hospice in Newcastle.  The brief was very open and part of my plan for 2019 was to take that leap, push myself and my work further.  The idea came together quickly, if I am honest probably too quickly for me to judge it good enough.  I went...

April has been a busy month indeed; it seems to have come and gone in the blink of an eye and we (I) missed the the blog post this month but perhaps I can explain.  At the end of our last blog post, Emma mentioned that I had some exciting news to share; I now have a studio space! The past month saw me leave the classroom for the second time and physically move all of my things into a new workspace, twenty minutes up the road, in the picturesque village of Horsley.  It may sound like my feet didn't touch the ground but one of the nice things about being self employed, amongst all of the scary and overwhelming things, is that you can set the pace.  I moved with the help of family and friends in a few trips then spent the second week of the Easter holidays working in my new space, by myself, for a few hours at a time, just settling in.  I am really looking forward to developing my work further.  After years of teaching and working to commissions or trends, it's t...