de-junk closed for 2013 but thinking ahead for 2014

And now the end is near

Tomorrow de-junk ends for another year, so head to the gallery before 4pm to experience the  full show. 

VidA workshop from 2 til 4 pm and Summer Serenade concert from 2pm.

Any purchases can be collected after 4pm.

Janet Wilkinson's work in de-junk

Line up for de-junk 2013

Drum roll, please...the 2013 exhibitors are:-

Margi Adams
Gill Alleyne
Helen Bennett
Susan Boardman
Susan Lee Brown
Mary Bryning
Theresia Cadwallader
Barry Canning-Eaton
Jacqui Chapman
Mike Cunningham
Julie Dodd
Linda Evans
Beverly Glover
Howard Glover
Anjo Hinchcliffe
Lorraine Hughes
Josie Jenkins
David Jones
Roy Lewis

Susan Meyerhoff Sharples
Mandy Oliphant
Judith Railton
Carole Ramsay
Damon Ravens-Turner
Brenda Sharp
Alison Bailey Smith
Helen Smith
Jo Smith
Pamela Sullivan
Istra Toner
Micheal Walker
Janet Wilkinson
Marie Louise Williams
Wendy Williams

Roy Lewis: Latest commission

Roy Lewis was recently commissioned to create a Bull's head by a local restaurant in Heswall, Beef Grill and Bar. He created it from exhausts, re-enforcing bars, flat sheet of metal salvaged from a friend's old cooker, a suzuki bandit brake disc, a landrover con-rod big end, some subaru gears, Ford Thunderbird bumper bolts, Yamaha RD350Lc exhausts....and the parts list goes on...

Hoping we will get something along these lines for de-junk, re-junk 2013 in the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead

Our de-junk table

If you come to visit the exhibition, this table above which has all my tools of the trade for hanging the show has been transformed into a de-junk table for you to find junk to create your own re-junk creation. Please email us any photos of your art, craft or model to info@abscraft.com and we will post it here.

Promoting de-junk through Festival of Firsts

My banner to advertise de-junk show made with all the labels from the Welly Road gets the Boot in project - from all the flowers with bunting made of bouncy castles, vinyl aprons and flowers of toothpaste tubes and plastic strapping, two pouches for leaflets made from a plastic bag from a safety vest and a boots the chemist beauty bag from Erica Wilcox, nothing thrown away! Lots of stuff used from my Granny's sewing box.
Banner donated from Barbara Singleton via Derry Hunter and letters glued on with help from Gill Alleyne. 

 

Linda Mary Evans _ Treescape

 

Linda Mary Evans
BA(Hons) Fine
Wirral based Contemporary Landscape artist.

Trees have always fascinated me, they are very much part of the landscape but they are incredibly complicated. So I have tried to simplify them, to allow for greater interpretation and imagination.

Tree-scape
This work was inspired by a piece of beech wood given to me by Liverpool wood turner Mike Rule.
I was intrigued by the natural images within the wood and wanted to evoke an impression of the landscape from which it came.

Tree-scape
Acrylic on re-used canvas
£150
 

Damon Revans-Turner's desk

in the construction from floorboards

floorboards found in a skip on Wellington Road

“I’m what some call a joiner, others a chippy or carpenter, I prefer Cabinet Maker, not because it sounds posh but because that’s what I do,  I make furniture.When I say “make furniture” it doesn’t quite do it justice, what I should say is “I love to make things out of wood” and if that wood has been thrown out, and is free, even better!

I didn’t set out to be a furniture maker, just kind of walked into it naturally, and I’m so glad I did.

Didn’t achieve much at school, owing to being a hopeless dyslexic with a creative imagination that wasn’t nurchard or channelled correctly, but always loved art and drawing and design.

So one morning in my late teens I was asked to help move some old furniture by a friend, from an old barn in Cheshire, and that was the beginning of my walk with wood.”

The end results!

I am a desk, made with love, for those to sit at and write above, on leather seen now colored green while you look at your silver screen.

I'm made of wood were once there stood so many feet above the street, from childhood fears and lovers tears , Ive held them all through out these years.

And songs I’ve heard from choirs too , from hyme's and prayers with windows blue and red all seen, please write on green, a lovers note that is unseen.

You see, I'm made from bits of wood, with stories to tell, and if you would, consider a while, as you watch me smile, please sit and rest, for now



"I'm a Desk" 
£1200

Marie Louise WIlliams of Wellington Road Studios

 Marie is a full-time artist based at Wellington Road Studios in Oxton. She is passionate about the environment & sustainability & campaigns for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

“I create installations from recycled & reclaimed materials, paint, drawing, shadows, photography & text. Inspired by quantum physics, music & environmental concerns, my work makes tangible the invisible underlying patterns of the universe.”

Marie holds a BA in Fine Art from the Wirral School of Art & a BA in Chinese Culture, Philosophy & Russian from Durham University. She has taught art workshops to adults & children across Merseyside since 2004.

'Spring Theory No. 2:
inter-colour territory'
re-energised & re-composed cot-mattress & couch springs, hanging basket, reclaimed telephone and electrical wire, coffee plunger, can tops,  odds & ends wool and donated end of tin enamel paint.   Price on Application

Lorraine Hughes makes a dramatic entrance!

Lorraine Hughes is a Fine Art based self trained Artist with more than thirty years experience, Specialising in Art Direction, Set and Exhibition Design for TV, Film and Theatre.

Lorraine's clients include The BBC (working alongside Directors including Stephen Polliakoff and actors including Charles Dance, Miranda Richardson and Clive Owen), Pinewood studios (music videos including artworks made with recycled materials for Ruby Turner and Fashion Designer Vivienne Westwood's muse Sara Stockbridge), The Walker Art Gallery, St Georges Hall, Liverpool Town Hall, the Everyman theatre (working alongside actors Cathy Tyson and Michael Starke and 'Cranford' screenwriter Heidi Thomas), Walk The Plank, The Bluecoat Chambers Liverpool and the National Wildflower Centre in Merseyside. Creating works with an eco conscience using images sources from gritty urban decay to decadent Civic splendour.

During the past ten years Lorraine has worked mainly with young children, exploring the natural world using re-cycled materials in Grove Street primary, School New Ferry, the Eden Project Cornwall and the National Wildflower Centre in Court Hey Park Liverpool (alongside Artist Ticky Lowe).

 This work 'Cygnus'- (A floral tribute to Sir Joseph Paxton) ( A combined homage to the painting - Swans on the lake in Birkenhead Park - British school of painting/ Williamson Art Gallery ) and the garden designer and architect of Birkenhead Park Sir 'Joseph Paxton' who to his credit had decided to create "something handsome and good out of bad materials" he meant to create a beautiful landscape man made out of a derelict and marshy wasteland, a direct historical guidance from Joseph Paxton in 1843 to the aims of the de-junk - re-junk artists exhibiting in Birkenhead Park in 2012.

 Lorraine hopes that 'Cygnus' evokes an elegant, gentle contemplation of the history and beauty of the park and the need to tale 'time out' to relax and protect our natural, rich and diverse Merseyside heritage.

Diary extracts - the making of a re-cycled Art work for the De-junk Re-junk 2012 Exhibition:

    ingredients for creating 'Cygnus' :

    * 3 small plastic bottles

    * 3 large plastic bottles

    * scraps of plastic material

    * artificial polystyrene / Rafia onions

    * broken artificial foliage

    * brown paper

    * gift wrap

    * faux leather

    * discarded resin planter

    * gold leaf

    * photocopies

    * brown cardboard

    * 1 sack of shredded office waste

    * broken decorations

    * faux jewellery

    * left over masonry paint and assorted drops of fabric paint

•     In June during an intense two week period I began thinking about my contribution to the
•     De-junk, Re-junk 2012 exhibition.
•  
•     during the first week I had acquired a large amount of diverse but beautiful objects
•     (please see ingredients list ) that at first appear to easily link together by colour and texture and form.
•  
•     During the second week I spent a day walking through the beautiful Port Sunlight village and spent time looking at classical and mythological works.
•  
•     Later that week I visited the Williamson Art Gallery and walked to the boat house in Birkenhead Park and simply pondered on the tranquility and beauty of the scene and wondered about the history of
•     it's design and creation.
•  
•     I returned home and researched all that I had enjoyed and seen and realised that the garden designer and architect Joseph Paxton had provided me with the answer to 'create something handsome out of bad materials' a statement that he had made in 1843 directly created a connection to myself using re-cycled materials in 2012.
•  
•     I remembered a painting entitled Swans on the lake in Birkenhead Park - British school of painting (The Williamson Art Gallery - Birkenhead ), the sensuous 'Leda and the Swan' 1898 by Maurice Ferrary at (The Lady Lever Art Gallery - Port Sunlight),
•  
•     A painting of Anna Pavlova by Irish painter John Lavery 1911 'The Dying Swan' exhibited in 2011 at the Walker Art Gallery Liverpool.
•  
•     I had also been reminded of the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Anderson 'The Ugly Duckling' 1843 whose so called ugly duckling saw his true beauty as a swan in the lake, it seemed to me an amazing to find a link between this iconic symbol of transition to the year the park and its own Swan lake began it's transformation also 1843, a journey from derelict poor land to outstanding, inspiring
•     World class beauty.
•  
•     I looked at the raw found materials that I had collected at all the places that I had visited during this two weeks and saw that the gift wrapping paper I had kept for its foliage images also contained images
•     of swans.
•  
•     I looked up the Latin for swan and it was 'Cygnus', I thought about the grandeur of the scale and work of Joseph Paxton and immediately knew how the piece would finally look.
•  
•     The process of decay happens very quickly in life if we allow it. I have been working with found materials since the late 1970's (often guided by Artist/ Poet and friend Adrian Henri, studying the work of
•     Kurt Schwitters ), it has always seemed to me to be the ideal medium to directly consider the beauty, function and protection of our environment.
•  
•     It felt appropriate that I was making something new that was once broken as part of an exhibition in the new Birkenhead visitors centre, It felt like an appropriate tribute and acknowledgment of an amazing park and a visionary man.

Barbara Harrison

Barbara Harrison

I am a visual artist. My digital practice is strongly underpinned by the aesthetics of painting, and is informed by art history, cultural studies and sociology.

Title: Apocalypse Teatime

This no-budget, lo-fi, Pop Art style digital collage is made from low-res stock photos found on the internet. All the images are manipulated using second-hand Photoshop Elements 7.

Theme: the vintage mirror remembers the domestic dysfunction and thwarted aspirations it has witnessed throughout its rural and suburban lifetime from pre-1940s to the present day. The mirror first belonged to my father's mother and came to the Wirral when the family moved here in the fifties. The mirror has experienced at least 4 addresses and must be over 80 years old.

Marie Louise Williams has created an installation for the space

Marie Louise Williams is a full-time artist based at Wellington Road Studios in Oxton. She is passionate about the environment and sustainability and campaigns for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. 

“I create installations from recycled and reclaimed materials, paint, drawing, shadows, photography and text. Inspired by quantum physics, music and environmental concerns, my work makes tangible the invisible underlying patterns of the universe.”

Marie holds a BA in Fine Art from the Wirral School of Art and a BA in Chinese Culture, Philosophy and Russian from Durham University. She has taught art workshops to adults and children at various galleries and venues across Wirral and Merseyside since 2004.

 

'Spring Theory No. 2: inter-colour territory'

re-energised and re-composed cot-mattress and couch springs, hanging basket, reclaimed telephone and electrical wire, coffee plunger, can tops,  odds and ends wool and donated end of tin enamel paint.

 

Judith Brown uses vintage haberdashery in her work

Judith Brown Jewellery

Artist’s Statement

Having studied embroidery at Manchester I have taken a simple stitching technique and pushed it beyond the boundaries of textiles to create original jewellery. I began working with wire in 2004 in order to develop a way of working that would highlight the stitch itself. I use fine wire and treat it as thread, stitching without fabric to make intricate forms which hold their form over time, yet are still seemingly delicate.

Much of my work incorporates found objects. My Vintage Collections use recycled and upcycled haberdashery. In our throw away society I want to highlight the simple beauty of such everyday objects, once so precious as to have been hoarded away by our grandmothers in the times of “make do and mend”. 

I exhibit and sell my jewellery around the UK and my jewellery is currently stocked by the V&A, the British Museum and Kensington Palace.

Today's new images

Linda Mary Evans

Michael Walker

Beverly Glover

Beverly Glover

Roy Lewis returns with his Mech'art

 

ROY LEWIS MECH’ART

Roy has been making functional decorative items for over 20 years, and is in the process of making the transition from the creation of his candlesticks and sundials being a purely hobby to a business . Roy recycles old worn out car, motorcycle or any machine type parts. No one piece is the same as another, he can either make something similar or bespoke to your own personal taste.

He specialises in candle holders but has made a few sundials and flowers made of stainless steel cutlery that can be placed outside without the fear of corrosion.

Roy has also given technical assistance to other artists with his fabrication and welding experience.

Bernie explores addictions in his piece for de-junk

Bernie Howden

Artist statement

I achieved my Fine Art Degree in 2009 at Wirral Metropolitan College. My work involves the surreal side of art in this particular instance using the recycling theme to convey the message of addictions that we all experience in one form or another, we can be achieve a high standard by using materials that have been discarded and can reach the inner echelons of the mind to inspire people to act and react to the use of the  recycling theme to help our planets future continue for the children of future generations as it is their  heritage.

B J Howden

Addictions

£ 50

Barry Canning Eaton show at de-junk for the first time

Barry Canning-Eaton

A sculptor, potter, jewellery designer and maker.

Barry was born in Liverpool, brought up and live in Wirral. He started sculpting in his school days using clay.  He then became a potter for several years  making original pieces for mass production, and carrying out high quality restoration work on ceramic pieces for antique dealers.

Mostly self taught, over the years Barry has expanded his knowledge and skills in making 3D pieces using various media including steel, copper, gold, silver, other metals, concrete, and found objects.
Many of Barry’s works are created using recycled materials.

Barry was introduced to metal work when he could not find the right wedding ring for his wife. He wanted a gold ring of interlinked seahorses. So he sculpted one and cast it in gold himself.

Inspired by the experience, Barry then studied Jewellery Design for 3 years at Wirral Metropolitan College where he gained a Distinction in 2009 and won a First Prize in the "Inspired By..." in 2009, an arts and crafts competition sponsored by Liverpool Museum and V&A, with a bracelet and necklace set in the form of a spine made of ceramics and silver, inspired by Dinosaurs bones.

Barry has shown his work at ‘Transformations’ at Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead in 2009 and The Six Rooms Gallery as part of Independents Liverpool Biennial in 2010.

His future exhibitions include:
Canvas for Youth Exhibition at Mid Cheshire College, Chester Road, Hartford CW8 1LJ from 18th - 21st July 2012 where Barry will show his Spiral Staircase waterfall.

Barry accepts commissions in sculpture, ceramics and jewellery.

Works coming in for de-junk - featuring Jacqui Chapman

Jacqui Chapman

B.A. (Hons) Fine Art

My work explores the relationship in us between identity and territory and demonstrates that they are integral to what we are. As an immigrant from South Africa I am interested in the idea of homeland, living in exile and national identity as influenced by landscapes and as told in close up histories, in literature, philosophy and art, while investigating my own foundations where contradictions of transience and permanence exist.

In this work, Requiem, I remember my friend. She was only 42 when she died. Our daughters were best friends age 7. It is about our last walk up Moel Famau for a windy picnic before she became ill.

Reclaimed floorboards from a demolished girl’s school in Wallasey, having had their own history, form the implacable box, in contrast with the fragile book I made from a drawing /painting  I worked on during the year she was in hospital.  

Printed: Ink -jet on Lokta paper 1/1

Having had a successful career in advertising for 13 years as a senior Art director, I retrained in England and qualified in 2006 with a first class B.A. (Hons) Fine Art Degree from Wirral Metropolitan College, (validated by Liverpool JMU) followed by a Fellowship in 2007. My work is exhibited widely in the North West of England, nationally and internationally, most recently in the Florence Biennial 2011.

For more information please visit my website or contact me should you be interested in a commission or to view other collections of my work.

website: www.jacquichapman.com

email:  jacqui@jacquichapman.com

Rubbish exhibition in the park

Helen Smith's workshop with plastic bag flowers

 

A “rubbish” show in Birkenhead Park Visitors Centre doesn’t sound very appealing but with over 30 Merseyside based artists and craftspeople using junk it is definitely an exhibition worth viewing. The exhibitors have taken rubbish, litter and un-used items to recreate into artwork and craftwork showing how with a bit of creativity and skill - things that would inevitably end up in landfill can be transformed and be saved. The exhibition “de-junk, re-junk!” will be open daily from 9 til 4.30pm daily.

Following her involvement with the organisation of recycling art shows in 2010 and 2011, curator Alison Bailey Smith has had support from Wirral Council again in mounting the exhibition, she said of the forthcoming exhibition:

  "Last year, the exhibition took a different approach to the previous community show in 2010 with professional artists and craftspeople re-using my old kitchen and producing paintings, mosaics and sculptures. This year, we have used social media to ask for items such as milk bottles and plastic to transform as well as exchanging our own unwanted hoarded, redundant “gems”. We visited Bidston recycling plant to see the recycling process first hand. After which many of the artists reconsidered the items they were using to shift to items not currently being recycled through local recycling facilities.  One of the pieces to be featured in the exhibition will be our new sign made of scrabble parts and broken plates produced at a mosaic workshop during our de-junk, re-junk workshops funded by MRWA earlier this year and a piece of furniture made using reclaimed wooden floorboards by mastercraftsman, Damon Revans-Turner. Next year, in 2013 we will be looking for sponsors to be able to run the exhibition”

There will be "junk" available for people to take away and create their own de-junk, re-junk creation, photos can be emailed to Alison Bailey Smith info@abscraft.com and their recreations will be posted on the blog during the show http://de-junkre-junk.blogspot.co.uk/

Birkenhead Park Visitors Centre, Birkenhead Park, Park Drive, Birkenhead, Merseyside CH41 4HY