So it's been a little while since my last post, so what's been happening since then... Well the main little adventure I've had is heading up to Edinburgh for a long weekend away with my lovely other half... But I will do a separate post about that later on!
So on a more creative front I have been making more small steps in the right direction of getting involved with local design events in Newcastle... So what have you been up to, I hear you cry! :)
Well first off I got myself along to a sewing course, run by Cut & Sew, I have always had a little bit of an interest for sewing, .... As my sister will tell anyone who will listen I could often be heard running up items on my tiny Tomy sewing machine... She always likened it to living next to the knicker factory from Corrie!! And as it turns out the first of the Cut & Sew events I attended, being near Valentines day meant we would be making a lovely pair of knickers!!! Ironic or what?! Needless to say it wasn't so much the knickers that attracted me, as the thought it would be good to pick up some sewing skills as well as meeting some crafty types!!!
The evening was good fun, with my material and lace in hand we got under way with the sewing... At first I attempted to create my knickers by hand but this was very time consuming, luckily for me there was a sewing machine going spare! I made a good start getting the pattern and material cut out and pinned together, the material and lace I'd picked went together very well... a few goes on the sewing machine and my random bits of material were beginning to resemble a pair of knickers!! Unfortunately the class only ran for a couple of hours so I didn't quite get them finished, I'm hoping to get them done sometime this week (although they have been sat in a bag for the past month! Eek!) Once I do I will post some pictures of my finished frilly knickers! Overall the class was good fun, I met some lovely people and being fairly new to sewing its good to have an expert on hand when your unsure or things go wrong! I enjoyed the class but felt I would enjoy and perhaps get more from another class so I have signed up for a full day of dress making April, so I will let you know how that goes!
With a more specific design agenda in mind I have also got myself along to Rise & Design run by Design Network North and Design Interest both local networking events. I have often heard how networking is important not only in the creative field but any business, the thought of attending these kind of events can be fairly intimidating. I mean who would want to go into a room full of people they don't know and start discussing your practice or worse start selling yourself! But as I've learnt from taking small steps into networking they are often not as scary as you think!
So Rise & Design was the first design related event I have attended in the North East, one of the big advantages of this event I would say is its size, from what I could see at the event it attracts a lot of businesses in the creative profession. Also Design Network North is a big organisation that supports designers throughout the region with the support of specific organisations such as RTC North and Gateshead Council. Although I really enjoyed the event, it perhaps wasn't the most suitable for me starting out as a freelancer, as the guest speakers spoke about moves into international markets and I'm definitely at that point! Well not yet anyway!
Design Interest I happened to stumble across on twitter, I had disappointingly just missed the event in February but made sure I got myself signed up straight away for the March event. The one thing that struck me about Design Interest was it's much more informal style, it still followed the template of guest speakers followed by networking but I felt it had a much more relaxed atmosphere. It was also good to get a variety of speakers talking about their own passions and practices rather than a set theme throughout. I also particularly enjoyed the review of design work that people brought in for critic, it was great to see a full room of designers bouncing ideas and thoughts around! Overall I will definitely be signing up for more Design Interest events, its a good relaxed starting point for little old me I think!
