Made in the Valley managed to get a chance to catch up with Catherine Woodall about how she got started and her inspiration's. We also had chance to ask her about her involvement in the Festival of Making and Doing and Meet the Makers Market in October:
MITV: What’s your normal day like and where do you produce your work?CW: I work from home and have a workshop in the back room. Jewellery making is a pretty compact business so my making fits into one corner, my admin/marketing/dispatch into another and Mabel dog into a third (the door is in the fourth corner if you were wondering). It’s on the dark side of the house whose gloominess suits me fine. I don’t mean personality-wise, but if you’ve ever tried soldering in bright sunlight you’ll know why (you can’t see the flame or the critical colour of the metal).
MITV: What inspires you and where do you ideas come from?CW: Nature inspires me and, likewise, artists whose work are nature inspired, like the Arts and Crafts Movement at the turn of the last century. I quite often work off the materials or a solution to an issue. At college you’re always taught to start from an idea, an inspiration, then research and work it up to a finished piece. Sometimes, as I’m working, I’ll see the silver work in a certain way or get off-cuts in a certain shape and playing with this come up with a new piece. I don’t always get the time to work these up to a new range. I still do everything in the business myself, from the jewellery making to accounting, admin, marketing and sales, so my design work has to squeeze into the gaps. I have all sorts of prototypes lying around my workbench waiting for their day. There are probably a few more that haven’t even made it out of my design book…or even in my head yet!
MITV: Are you involved in any upcoming shows or events/ workshops/ shops? Where and when / how can we find you?CW: I don’t have any more shows planned before Christmas. It’s a busy time fulfilling Christmas commissions plus gallery and on-line orders so I tend to give the Fairs a break and start again in the Spring. I can always be contacted via my website www.catherinewoodall.co.uk and I have a little on-line shop on etsy (www.etsy.com/uk/shop/catherinewoodall) as well as selling through NOTHS (http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/catherinewoodall).
MITV: What work will you be exhibiting at Meet the Makers Market and what skills will you be demonstrating?CW:I’ll bring with me a selection of my current work including the leaf texture dishes and domes in silver. I don’t think I’ll be setting fire to anything (well, maybe just a little), but I’ll definitely be forming and shaping silver, drilling and beading.
MITV: What’s next for you?CW: My jewellery making will continue to develop with new pieces coming out each year. These include working on a re-design of my cluster ball range so that it is made from recycled silver. I already make the little balls from scrap silver recycled from my own workshop, but I want to take it further and make the rest of the jewellery from ecosilver.Sometimes the development of a business is not just about making, so some future projects include marketing my wedding rings and re-designing my brochure. Upgrading my workshop is also getting higher on my list of priorities too, what with the mould on the ceiling and the moths eating the carpet! (It’s a glamorous life being a self-employed designer/maker...)
MITV: Tell us a little about your background – what path led you to what you’re doing now?
CW: My father was an engineer and as I seemed to have inherited his mathematical, technical brain, it seemed natural to me to follow in his footsteps and study to be an engineer. But I also loved the Arts and creating and it took a good few years and several different jobs for me to realise that that was a big part of who I was too. I initially took classes in ceramics, which I still love, but once I tried jewellery making something just clicked. It was the perfect combination for me. I love the making and I love the designing. I even love the small and fiddly (which doesn't suit everyone!!) and discovered a wealth of patience which really was not apparent in the other areas of my life.
MITV: What’s your normal day like and where do you produce your work?CW: I work from home and have a workshop in the back room. Jewellery making is a pretty compact business so my making fits into one corner, my admin/marketing/dispatch into another and Mabel dog into a third (the door is in the fourth corner if you were wondering). It’s on the dark side of the house whose gloominess suits me fine. I don’t mean personality-wise, but if you’ve ever tried soldering in bright sunlight you’ll know why (you can’t see the flame or the critical colour of the metal).
MITV: What inspires you and where do you ideas come from?CW: Nature inspires me and, likewise, artists whose work are nature inspired, like the Arts and Crafts Movement at the turn of the last century. I quite often work off the materials or a solution to an issue. At college you’re always taught to start from an idea, an inspiration, then research and work it up to a finished piece. Sometimes, as I’m working, I’ll see the silver work in a certain way or get off-cuts in a certain shape and playing with this come up with a new piece. I don’t always get the time to work these up to a new range. I still do everything in the business myself, from the jewellery making to accounting, admin, marketing and sales, so my design work has to squeeze into the gaps. I have all sorts of prototypes lying around my workbench waiting for their day. There are probably a few more that haven’t even made it out of my design book…or even in my head yet!
MITV: Are you involved in any upcoming shows or events/ workshops/ shops? Where and when / how can we find you?CW: I don’t have any more shows planned before Christmas. It’s a busy time fulfilling Christmas commissions plus gallery and on-line orders so I tend to give the Fairs a break and start again in the Spring. I can always be contacted via my website www.catherinewoodall.co.uk and I have a little on-line shop on etsy (www.etsy.com/uk/shop/catherinewoodall) as well as selling through NOTHS (http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/catherinewoodall).
MITV: What work will you be exhibiting at Meet the Makers Market and what skills will you be demonstrating?CW:I’ll bring with me a selection of my current work including the leaf texture dishes and domes in silver. I don’t think I’ll be setting fire to anything (well, maybe just a little), but I’ll definitely be forming and shaping silver, drilling and beading.
MITV: What’s next for you?CW: My jewellery making will continue to develop with new pieces coming out each year. These include working on a re-design of my cluster ball range so that it is made from recycled silver. I already make the little balls from scrap silver recycled from my own workshop, but I want to take it further and make the rest of the jewellery from ecosilver.Sometimes the development of a business is not just about making, so some future projects include marketing my wedding rings and re-designing my brochure. Upgrading my workshop is also getting higher on my list of priorities too, what with the mould on the ceiling and the moths eating the carpet! (It’s a glamorous life being a self-employed designer/maker...)
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