Show Something Else Exhibition 2014

Following the success of the 2011 exhibition, Show Something, we presented the sequel; Show Something Else! Our exhibition in June featured the work of a range of people from a variety of disciplines including illustrators, photographers, makers, designers and artists. They're all people we've worked with, studied with, lived with or just randomly met! I co-curated this exhibition with Dave - the other half of Pygmy Cloud and illustrator who produces work under the moniker Hatch.

Artwork by Hatch

We put the exhibition together this year as part of the E17 Art Trail, which is a community lead arts festival featuring an array of open houses, pop up events, exhibitions and performances in north east London. 

Instead of hiring a public venue such as a gallery or cafe, we chose to open up our house to the public. We preferred the casual nature of hosting the exhibition in our home and felt it was a good setting to show off ours and our friend’s work, which quite often doesn’t get a chance to be displayed to the public. I think Paula Van Hagen sums it up well on the E17 Art Trail website when she says “Artists’ Open Houses stand at the heart of the Art Trail and are an enduring and evocative expression of all that is so rewarding about living in a creative community.”

Artwork by Eleanor Percival

We had 17 people showing in total. We asked lots of our artist friends to participate, hoping to get a few pieces to put up - we didn’t anticipate how enthusiastic everyone would be about it! We were given a lot more pieces than we expected, so we spent a fair few hours wandering up and down the flat carrying piles of prints playing artwork Tetris...

Left artwork by Victoria Siddle

Left by Melissa Choong | Right by Oliver King

Mister Peebles says:

“Being asked to be involved with the exhibition was such an honour. It is amazing to be involved with other people when you spend lots of time at the desk on your own. It makes you feel more like part of a community.

The work on the walls shows off so many different skills that it is inspiring to meet the people behind them and be a part of that.

Mister Peebles drew the Walthamstoat for the show. He is a lesser known breed residing primarily in the Walthamstow area. Characterised by their habit of wearing printed textiles and bow ties. He seemed a fitting addition to an exhibit on the E17 art trail.

He was made using watercolour pencils and felt pen not so far from his native marshes.”

Artwork by Mister Peebles

Andsmile says:

“I am a big fan of Wes Anderson and adore Bill Murray, no surprise I felt obliged to draw Steve Zissou! Little girls with flowers were inspired by trip to back home and long tea drinking sessions with my mum and longings for spring. I’ve met some crazy squirrels on a walk through Hyde Park and I’ve been following them since, to their walks to friend Fox house and camping trips, I enjoy their company and they seem not to mind me drawing them. :) 

Show Something is the loveliest show I’ve been to recently. A collection of beautiful artwork exhibited on the walls of a super cute home of the Pygmy Cloud duo. There is photography, neatly organised stationery, animals wearing William Morris print shirts, pop culture reference artwork, black and white super detailed graphics and soft grumpy bears. What not to love?!”

Artwork by Andsmile

More information about the artists can be found here: cargocollective.com/showsomething.

If you are interested in finding out about future Show Something exhibitions, subscribe to our mailing list in the section below for information.

Show Something mailing list

Dave aka Hatch creating our sign

Top row Nathan Scott | Bottom row Pygmy Cloud

Renegade Craft Fair London 2013

In November 2013, the Pygmy Cloud team was selling their wares at Renegade Craft fair. Situated in trendy East London, the fair took place at the Truman Brewery and hosted an array of indie designers. Here are a few pics of our stall at the event:

Over 100 crafters exhibited, selling an array of quirky and unique goods such as homeware, toys, jewellery, clothing, ceramics, prints and stationery. Here are a few snaps I took of the other stalls:

Featuring:

Running with Scissors / I Am Acrylic /  Anna Wiscombe / The Fox In The Attic / Kiriki / And Smile

By The Yard Q&A

Our friends over at Stuffed Nonesense have gone and opened up an amazing bricks and mortar shop over in Cheltenham. We love the fact they are actively supporting independent designer makers from the U.K and are proud to say they are stocking some of our products. If you are interested in hearing a bit more about their accomplishment as we were, here are a few Q&A's we put together:

What inspired you to open your own bricks and mortar shop?
We had a small studio shop in Cheltenham once upon a time but we had to close it down because it wasn't working. It really threw us and made us question if that was what we wanted to do with our lives. But then another brilliant opportunity came up involving By The Yard so we thought long and hard about what we wanted to do with our lives and we realsied that if we weren't doing our bit to promote handmade then we would never be happy....so here we are...trying again.

What have been your biggest challenges?
Finding the courage to try again, to realize we had made mistakes before and to learn from them. It's also hard to ignore the pesky voices in the back of my head that tell me its all going to go wrong (but that only happens when its a little quiet)...i sound a little insane there...im not...honest.

We love that you support independent designers and makers - why do you think it is important to promote crafters?
Promoting crafters is at the core of everything we do at By The Yard. If we don't promote them people go to big chain shops and leave we factory mass produced products with no idea of who made them or how they made them. We feel really strongly that the more customers know about the item they are buying the more they connect with it. I'd much rather i was told 'the lady that makes this is in brighton, i love her work she also does this...' rather than 'I have no idea who made this.' If people don't begin to look out for the little people, the independant designers and makers out there, then people will pass them by...and that's not good.

How do you find and/or pick the products you sell in your shop?
This is a tough one, we want them to fit in with the aesthetic and look of the shop firstly and we want to make sure that they are something the people of cheltenham will be interested in. They also have to be well made and well designed.

Tell us about the workshops you run.
we run fourtnightly workshops on the 1st and 3rd monday of the month. They are called Make It Mondays and there a chance for crafty people to sit around a table together, listen to records, drink some tea and get their craft on. All of the workshops are entry level and we hope that attendees take the skills we teach them home and make more!

Where did you source all that amazing display furniture?
I'm a charity shop and boot fair demon, so i was in them every day during the run up to opening...we were just really lucky with what we found.

Any plans for the future?
We hope to have more higher skilled workshops in the new year for example sewing machine 101

What is your favourite thing about running your own shop?
My favorite part of all of this is when people leave the shop feeling inspired, so that they go home and have a try and making some things of their own, that's a good feeling. Its also wonderful when people say things like 'everywhere i look things keep popping out at me...it's a delight for my eyes!' that makes us smile up to our eyes when that happens.

Check out their website: www.bytheyardcheltenham.co.uk and if you happen to be in Cheltenham, pop into their shop: By The Yard, Cheltenham, St James Sreet, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 1DX

Screen printing workshop in London with Zeena

On the weekend I took part in a screen printing workshop held by the lovely Zeena. I have had some designs milling around in my head for a while, so thought this would be a great opportunity to test out a couple of new designs. Here are a few snaps:  

 

 



  

  

 

 



We used a stencil technique to create our designs which was a simple way to bring our images to life.  So maybe we will see some new products with the heart cloud and rain cloud dance design soon :)

Maggie Laing Jewellery

Maggie, a photo by Pygmy Cloud on Flickr.

Recently I had the pleasure of photographing Maggie Laing's charming creations at Flux Studio, a lovely little studio in Camberwell, south London. Here, a group of a dozen jewelers work on creating an array of beautiful hand crafted jewellery, each with their own unique style.

Maggie creates delicate pieces based on a garden tools theme. I love visiting my Mother's allotment, so discovering Maggie's earring, broaches, pins etc was a real treat!

She is working towards having an online shop, but in the mean time Maggie can be contacted via email: magslaing@googlemail.com