Creative Twinning 2012

We're so happy to be returning to Karlsruhe in May 2012. This year, we have partnered with Design Factory to offer 7 additional East Midlands designers the opportunity to showcase at Eunique Applied Arts fair.

The Creative Twinning/Design Factory group will include:

• Debbie Bryan - Knitted textiles and fashion accessories
• Paperwork by Hannah Lobley - Recycled paper products
• J C Middlebrook - Lace textiles
• Ashi Marwaha - Jewellery
• Catherine Carr Glass - Glass
• Gillian Lee Smith - Textiles
• Foto Ceramica - Ceramics
• Porcellana & Duomo - Ceramics
• Rachel Helen Designs  - Jewellery
• Suet Yi Ceramics - Ceramics

It will be so exciting to introduce these designers to this fantastic arts fair, and to Karlsruhe, where we received such a warm welcome last year. We'll have more news in the next few weeks, so watch  this space!

Creative Twinning, Creative Winning

Last week's Creative Twinning events went off without a hitch (or at least none that you could see!) and we thank our partners for their help and support in making it all happen.

Our Karlsruhe guests Nora, Philine, Brigitte and Angelika arrived safely in Nottingham on Tuesday and we kicked off by attending a screening of 'Made in Dagenham' (written by Nottingham's own Billy Ivory) at the Nottingham Girls High School. The screening was hosted by Women in Nottingham, who made our guest very welcome and plied them with nibbles!

Billy Ivory introducing Made in Dagenham

Wednesday was a busy day for all, with Debbie, Philine and Angelika starting the day as guests of Mark Dennison on BBC Radio Nottingham, talking about Creative Twinning and the cultural links we are starting to form.

The first formal event was a forum, or panel discussion held in the Paul Smith Suite at the Broadway. we had over 50 attendees and the audience really engaged with all the designers. No awkward moments where noone wanted to ask a question. What was lovely was that the first and last questions in the session were directed at the audience by panel members! Thanks to Sarah McNicol from Antenna for her lively and informed chairing of the discussion.

Waiting for the forum to start

Then we were off to Designer Forum, where we had more nibbles and refreshments. A slightly hairy moment for a couple of the German designers who took a left in stead of a right on their way to Designer Forum and ended up ringing Jayne from outside the Victoria Centre, admitting 'We are lost!'.  We really enjoyed an opportunity to network and have a look round the DF facitlies including the truly amazing trend books.

Nina welcomes the guests for networking at Designer Forum

One very quick change for us designers and it was back to the Lace Market Gallery where the Creative Twinning collections looked lovely in that unique space. Many attendees stayed to round the day off with wine and nibbles and took the chance to talk more to the designers and other guests. Photos were taken by Affari magazine and are available to view here. By the time we said goodnight to the last guest we were pretty bushed but still managed to go for something to eat at Edin's on the way home.

L-R Debbie Bryan, Nora Rochel, Brigitte Adolph, Angelika Schmidt, Hannah Lobley, Jayne Childs, Philine Kempf

Thursday was our designer's last day in Nottingham and they used it well, Brigitte visited a lace manufacturer and came away loaded down with samples, whilst Philine and Angelika went on a whistle-stop tour of Nottingham Castle. Nora headed off to New York (what a jet-setter!) at midday, so we said goodbye to her mid morning as we went off to attend a lecture at Nottingham Trent University by Eco Fashion author Sass Brown.Thank you to Future Factory for organising that!

Finally we all had the pleasure of a look into NTU's Lace Archive, for which we must thank Amanda Briggs-Goode. Amanda is in charge of this amazing collection of lace and lace industry and was very tolerant of our oohs and aahs as she revealed yet another layer of Nottingham's amazing design history to us.

Angelika and I nipped off to the New Art Exchange where we were greeted by CEO Skinder Hundal and team, and treated to a personal tour of the new Leo Asemota exhibition.

One last meal together and it was goodbyes all round as our guests had to catch a taxi to the airport at (whisper it) 4am! I do hope they have recovered and have finally got back into the real world since thier visit. It has taken me this long to come down from the ceiling and evaluate all the opportunities that are coming Nottingham's way as a result of this twinning week.


Thanks again to our partners, to Debbie and Hannah for being good sports and to all of you who came to the events.

Finally don't forget you can catch the showcase at the Lace Market Gallery, 25 Stoney St Nottingham until 27th October. Please do leave your comments if you go, just like these! 

See you soon, Jayne x

Counting down to Creative Twinning events

The Creative Twinning events this week are the culmination of months of planning. We hope you'll enjoy them and join us as we exchange new cultural sustainable ideas with our Creative twins from Karlsruhe.

There's still time to register for any of the events, including the Creative Twinning Forum where you can find out more, join the conversation and shape the future for Creative Twinning with your ideas and involvement.

Afterwards, network with other Creative Industry professional at Designer Forum. Find out more abut the fabulous facilities they host in the heart of our creative city. Click here to register for Creative Networking

Finally, join us at a private view of our Creative Twinning Eco Showcase at the Lace Market Gallery on Stoney Street in Nottingham's historic Lace Market. Register here

We're really looking forward to seeing you there! Jayne, Hannah and Debbie (the Creative Twinning team)

update: read about us in Affari Magazine

Creative Twinning Partner - Future Factory

The Creative Twinning team have been supported by Future Factory at Nottingham Trent University (NTU). Lynn Oxborrow, Angela Scott and all the FF team have been so encouraging and really helped us to focus on  delivering the best Creative Twinning events that we can.

Future Factory helps small and medium sized companies from across the East Midlands access the resources and expertise held within NTU. Their focus is on building sustainability, so the Creative Twinning showcase gave us the perfect opportunity to join forces with them to promote and explore eco-design in the UK and abroad. Future Factory is supported by the European Regional Development Fund. For more information visit http://www.ntu.ac.uk/future_factory

Find out more about our Eco-Showcase and register to attend any of the Creative Twinning events by clicking here www.creativetwinning.eventbrite.com

Creative Twinning Partner - Nick Rawle

Portrait photographer Nick Rawle is working on a series of images of East Midlands Designer Makers and offered to include images from his project in our eco-showcase. We asked him to tell us a little more about his project.

"These photographs are part of an ongoing documentary project on the craft skills and traditional makers of the East Midlands. The project came about as an attempt to find out what was left of the skills economy that made England the 'workshop of the world' in Victorian times, and to see if any of the skills and trades for which the region became famous were still in existence.

The textile mills, lace makers, bicycle manufacturers and leather workers which we associate with the various towns and cities of the region may no longer be mass manufacturers, but their unique skills remain and are flourishing again, and with them a sense of pride in the goods that they create, and the towns in which they are made.

The very modern twist to these traditional crafts is the notion of 'sustainability' and 'carbon footprint' two modern words for values and ideals that our Victorian forebears would have understood very well."

Visit Nick's website www.nickrphotography.com or Facebook page to see more of his work.

Sign up here for the Creative Twinning Eco-Showcase to see Nick's photographs in real life

Our Creative Twins from Karlsruhe

We are very pleased to announce the names of the Creative Twin designers joining us from Karlsruhe in October. They are*:

Brigitte Adolph - Brigitte Adolph’s elaborately crafted pieces look like delicate lace. What seems to be finespun fabric, however, turns out to be pure precious metal. The graduate designer likes to play with optical illusions. Although inspired by the past, her rings, brooches, pendants and earrings are nevertheless characterized by an authentic, contemporary formal idiom.



Philine Kempf - Philine's work combine different materials in collages. The focus on the one hand, the portable art objects in the foreground. Different metals, stones, wood etc. adorn the people, but the carrier can also direct references to art and to produce energy: Physical, tangible, visible to constantly changing places, transformable by the background.




Nora Rochel - Nora Rochel's new work is called “Phytophilia” which means “love for plants”. She draws inspiration from the miracle of life, the cycle of growth, bloom and decay. The emphasis is on life affirming energy and the positive symbolism of plants and flowers representing growth and fertility.

The designers will be accompanied by Angelika Schmidt who represents the Department of International Relations in Karlsruhe Culture Office and has been a great help to us in organising the Creative Twinning visit.

To find out more about the designers and about the creative sector in Germany more generally, why not attend our Creative Twinning events on 12th October?

For more information and to book your place, please click here http://www.creativetwinning.eventbrite.com/

*Please click on the designer's name to visit their website. 

Creative Twinning has a New Logo

We are very excited to unveil our fantastic new Creative Twinning Logo. 

It's been designed by the talented graphic designer and photographer Daniel Lane. 

See more of his work at www.dl-web.net

|| DL Photography and Design ||

www.dl-web.net