A year has passed since the 2014 Handmade By Machines show at…

SO... it is that time of year again and the degree shows are in full-swing. Unfortunately, because of the timings of holidays, the exam board and external examiner for my own graduands, I didn't get to…

What a week! Not only have we been finishing off with the students for the year - and sometimes for ever, really - but I've been doing my best to help Karen Dicken to get the "Handmade By Machines" exhibition and…

Further to my last post, I now present some work by Stephanie Mearns, visible on the left of this shot of Andrew and Anita Neilson:

Her work uses biological…

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to my favourite Scottish city - Dundee - to see the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD for short) degree show. As usual, my main interest was in the…

Many years ago, I realised that Alexander McQueen was not a couturier in the usual sense of the word. It was his commission of the collar from Shaun Leanne for his 2001 catwalk show which drew my attention to his work - the collar is a stunning assembly of lethal silver spikes and grey pearls, seen at 7:40 in the video below - and the show just blew me away. From that moment on, I never thought of McQueen as a clothing designer but as a sculptor, a critic, an historian, someone with a…

What a great weekend! Lovely weather, so I got out on my bike a lot and re-visited a site I had found some time ago, the wonderfully unhinged paintings on a house in Tollcross, Glasgow. In September 2012, it looked like this:…

It is that time of year again, when the degree shows in Scotland all kick off. As usual, the roll is started by Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone College of  Art & Design - DJCAD for short. Regular readers of my blog will…

Waa!

My wonderful, indispensible, reliable, cheerful, friendly, unflappable workshop technician, Fiona, is leaving on Thursday. She's found a better-paid job with more promotional prospects and she'll be superb. The students will all miss her and they arranged a lunch for her today, which was great fun.…