'Mill Maker' Caroline Parrott

Walford Mill Crafts have many talented artists and makers amongst its staff members. In the lead up to the exhibition Walford Mill Crafts will be putting the spotlight on each specially selected ‘Mill Maker’ featuring the work of eight very different disciplines including silk weaving, embroidery, photography, jewellery and printmaking. 

On the 28^th November 2013 from 5:30-8:00pm, Walford Mill Crafts would be delighted if you could join them for a very special late night opening as all of the ‘Mill Makers’ will be selling and some will be demonstrating, there will be entertainment, PLUS 10% off everything you buy.

Meet the maker: Caroline Parrott – Metalwork

30^th September – 6^th October 2013

Caroline Parrott is a Dorset born maker specialising in the use of anodised aluminium, which she hand prints and dyes to create a range of jewellery, home accents, mixed media automata and sculpture for exhibition.

Caroline graduated from Bournemouth University in 2010 with a First Class Honours in Applied Art and Design and currently runs her business as a maker alongside working as Education Manager at Walford Mill Crafts. Since working at Walford Mill Crafts Caroline has developed her role as a workshop tutor and she now runs regular creative classes using colourful aluminium. Alongside the workshops Caroline does outreach and community projects with local schools and children’s groups using a range of media. Recent projects have included giant swarms of butterflies and laser cut designs for the garden of a children’s hospice.

Caroline’s practice is eclectic and varied. Her love of making automata was born out of the need to allow people to touch work in a gallery environment. Its endless possibilities, limitless humour and accessibility to all make the work a joy to design and create. She relishes the interaction that can be created between a viewer and a moving object. Caroline is also greatly influenced by childhood memories, toys and games and often chooses to combine her metal with vintage ephemera and old fashioned containers found at antique and flea markets. She takes inspiration from the natural environment and how nature has been recorded and stored throughout history, she loves traditional insect collections and Victorian apparatus, and as a result includes wood and brass fittings wherever possible.

This autumn when she was invited to take part in the Nature of Mending exhibition at Walford Mill Crafts, Caroline set off on a new path and became inspired by her love of combining old materials with her aluminium. As well as her interest in construction - no doubt inherited from her father, a design engineer for the RNLI, she has created a new range of small houses which she's affectionately named 'Pockets' after her garden workshop where she does all her making whatever the weather.

Caroline’s work will be featured throughout Walford Mill Crafts from 30^th September to 6^th October 2013.

FREE entry as usual.
Open: Monday to Saturday 10am - 5pm, Sunday 11am - 4pm
Walford Mill Crafts, Stone Lane, Wimborne, Dorset, BH21 1NL. Directions here
01202 841400 info@walfordmillcrafts.co.uk

On the BBC

There are two programmes from the BBC that may interest readers of this blog. Coming soon to BBC Two is Mastercrafts, a new six-part series presented by Monty Don, exploring the way of life that comes with being a top craftsman.

"The original idea behind the series," he says, "was that I would try my hand at all the different skills, but that proved impractical because it would take far too long, so instead we introduced people who really wanted to try. It's my one regret that I had to film it rather than do it."

'Studying under some of the country's leading master craftsmen and women, three hopefuls in each programme spend six weeks learning the basics of their chosen skill, ready to compete for the chance to continue on a more formal basis their training in metal work, woodcraft, stone masonry, glass-making, thatching and weaving. Monty, meanwhile, examines the work that goes into each craft and its often forgotten history.'



Meanwhile, over on BBC Radio 4, Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum presents A History of the World in 100 Objects. The programmes will travel through two million years from the earliest object in the collection to retell the history of humanity through the objects we have made. Each week will be tied to a particular theme, such as 'after the ice age' or 'the beginning of science and literature', and the programmes will broadcast in three blocks, in January, May and August.