Simply put, we love Perthshire! Obviously Scotland is full of beautiful places, many with fabulous small towns and independent shops and businesses to support and enjoy, plenty of outstanding scenery, fascinating places to visit, stunning walks to explore, and of course incredibly talented creatives! The list is long, we are unashamedly biased!
We're in good company, our friends at The Perthshire Magazine issue a monthly digital magazine showcasing the best of Perthshire. Perthshire Artisans contribute a short monthly article sharing different aspects about the platform, the artists and makers, their process and their original work. The April issue takes a look at how some of the Artisans enjoy exploring different mediums in which to express their creativity and the value of mixing it up and going beyond their creative comfort zone. The following is the feature as it appears in the April issue of The Perthshire Magazine.
Each Perthshire Artisan’s own story reveals previous learning, varied careers and interests, it’s this diversity which makes what they create so individual and engaging. Some pursue perfecting their specialism, making it easy to categorise their work into one creative genre, however many enjoy exploring a variety of creative paths.
There’s a great deal to be gained from spending time working outside a chosen specialism, switching between different mediums, changing the scale of work or shifting to a different form of creativity altogether. It can reveal new exciting ways of working which may feed back into their existing practice, often resulting in greater productivity, new subject matters or products, at the very least feeds the creative soul.
Cornelia Weinmann’s background of painting and printmaking feeds into her textile work as her focus has shifted to work more sustainably, creating high quality garments that last a lifetime and giving a new lease of life to second hand textiles.
An original artworks and textile jacket by Cornelia Weinmann
Izzy Gretton works with up-cycled wools and textiles to create her knitwear range and fabric hats. Yet Izzy is equally happy cutting and polishing stone as she is cutting fabric, as she also crafts jewellery pieces made from wood and stone sourced from around Scotland, stones are often collected along the beaches along the Angus coastline.
Izzy Gretton creating knitwear and jewellery pieces
Derek Allan is a silversmith and jeweller and now also a painter. He was keen to explore ways of working with more colour and on a larger scale and started painting, initially as a lockdown pursuit. For him the two art forms are now completely interchangeable and regularly feed his inspiration and interest in finding new ways of combining the different creative genres.
Derek Allan's paintings inspiring new ways of creating jewellery designs
We know other Artisans are currently exploring their own creative practices through developing their skills in using different mediums. We look forward to sharing their experiences and the work to come from their creative crossovers in future posts.
Similar to cross-pollination, the ideas and knowledge of working in one genre inspires innovation when working in another. Enjoy exploring the varied work and creative stories of the Perthshire Artisans through their profile pages and in the shop.