I’m a huge believer in the wise words of Bob the Builder who once declared ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ (I spent a lot of time watching the great Bob when the children were young). Holding true to his principals, I thought I’d send you this picture of all the bits I recovered from the scrap heap when we moved out of head office.

The tools are all hanging from peg boards from the Reeves Room, the sink comes from the Studio room and the draw cabinets from the lab. Even the tools were mostly inherited from grandparents.

All now loved parts of my workshop and will have long lives beyond their original purpose helping me fixing up an repurposing other detritus that I’ve come across in my travels. Being sustainable can be fun!

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Leaving Colart

I am leaving Colart at the end of March so just a few days left now! I wanted to say how much I have truly loved working here…..art and design was my first love before I got my Marketing degree so it has been fabulous to work on such amazing brands and remind myself how wonderful art is, and how good it is for the soul!

It’s been a lot of fun working with the illustrators, artists and creators that I have collaborated with and a joy to work on the Hobbycraft account as it is like my ‘spiritual home’. I will continue to be a Hobbycraft consumer and I will have a little more time to do my Friday art classes whilst I find my next (hopefully equally creative), Marketing role.

Thank you to my wonderful colleagues. I shall be very sad to leave but will watch with interest for all the good things coming from the brands.

If you would like to stay in touch, please connect on Linkedin!

I am sharing some pictures from my children…….art is for all!!

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The 20th-22nd saw the celebration of world colour day, world poetry day and world pigment day at the UCL Slade symposium. It is a global event hosting lectures, workshops and discussions with artists, alumni, academics from all over the world discussion all aspects of these subjects. We have been invited each year to participate and each year this invitation has been extended, @cris.cosgrave and sebastian.bulcholski gave a brilliant collaborative talk on the integrity of colour, the science and manufacture which was an incredible endorsement on the quality and integrity that goes into our materials making. @mark.cann gave a great Q&A on ask the chemist answering questions from attendees from all over the world. In addition to this, we saw liquitex paint and mediums being used exclusively, by alumni and research fellow, Gabriela Giroletti, in addition unprompted by us we saw Winsor and Newton watercolour being mentioned by Professor Daruana UCL resident scientist and Kim Selvaggi explaining the importance of archival responsibility to the artist and showing what has happened in great works of art such as the Van Gogh shown and h here. She heralded our oils as trusted materials to replace the colours that are not lightfast but have a particular role to play in the palette. An wonderful event to be part of.

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For the first time last year, the UK marketing team partnered with National Museums Liverpool to sponsor a brand new Emerging Artist award as part of the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize (JMPP) – which is up there along with the world-renowned Turner Prize in terms of credentials. The winner was Kiki Wang, an Oil painter who draws her inspiration from non-traditional lighting and 70’s Italian horror films, to turn close-ups of luxury objects into something darker and slightly more sinister. As part of her prize, Kiki had a one-month residency with us, the last one of its kind in The Studio Building. Kiki also won the JMPP Visitors Choice Award, so two really great achievements for her. The reason I’m sharing this is to let everyone know that I’ve finally loaded content onto The Bank from some … a day in the life of … filming we did towards the end of Kiki’s residency. With the 8 new W&N Artists’ Oil Colours launching now, other markets, as well as the brand team, are welcome to use this to help tell the story of the range. There is also content from Vince Hart available too. Please use the tags #WN UK JMPP RESIDENCY 2021 and #WN UK AOC RESIDENCY 2021 to view and download.

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Hello all!

Earlier this month the Elephant Kiosk team started including a postcard insert (recyclable and carbon offset) and free gift in our ecommerce packages. This postcard features a limited-edition print on one side and a message on the back with further information about Elephant, some key benefits of shopping with us and a VIP discount code. We are using a selection of products as a gifts, to give customers a taster of some of the products we sell.

I was delighted to discover this feedback from one of our eBay customers today:

“A good buy with speedy delivery and a free gift (as well as a discount on my next purchase) – what a fantastic eBayer!”

It’s brilliant to see the traction Elephant is building in terms of engaging with our consumer base.

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