Textile artist Jade Ogden from Somerset received a Gane Trust grant to buy two heddle weaving looms to use in her workshops with people with learning disabilities. As an established handweaver herself, working with regeneratively farmed local wool, Jade is keen to teach people who otherwise might not find gainful employment how to master this skill and work independently.
Category: News
Byron Thomas leaves Gane Trust after 25 years of service
New kiln, new opportunities
Earlier this year, Siobhan Joan applied successfully to Gane Trust for a grant to help her buy a new kiln to support her progressing her ceramic practice. Having purchased the kiln, Siobhan has been able to widen and increase her scope of production, and is now selling her ceramics through the Bristol Guild of Applied Arts. A good situation for Siobhan and for all the customers able to buy her mugs and plates to enjoy at home.
A vital piece of equipment
Arianne Abram-Moore received a Gane Trust grant earlier this year to buy an engineer’s combination square, an essential tool for accurate marking and precision work in furniture making. Arianne wrote to tell us how this tool supported her through her most difficult project to date, a chair with a woven rush style seat. As she steps into the third (BA) year of her Furniture Making and Design course we hope that this tool continues to support her – it is a great example of how a Gane Trust grant can support creative development!
Journaling for well-being workshops
Writer Jaime Breitnauer received a Gane Trust grant in the spring of 2023 to support the development of her journaling for well-being workshops at the Haven Round House with female parents of disabled young people in Bristol. The grant enabled her to run a further three sessions building on her learnings from the pilot programme undertaken in 2022. The feedback and impact data indicate that this work makes a genuine difference, empowering women to take control of their own mental health and well-being outcomes, and creating connected communities of carers in their local area. Jaime is now in a position to apply elsewhere for a larger grant, with a view to running these workshops monthly through 2024.
Combining traditional sculptural methods with 3D printing
A Gane Trust grant awarded in March has enabled Bristol sculptor Kate Parsons to explore the potential of 3D printing for making, and re-scaling sculptural work. The project for which the grant was given is called ‘Above/Below’ and combines traditional methods of making with that of cutting-edge technology. Kate explains ‘This will expand my technical knowledge and expertise going forward. I often start work from anthropological research, mainly in Africa, which leads to a form of personal fusion of sculptural forms, materials, subject matter and symbolism. The concept of ‘Above/Below’ is based on the Giriama Commemorative Grave Posts (Vigango) being half buried in the earth, the spiritual element, and half visible above ground, being in the physical world’.
The sculpture will be on show as part of ‘Wander_Land’ at the Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens and Gallery in Cornwall, from 1 July to 5 August with other members of the Royal Society of Sculptors. Artist talks and workshops will take place on 23 July.
Recycling acrylic waste into jewellery
Earlier this year the Gane Trust awarded a grant to Amber Bailey to fund the purchase of a vulcanised rubber press for her acrylic jewellery business.
Amber got in touch to tell us “This machinery allows me to recycle my acrylic waste into new sheets for laser cutting. It has been a great step towards reducing my waste and improving the environmental and financial impact of my business. I have been saving my acrylic waste for the past year, hoping to try out this technique of recycling. It is thanks to the Gane Trust that I have been able to move this project forward within my business.”