Inspire. Support. Create.
Becca Thornton
Curatorial Fellowship
Charlston Trust
2018
During her Curatorial Fellowship, Becca Thornton became interested in pairing the Charleston Trust with Making it Out, a charity and workshop in Portslade whose aim is to provide creative alternatives to repeat offenders. The charities goal is realised through providing participants with the space, training and support to make saleable objects and complete commissions. In pairing the charity with Charleston she set out to create an object inspired by the applied-arts practices of the Bloomsbury makers. When, later on in her fellowship during the organisation of the Omega Now exhibition (on Roger Fry’s Omega Workshops), she thought again of Making it Out, whose ethos bears some resemblance to that of Omega.
For the Omega Now exhibition, a spirited and comprehensive survey of Omega’s output was presented. The new galleries at Charleston were an ideal place to hold the exhibition. Bell and Grant (former artists of Bloomsbury) brought objects from the Workshops with them when they moved to Charleston in October 1916, and Charleston, with its heavily decorated interiors, is an embodiment of the Post-Impressionist inspired house. The exhibition display included many objects from the Charleston collection as well as many loaned objects from both public and private collections.
Whilst trawling through the digital archive and folders containing images of the objects to be included in the exhibition, Becca came across a series of blurry newspaper clippings of Winifred Gill and Nina Hamnett in the workshops in which Nina Hamnett is holding a rhino toy.
The original toys were simple, flat plywood constructions with articulated joints and coming in a range of shapes and these in two sizes: Camels, Rhinoceroses, Elephants and Tigers. They were painted graphically by Omega’s artists, likely to have been women, and were likely stamped with the Omega logo. There are no known remaining examples of these toys. Black and white photographic documents from newspaper clippings and the simple sketches in the catalogue are all that remains. As such, how these toys might have been painted, who was responsible for their design and production and if they were ever even put into productions remains unknown: were they decorated with bold colours as might have fit in with the rest of the Omega nursery? Were they made to order, but never actually ordered? Were they only ever conceived for the catalogue with the few examples photographed produced for the purposes of the showroom?
The lack of an original, physical example meant that there were numerous challenges to the design process. How to recreate the joints? How to finish the animals? How should the packaging look? Creating joints that would allow both ease of movement in the legs and the strength to hold the animal’s body up proved to be difficult and was possibly the most time consuming creative problem to solve in the project. Luckily a couple of the participants showed great skill in visualising how the joints could work, and continue to work rather than wearing away over time or coming apart, while maintaining authenticity and truth to the materials that would have been available to the Omega at the time.
As for paintwork, as it was impossible to know exact colours that were originally used, there was potential for some artistic licence and an opportunity to give the toys a more contemporary feel. It was decided that some of the ply should be left bare, or only treated with an oil or wax, allowing room for the inherent appeal and beauty of the birch ply to be enjoyed. The colour could be applied boldly and graphically but sparingly, providing a pleasing contrast.
This product was developed to be sold and upon completion, an article was written covering the project and was included in the catalogue for Omega Now.
Inspire. Support. Create.
Becca Thornton
Curatorial Fellowship
Charlston Trust
2018
During her Curatorial Fellowship, Becca Thornton became interested in pairing the Charleston Trust with Making it Out, a charity and workshop in Portslade whose aim is to provide creative alternatives to repeat offenders. The charities goal is realised through providing participants with the space, training and support to make saleable objects and complete commissions. In pairing the charity with Charleston she set out to create an object inspired by the applied-arts practices of the Bloomsbury makers. When, later on in her fellowship during the organisation of the Omega Now exhibition (on Roger Fry’s Omega Workshops), she thought again of Making it Out, whose ethos bears some resemblance to that of Omega.
For the Omega Now exhibition, a spirited and comprehensive survey of Omega’s output was presented. The new galleries at Charleston were an ideal place to hold the exhibition. Bell and Grant (former artists of Bloomsbury) brought objects from the Workshops with them when they moved to Charleston in October 1916, and Charleston, with its heavily decorated interiors, is an embodiment of the Post-Impressionist inspired house. The exhibition display included many objects from the Charleston collection as well as many loaned objects from both public and private collections.
Whilst trawling through the digital archive and folders containing images of the objects to be included in the exhibition, Becca came across a series of blurry newspaper clippings of Winifred Gill and Nina Hamnett in the workshops in which Nina Hamnett is holding a rhino toy.
The original toys were simple, flat plywood constructions with articulated joints and coming in a range of shapes and these in two sizes: Camels, Rhinoceroses, Elephants and Tigers. They were painted graphically by Omega’s artists, likely to have been women, and were likely stamped with the Omega logo. There are no known remaining examples of these toys. Black and white photographic documents from newspaper clippings and the simple sketches in the catalogue are all that remains. As such, how these toys might have been painted, who was responsible for their design and production and if they were ever even put into productions remains unknown: were they decorated with bold colours as might have fit in with the rest of the Omega nursery? Were they made to order, but never actually ordered? Were they only ever conceived for the catalogue with the few examples photographed produced for the purposes of the showroom?
The lack of an original, physical example meant that there were numerous challenges to the design process. How to recreate the joints? How to finish the animals? How should the packaging look? Creating joints that would allow both ease of movement in the legs and the strength to hold the animal’s body up proved to be difficult and was possibly the most time consuming creative problem to solve in the project. Luckily a couple of the participants showed great skill in visualising how the joints could work, and continue to work rather than wearing away over time or coming apart, while maintaining authenticity and truth to the materials that would have been available to the Omega at the time.
As for paintwork, as it was impossible to know exact colours that were originally used, there was potential for some artistic licence and an opportunity to give the toys a more contemporary feel. It was decided that some of the ply should be left bare, or only treated with an oil or wax, allowing room for the inherent appeal and beauty of the birch ply to be enjoyed. The colour could be applied boldly and graphically but sparingly, providing a pleasing contrast.
This product was developed to be sold and upon completion, an article was written covering the project and was included in the catalogue for Omega Now.