Interview with Anca, Crafters of today.

 Amberley Long 2023

Anca:
Please tell us a bit about yourself.

Amberley:

Hi, Im Amberley. I have recently just moved to the Jurassic Coast where I grew up. I studied half of a Fashion Design degree at Bournemouth University, and then I moved to Fine Art at Falmouth University as I realised that was the wrong course for me. I constructed clothing that was very sculptural and obscure and realised that I wanted to make these things not necessarily to put them on a body, but to have them in an environment.

I then co-founded a collective while finishing university, during covid, known as Quarry House Collective. We renovated a studio on a working granite quarry, moved in, made work, and had many open studios and events at the studio too.

Anca:
What was your early motivation to express your creativity through sculpting?

Amberley:
I have always been creative, from when I was younger building sandcastles, finding fossils, and constantly bringing back pebbles and rocks. Honestly, I moved last week and I have two full suitcases full of stones, rocks, and fossils found throughout my life. I think I need a trip to the beach to let some go. Some things never change.

My main motivation to express myself through sculpturing is probably because of the textures and layers that I see. I am so intrigued by bodily senses and how the environment feels around your body, and especially upon touching something, it changes your thoughts to the texture of this ‘thing’ that you are looking at. I want to express these layers and depth through my work, with shadows, and detail.

Anca:
How has your academic background in Fine Art shaped your approach to creating sculptures?

Amberley:
I think that the last year of my degree is what changed it all. Even though I studied throughout school, and it always being the subject I worked the hardest at, my third year was when I really found how I got my thoughts and needs in my head into carving, sculpting, painting, moving, and breathing.

I do remember my first day of the degree in fine art, I joined in the second year from transferring courses, and my tutor at the time, who is now a mentor post-university and friend, noticed my itch to get my art needs out. I had no idea where to start. He suggested going to the shop and buying a small bag of plaster or cement. From that, I used my knowledge in my fashion degree of stitching, materials, weights, and pattern cutting to create molds that the plaster or cement would fall into. Gravity was then and still is a huge part of my work.

Anca:
Can you take us through your process?

Amberley:
The most important part of my process is the time and thoughts before. I value this time extremely. As I know that when I start carving or painting, I won’t stop. My brain doesn’t quite like it when I take breaks away from work so I don’t, just in case the inspiration stops.

Depending on the material, I always find a way to accentuate its natural forms of it. For example, working with granite or limestone, I much prefer to work with offcuts and shapes that are obscure in a way. If it’s a mold I’m making, I tend to be ‘deliberately messy’ when making it, as well as carving the base layer too.

Anca:
Do you have a favourite material to work with?

Amberley:
This is a very hard question to answer – it is completely dependent on the concept and the mood, as well as trying to make the most of all the founded material. I mainly use clay to form the sculptures I have listed in my head, and also to just play and get my hands working. I love working with stone, whether that’s carving it or simply just making an installation out of what I’ve got. Cornish Granite is most definitely my favourite. It portrays the ruggedness of Cornwall and the unexpectedness of the landscape. I also love working with cement and plaster, where I can play with the gravity and molds, feels as though I have a lot more control over the material. However, I always have in the back of my head the environmental effects it has, so I try to reduce my use of materials that cannot be recycled in some way.

Anca:
We know that you co-founded two art collectives. Can you tell us more about Quarry House Collective and Gass Collective, and share more about your experience of building mutually supportive relationships within these two communities?

Amberley:
Quarry House Collective was formed through an exhibition "Sculptili, Materiales, Conceptu" held in Penryn, Cornwall at the Fish Factory in 2020. Our work somehow communicated with each other; and through natural conversations, planning, and help from Cultivator Cornwall, we formed a collective. We renovated an art studio/hub on a working Granite Quarry just outside of Falmouth - where we create work, and hold open studios, workshops, residencies, and collaborations (etc).

Gass Collective is a total of 13 artists that were formed through Cultivator Cornwall on their graduate start-up award grant. Working with each other for a year, holding exhibitions and business meetings.

Image taken by Max Searl on medium format of Amberley Long and Cat Horton at Porthmeor Studios, St Ives 2020.

Anca:
How do you feel about working with your hands? Can you tell us more about the impact that it has on your happiness and well-being?

Amberley:
It’s magical. The most natural source that we have as humans is the use of our hands, and feel like we take every sense that our hands give us for granted. Whatever form of craft or practice those use with their hands, helps your well-being. Just being quiet and shaping something with your hands is just a very special skill as it is.

Anca:

What and who inspires you?

Amberley:
Walking and being still definitely is where my inspiration grows. I find it very difficult to think, so I make the most of every second of the thought process before working. I work a lot with light and dark, and the shadows in between. Finding a way to portray the gap in environmental spaces and the feeling of this void.

I very much enjoy visiting museums and galleries to admire artists' work, and artists such as Gonzalo Fonseca and Constantin Brancusi are where my love for the shapes of stone forms, as well as Picasso's line drawings. However, looking at other art makes developing my signature for my work becomes harder and harder as I get so inspired by other artists.

Anca:
How can we become better at reclaiming traditions, skills, and crafts?

Amberley:
By using our hands more and making more household equipment, and tools from recycled materials. It’s complete mindfulness, however way and whichever way we use our hands, if we need to make a shelf, we make it, rather than buy it. Our ceramics, tables, beds, benches, decorations, clothes, even our warmth and places to cook our food - all of these traditions have been somehow lost in the simple skill of using our hands and our heads.

Anca:

What upcoming projects make you excited right now?

Amberley:
I have a few projects that I’ve been itching to work on for the past year. I have recently had some time out of carving and painting. I just moved to the Jurassic Coast in Dorset where I spent a lot of my childhood finding fossils and making sandcastles, where I am now more or less doing the same thing and embracing the South Coast swims. Im also going to be in Italy, gathering inspiration, carving local stone and also working with an artist.

During the last year of my degree, I desperately wanted to work with the RNIB and the visually impaired centers local to Cornwall, however, the pandemic hit, and I didn't have this chance.

 I wanted to hold a workshop for visually impaired people to touch and find a perception with my work and other objects, testing the senses and how the difference between touch and sight affect each other. I am hoping to travel and collaborate with artists around the world to create murals and pieces of work that send a message to whoever views it, in whatever way they would want to portray.

Anca:
Where and how can people engage more with your work?

Amberley:
People can reach out via Instagram: https://instagram.com/amberleylongstudio