Wonderland Review

*Warning* contains East Midlands vernacular. If yer don’t like it, then Bogger off!

Ayup!

Nah then, yo Boggers know just how likkle I manage ter write on this blog. It’s supposed ter be a platform, fer letting yer know warrav bin upter, keepin y’upter date, like. Burra rarely gerra chance, an’ when a do; it’s usually ter moan abaht summat.

Well, I went dahn Playaahse on Toosdeh, an’ saw ‘Wonderland.’ Yer know, the play abaht the pit moggys. Just so ‘appened, tharrit wuz ‘press’ night, so I thought ad try me ‘and at writin’ a likkle review. Well bogger me, it were bleddeh briwyunt. A felt compelled ter write summat abaht it, if onleh ter encourage the rest on yer ter get dahn there an’ check it aht!

Image Courtesy of Nottingham Playhouse

The Nottingham-born (playwright), Beth Steel, draws upon her father’s 40 year experience a miner. The play is set during the 1984-85 miner’s strike, at Welbeck Colliery.

The play starts with a well choreographed piece of dance, set to music. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was going to end up being a musical, whereby they’d suddenly break out into song at the mere mention of ‘snap tins’ or ‘cobs’. This was not the case, and, as much as I like musical theatre, I was quite glad about it. There are enough industrial hardship stories, that have been set to music (Brassed off, The Full Monty…) and I don’t think this story, nor the script would’ve benefitted from it.  It was so much better than that, and would’ve distracted too much from the message that was being portrayed. This is, of course the Midlands, and we don’t like to be too over the top!

The casting was great, and considering Nottinghamese is one of the hardest accents to adopt, I thought they were all very convincing. (I mean, what do I know, am norreven frum raahnd ‘ere, me-sen!) There were certain characters that shone out over others, but, as us Midlanders don’t like to blow our own trumpets, am not gooin ter single any Bogger aht! The wonderful direction (Adam Penford), bleddeh clever set design, (Morgan Large) and perfect lighting (Jack Knowles) make the whole play gel together really nicely, and there is a real raw juxtaposition between the bleak, real-life hardships that these men faced, and pure lighthearted brilliance in the script writing. (Some absolutely cracking one-liners annorl!)

Image- Nottinghampost.com

Although I have no connection to the mining industry, and, fortunately I was too young to remember the ruling of the Iron lady, this play really struck a chord with me. The heartbreak, devastation and destruction of these men’s lives, and their families, must have been harrowing. The sense of pride that these men show, in the face of adversity, is portrayed so well throughout the performance. The need to fight for what you believe in, or return to work, and face being called a ‘scab’.

Anyroad, I don’t think I’ll be winning any nobel prize fer literature, as a result of this review, but I hope it’s given you the impetus to get yersen to the Playhouse, and see this masterpiece before it closes on the 24th Feb. Get yer tickets here

Right, signing off nah, until I can get me-sen organised enough ter write some more rammel.

Ta-ra, ducks!

It’s all kickin’ off in the citeh!

AYUP!

Tomorrer (8th July) is the annual Nottingham Independents Festival, and seein’ as Nottingham has more independent businesses than anywhere else outside of London, then we reckon that’s a good enough bleddeh reason to celebrate, intit, duckeh? There is loads gooin on, throughout the citeh, but us Boggers want to highlight some of the things we’re involved in.

St James’s Street, where our little shop is situated, is playin’ host to a hive of activity, and will be well worth a visit throughout the day. Work your way up the street, and visit open studios at PopPress (open until 6pm), Live illustration,window murals and locally made gifts at Handmade Nottingham (open until 8pm), Outdoor DJ sets by Plates Records, and mek sure to pop dahn ter their record store, underneath the Maltcross. Speaking of the Maltcross, they’ve got Live music and a pop-up craft beer bar (open from 11am til late) We at Dukki, not only have our Ruth, doing live illustration throughout the day, but will also be hosting a city centre treasure hunt, with bleddeh briwyunt prizes, and medals for the winning team! Come and get your question sheets from our shop, and tek yer time doing it, as the prize is for the most correctly answered questions, not the quickest time! You can keep up to date with everything that goes on on St James’s Street, by following the Facebook page for the Street, here

 

Find Ian Jones at the Street Art Block Party, Sneinton Market 11am- 9pm

Our Ian will be at the Street art Block Party, Sneinton Market, from 11am – 9pm, holding a stall of all of his amazing artwork, and you will also find live graffiti painting, music, art and more goin’ on dahn that end of the citeh! Mek sure you check aht the Street Art exhibition at the Surface Gallery when you’re dahn there! Check out Ian’s website here

If yer not too tatered after traipsing round the tahn, then keep an ey aht for the dinosaur sculptures that are dotted around the city centre, as part of the Dinosaurs of China Exhibition at Wollaton Hall. (also well worth a visit!)

More detailed events guide for the Nottingham Indedendents Festival can be downloaded here 

That’s all for nah, folks! Get yersen inter tahn tomorrer, for a whole day of fun!

A Brief History of Dukki

AY UP, yo boggers!

You might alreadeh follow us on Facebook, twitter or Instagram, and know a bit abaht us boggers, or you might ‘av just chanced upon our blog on your travels through tinterweb. Warrever the circumstances, we thought we’d introduce ussens, and tell you all abaht how Dukki wuz formed. (No, we ‘aven’t spelled the words wrong, it’s colloquial writing. If yer don’t like it, yowl soon geroverit, me duck!)

The history of Dukki, is also kind of a love story!

Way back in 2014, I was made redundant, from a job that I’d slogged at for 4 years, with little recognition. you know the type, you put everything into it, thinking that you’ll make something of yourself from it one day, but that day never arrives…

After 100s of job applications, and the realisation that I didn’t like ‘working for the man’ I decided to set up my own business. It was later that month, that I went on a blind date with a slightly quirky, bald man, and on a very sunny afternoon in #Beeston in the beer garden at The Crown, we discussed art, illustration, Nottingham and everything in between…. We discovered that we were both artists, and talked about how he could sell some of his work on my website, and we got on so well. In the July, we hosted our first stall with the @bibfmarket at the vintage warehouse, which was a quiet event, but we had such good feedback, that we pursued more. With no money for a car, we would load stock into suitcases and wheel it to events, like @bartonsplc monthly craft markets, and the @craftinthecityevents.

In December 2014, we won the Inspiring retail awards, and had 3 weeks to open our shop! It was a whirlwind from start to finish, but the rest is history. This photo was taken on the first day, right before we opened. 

We had hardly any stock, and hadn’t got a clue what would happen. We now get to live and work together every day, and we’re so proud of how things have gone. All we want to do is celebrate Nottingham, and the beautiful things it has to offer, and we’re so glad that you all want to support us whilst we do it. Getting to work with a slightly quirky bald man, isn’t half bad either 🙂

Introducing Katie Abey Design

This year has been a whirlwind here at DUKKI. But we’re very pleased to announce that our DUKKI SHOWCASE 2015 is ending with a big rainbow coloured bang, probably containing jelly beans, or unicorn droppings if that’s what you like to call them……ahem.

We introduce Katie Abey to our shop, although she needs very little introduction, because she is already a well known bogger on the Nottingham Illustration scene.

A big load of Katie’s goodies, currently on display in our shop, Broadmarsh Centre, Nottingham.

Katie lives and works in a crazy little house in Derbyshire, with her fiancé, Jeff, and their cat, Frank. She works from home and has her work area carefully positioned next to the kitchen (and therefore the fridge and the kettle!)

She is inspired by anything weird and wonderful and aims to create colourful and happy illustrations by combining humour and puns with a touch of attitude and sweetness. Her aim is to create statements that are relate-able and will make people smile.

It certainly did!

Every single day starts with with a fun illustration to get the cogs whirring. She enjoys drawing her illustrations using pencil and fine-liners and then adding colours and textures digitally.

Her work has appeared in all sorts of places, from the walls inside Spanky Van Dyke’s, the hoarding for the redevelopment campaign in Sneinton Market, and even a range of Stationary for WH Smiths! (oo-er!)

Cotton tote bags on sale in our shop.

When she’s not drawing she enjoys music, reading, going on adventures and frequently changing her hair colour to match its surroundings!

You can follow Katie on Facebook here and twitter here, and, of course, pop in and see what she has for sale in DUKKI!

DUKKI SHOWCASE 2015 – Introducing Dominic Murray, Illustrator

It’s that time of year when the kids go back to school, and retailers see fit to start advertising Christmas, so we thought we’d introduce our latest Guest Artist and Illustrator, Dominic Murray. (Because he has some perfect Christmas gift items for any discerning Nottingham bogger!)

We are very excited to feature his Sherwood Forest themed illustrations, and when we asked Dominic what made him embark on this series of illustrations, he told us:

“I’ve always had a love of art and have drawn for as long as I can remember. Since having children I’ve started to draw things that I think they would like which led to participating in Sherwood Art week in 2013, and everything escalated from there. Living in Sherwood, paired with a long time love of the legend of Robin Hood, seemed like an obvious opportunity to do something unique and local.”

His default style is inspired by a childhood love of Tintin and Asterix, and is created through traditional methods: lots of initial pencil sketches, finally deciding what he should ink, and then finishing by painting on water colours. Recently he has taken his first steps into the realms of digital art, but he says we’ll have to see how far into the matrix he descends.

Dominic’s Exhibition will be on until 30th September 2015

Dominic can be contacted via: Email: sinistersnowmen@gmail.com

 Or you can follow him on Twitter: sinistersnowmen & Tumblr: dominicmurray

DUKKISHOWCASE2015 – Introducing Burning Sensations Pyrography

Good Morning everybody! It’s time to introduce the forthcoming exhibition we are having here at DUKKI. The next bogger to come and exhibit is Liz from

                                      Burning Sensations Pyrography                                          17-31 July 2015

Liz has been a pyrography Artist for 17 years. She concentrates mainly on cartoon and tattoo style art, hand burning pictures and words onto wooden items, like keepsake boxes, plaques and bookmarks.

She also carries out commissions in a variety of different styles, providing personalised unique gifts.

Burning Sensations Pyrography is based in Gedling, Nottinghamshire and you will also find them at various craft stalls, festivals, tattoo conventions and comic conventions. They cover a wide range of steam-punk/alternative fairs all over the UK, selling their burnt wooden offerings; in fact, you can find them tomorrow at Dubdayz Summerfest tomorrow 11th July.

you can follow Burning Sensations Pyrography on Facebook by clicking here

Come down and show your support for her creations from 17 July, DUKKI, Upper level, Broadmarsh Shopping Centre, Nottingham, NG1 7LN

DUKKI SHOWCASE 2015 – Introducing Tom Marshall of Photogra-Fix

This year has flown by, and it’s now time to introduce Tom Marshall from PhotograFix, who will be exhibiting ‘Nottingham’s Past in Colour’ here at DUKKI from 17th June to 5th July.

Tom Marshall is a photo colouriser, based in Glasgow, but originally from the East Midlands.  He uses digital techniques to transform black and white photos into full colour works of art which bring history back to life.  The colours used for each image are researched to the fullest extent possible and often many days of work go into completing each picture.

We are particularly excited about having Tom to exhibit with us this month, as he is                                             brother to Heidi, owner of Dukki.                                                    Heidi says “Growing up with Tom, it was easy to see that his career path would take him down a creative route. After making countless short special effects films, and later studying Media at the university of Lincoln, Tom became more and more interested in photography and old photographs in particular, which is where PhotograFix was born. I’m delighted to have him exhibiting at our shop!”

Tom has a great love of the history of Nottingham and the surrounding area, with a particular interest in the architecture that has long since disappeared.

 

 Tom has had the pleasure of colourising historical photographs for the Open University, the British Army, the National Museum of Ireland and the Welsh Guard, alongside commissions for private clients. 

Below, a  group of Irish soldiers recuperating with nurses c1917. Pictured are two different nursing organisations, the Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS) and the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS). The TFNS wore a blue grey cape with a scarlet trim, and just visible on the uniforms of the nurses to the left of the image is a small silver ‘T’ which defines them as such. This Image was colourised as part of a recent exhibition for the National Museum of Ireland and a link to the exhibition can be found here 

Toms offers a full restoration service, and colourising starts from £25.

 To See more of Tom’s work at www.photogra-fix.com or at www.facebook.com/PhotograFixUK

Bea Roberts is now at DUKKI

Bea Roberts – Contemporary Folk Art is now exhibiting at DUKKI!

      

Pop down to see her ‘Quirky Owl’ ‘Weird Fish’ and ‘Green eye cat’ amongst other pieces

There is a vast selection of greetings cards, stickers,

jewellery and original pieces too!

You can read more about Bea by clicking here

Come and see, me duck! It’s well worth a look!

#DUKKISHOWCASE2015

DUKKI Showcase – Introducing Farah Batool Art.

This year is speeding by at a rate of quacks, so I thought it best to introduce our artist for April’s slot in our DUKKI Showcase 2015.

Farah Batool is a Nottingham based artist, and she often walks in the Peak district of Derbyshire and gets enthused by what she sees. The sense of light, colour and texture that surrounds her, largely inspires the way she works.

She studied multi-media design at university. During this time she always toyed with the idea of creating artwork and often experimented with ideas using wire, feeling there was something missing from her life. In 2010 she decided to train as a teacher in Art, and around the same time, began to focus on ideas towards becoming a maker in order to utilise her creative skills. She started painting/drawing and working in earnest on canvas with mixed media. It was in 2013 that she started to translate her ideas into ceramic, and fell in love with it.

Farah is still learning and developing possibilities using ceramic and wire and all the knowledge and techniques she has accumulated over time. Her artwork is inspired by nature and her surroundings, and is lead by a strong sense of design and her fastidious nature to explore ideas, thoroughly creating delicate yet intricate work.

She predominantly works with bird motifs in white stoneware clay and glass, and is interested in exploring the complex relationship between simple lines and intricate pattern with the depth of tone and subtle texture that is uniquely created through using glass.

 

She will be displaying some of her ceramic tiles, and jewellery in her exhibition, including some of her beautiful lace pieces, created using Lace to make an imprint onto porcelain discs. All sets are finished with blue oxide and some have the addition of transparent glaze on the white parts of the pendant to create a contrast with the matt blue

Farah’s exhibition will run from 18- 30 April, and you can follow her on Facebook and Twitter, or to find out more, visit her website www.farahbatool.com 

Becca is now at DUKKI

Becca Thorne Illustration is now at Dukki

Several flat head screws, some elbow grease and a dodgy spirit level later, We finally managed to adorn the wall of our DUKKI shop, with Becca’s beautiful linoprints.

Becca has produced several framed pieces, based on curios found in the landscape from parts of the UK.

Her work has transformed the space, and we’re loving having something different for our customers to feast their eyes on!

Along with her framed work, there is she also has some mounted editions, and some silk screened bags. My favourite is the Chihuawizard!

Becca will be exhibiting until the 29th March, so make sure you come and see her bright and beautiful pieces. if you would like to find out more about Becca’s background and portfolio please click on the link here.  You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Details of the full line up for the DUKKI Showcase 2015 can be found below, or by clicking on this link.