Last but not least is Stone & Spear on how a childhood collision with a grandfather clock has influenced his favourite print… 

‘Tee Hee’ - Stone & Spear / Giclee Print

Tee Hee print. This print makes me laugh because it’s just a bit ridiculous. It has a mythical aspect, and also feels like it’s moving because of the cogs. It’s loosely based on the face of a grandfather clock. When I was small I jumped out of my pram in a shop and smashed my head on a grandfather clock. It cracked my head open and I’ve got a massive scar now, so it was pretty bad!

‘Amazing Friend’ - Lizzy Stewart / Litho Print 

Lizzy Stewart’s Amazing Friend card (Currently Avaliable at Red Cap Cards) . It’s really cute and original – most cards just say Happy Birthday or something, no other card says that. I also really like her style, especially on the Greek Pot print as well. 

‘Suram Fortress’ - Esther Williams / Screen Print

Esther Williams (part of Print Club). I hadn’t seen Esther’s work before but I really like it, all the little elements to it and how it is built up. The characters are good, and you get the notion, like with my work, of a scene or a story being told. I like how the guards are protecting the pomegranate, and the other guy is worshipping it. I also really like pomegranates…

Next up is Many Hands co-founder Ciara Phelan on revisiting her sewing heritage, and her appreciation for all things collage…

Preserve the Trees’ - Ciara Phelan / Digital Print on Fabric, Hand Sewn

Preserve the Trees cushion. This is my first experience in textiles, designing my own surface patterns and sewing, so it combines lots things I like to do. It’s exciting and new. My mum did textile design and my nan is a seamstress, and she taught me to sew when I was five. I used to draw my own patterns and make t-shirts for my dolls! So it’s nice to be doing it again.

‘Blazin” - Stone & Spear / Silk Crepe De Chine

I really like Stone & Spear’s handkerchiefs. They’re bold and interesting, which is exactly what his work is about. It’s a statement piece, which is exciting to see.

‘Hjartar Tree’ - Kristjana S Williams / Digital Print

Hjartar Tree by Kristjana S Williams (part of Pick Me Up Selects). This piece is really beautiful. I like the way her collage takes an old process but uses a new and fresh approach and uses a vibrant colour palette. It’s also not just a collage, it creates a scene and a message as a whole, which is hard to do. Well done to her!

Next up is Many Hands co-founder Adam Ellison on such spherical subjects as space and snake eyes…

‘Snake Eye’ - Adam Ellison / Screen Print

Snake Eye. I enjoy it when I come up with an idea that I feel works instantly as an image and has an element of wit about it. I also really like drawing snakes, the fluid shapes and the way the pattern plays with the image of the eye. When I was creating the Seeing Things series I was trying to think of ways to play with the symbol of the eye, and I think this piece is the cleverest way I’ve achieved that.

‘Stargazing’ - Owen Gildersleeve / Giclee Print

Stargazing by Owen Gildersleeve. I am a big fan of space imagery, and I like how Owen has used depth and graded shadow to create an optical illusion. It could be a sphere coming out of the page, or it could be looking into a pocket of space, like a Petri dish of space, space specimens.

‘Flagstones’ - Jon McNaught / Lithographic Print

My favourite piece here is Flagstones by Jon McNaught (part of Pick Me Up Selects). It’s all segmented and it’s a really close crop, but you can still believe and understand it as a real space. That’s really difficult to do, everything has to be executed perfectly otherwise the image might fall apart, confusing people, so he’s done a great job.

Pick Me Up is in full swing and we’re really happy with the amazing response we’ve had so far, so thanks to everyone who’s visited the Many Hands space!

Starting from today we’ll be talking to a different Many Hands artist every day until the end of the exhibition (Sunday 1 April), asking them to choose three of their favourite pieces from the show: one of their own, one by another Many Hands artist and another from the rest of Pick Me Up. 

Look out for the first of the interviews later today….