A Day Out

 

A day out was needed on Saturday and the promise of a fair weekend (for once) meant that we headed off up to Yorkshire. We went to the  Mountfield Gallery in Holmfirth, home of Dionne Swift www.mountfieldgallery.com. She turns her beautiful home into an art gallery for the week in aid of Macmillan support and as part of the Holmfirth Art Week. www.holmfirthartweek.org.uk

The views from Dionne's garden are breathtaking, she lives at the top of a incredibly narrow and steep road  but the payoff is the panoramic view.

 

The work on show is from thirteen artists that sit well alongside Dionne's work and reflected the high standards of craftmanship that her work displays. I would have liked to bring home a piece of incredible wirework by the artist Helaina Sharpley - a complex townscape made of fine wire that just came out of the canvas at me, making me feel I was actually in the town it depicted. I would have loved to take home a couple of paintings by Paul Brown that had really captured the genus loci of his subjects.

The paperwork of Jennifer Collier was very appealing to me, I've always been drawn to her work and the little lampshades were divine. Hannah Nunn  had some very beautiful lampshades on show as well, the meticulous paper cut-work of birds, feathers and grasses, made to glow by the lighting could easily come home with me. I would also have liked the wood figures by Fiona Wilson, at least five to line up on my mantelpiece, the imagery of these figures keeps popping into my mind. Don't even get me started on the ceramics of Tone von Krogh, I want it all, the wonderful turquoise and aquas of her tactile work would fit in well with my ceramic collection.

So what did we come home with?

A piece by Dionne of course! It was a joint purchase and John loved this piece as much as I did.

Of course we would also have liked to bring these home as well.

Quiet Before the Storm

Setting up the exhibition was a fairly speedy affair yesterday, Biddy as always was well organised and the fact that we were not hanging work  meant that the whole thing was set up within an hour. I was amazed at the sheer quantity of work that came in and the finished set up looked  abundant and sumptuous.

Several people from the village visited and showed a great deal of interest and it was good to see that there were a number of young people in attendance.

Today will pass in a flash - Father's Day lunch, (cooking as I write), then I will take my turn at the stitching table in the barn this afternoon. Wouldn't you just know it - awake with sciatica most of the night, I should feel tired but all the lovely things going on have me fairly wired today, I shall probably calm down a bit tomorrow. 

Calico Open Weekend

The signs are made, the cakes ready to be iced, the venue set up, all ready to go for an open weekend to showcase the work that we do under the leadership of Biddy Bruce. We meet in the beautiful St Botolph's Barn in the village of Helpston, where I live. We are an invited group of textile artists and embroiderers and will be working in the barn this weekend (15th and 16th June) showing past, present and ongoing work. 

In among all this preparation I am teaching eldest daughter the art of dressmaking.

We are starting, as you do, with the most demanding and complex pattern you could wish for. Luckily we have decided to make a toille before we use the good fabric, I'm actually making it from one of my vintage sheets. This will mean we can get the fitting right, make any adjustments to the pattern and hopefully understand the way the dress fits together before we tackle the expensive satin version.

I have never  seen so many tucks darts and twiddly bits as in this Vogue pattern, I'm sure all this attention to detail will make a very well fitting garment. I just need a bit more thinking time to work it all out instead of attempting it in the middle of a very hectic weekend. Grandsons and family coming for Sunday roast for father's day, which I will cook in between being at the barn and socialising at home. 

Happy days! 

High Flown Company

As I have been on several Bobby Britnell drawing courses over the past few years, I got an invite to her book launch party  on Monday evening at Artvango in Knebworth. The 'great and the really good' turned out in numbers for her and I was quite giddy with all the 'faces' I recognised. I won't list them because I will probably miss somebody important out, but it was good to see Gina who was on a very tight schedule, Julie of Mixed Media fame arrived just as I was leaving and I caught up with several  other people who I hadn't seen for some years. This is definitely not my thing  - far too social for me but I felt that such a special Lady as Bobby warranted me overcoming my hermit like tendencies. The book was great as well!

An Outing and a Bargain!

Yesterday  was a perfect Saturday for me. It started off with a trip over to The Bramble Patch to see the 'Orientation' exhibition  by the 'SiX and Friends' group. Because I follow various blogs attached to this group I was already somewhat familiar with imagery of the work, but nothing prepared me for them in 'real life'.

The works of Hilary Beattie, Ineke Berlyn, Laura and Linda Kemshall, Edwina Mackinnon, Catherine Nichols, Annabel Rainbow, Stephanie Redfern and the late Marie Roper were sumptuous, rich in detail and thought provoking. Stephanie Redfern's work was a particular revelation to me as it was very mixed media, I loved the way she combines varying textures of paper, drawing, textiles and stitch.

As we were only twenty miles away from Milton Keynes after the seeing the exhibition, we both had an Ikea moment. Now you either love or hate Ikea, John and I adore it. We don't usually visit on a bank holiday Saturday (it's crazy) but couldn't pass up the opportunity. Boy was it busy! We needed to stock up on basics like table napkins and batteries, it was more a visit to check out ideas than to buy anything major. The last thing you do before leaving Ikea (apart from paying ) is check out the bargain section. I picked up a heavy piece of fabric which caught my eye. It wasn't priced but a very busy assistant checked it out for me. £4.95 for 5 metres of fabric. It looked like it had been a display piece.

I now have a lovely double sided panel separating my dining room from the work room. It was great to burn the midnight oil last night sewing this whilst John set up the indoor Easter egg hunt for today. I'm not too tired today so I guess some energy is returning at last.

Happy Easter! 

Guild Pictures

 

 

This piece is called Blue Moon and is by Linda Meache.r The technical skill and overall composition is quite awesome. The sheer perfection of each stitch is something I can only admire but never achieve.

 

This is such a chic little box by Kate Isaacs. I've heightened the colouring a little to show off the various elements and stitching.  It  really makes for  a pleasing piece of work.

 

 

I find that work behind glass so difficult to capture with my camera, take it from me that this piece of work glows. It is by Kay Hall whose machine embroidery technique is very inspirational.

 

' Busy Bees' worked by Shiela Merrill is stitched with perfection and overall makes such a pleasing composition that it is catching the eye of many visitors to the exhibition.

 

There seems to be something for every taste in our current exhibition, from art driven abstracts to traditional pieces shown off at a such a high level of competence. There are hangings, 3D pieces, embroidered beads and altered books to name but a few styles of work on display.

 

I have just finished making the cupcake bases for tomorrow using two new recipes. they both worked well except the red velvet sponge mix which has a whole bottle of red colouring in it has sprayed me from the mixer. My pale blue top now has red dots appearing all over it. it's not going to wash out is it? 

 



 

Peterborough Embroiderer's Guild Exhibition

 

The Guild Exhibition is under way at Art and Stitch and is looking good. It really is a celebration of skill and artistry that shouldn't be missed by anyone with an interest in textiles and stitch. This piece by Chris Dunn just sings with colour and design and that is why I chose it for our poster advertising the event.

 

 

 

 

I'm starting to think about the five dozen cup cakes I'm making for the 'meet the artists' tea party on Sunday afternoon. They'll need to be a work of art to live up to the exhibition.

 

 

This is another piece I'm currently drooling over called Summer 2012 by Paula Mason. I can't tell you how much I love it!

 

 

For sheer prettiness and such a light touch this piece by Lin Oxley is capturing a lot of attention.

 

My work is in amongst all of this and as I've blogged about it many times  I won't show any more close ups of it, but I will say that the piece I call Sylvia's Workbox is receiving a lot of comment.

 

I will carry on posting shots of individual work for this and the coming week (whilst the exhibit is running). 

 

 

One Toltec motif -20 versions.