Designer Crafts at the Mall 2013 is nearly here. I’m frantically trying to get organised along with my preparations for Christmas. I will be showing some large textile mixed media, embroidery in the exhibition and also some small hand embroidered studies and handmade cards and postcards will also be for sale in the Shop within the Show. Click here for more images and information .
Just got my copy of Textiles: The Art of Mankind by Mary Schoeser. It’s an impressive and lavishly illustrated large tome 24 x 29 cms in size with over 1,000 full colour illustrations. Looking forward to reading and re-reading this fantastic reference book. I immediately looked in the index for my name as I had been informed that some of my work would be included in the book. Oh my goodness, my portrait of my husband in Barcelona ‘David as Dali‘ 2010 is there full page, in all its glory on page 350. My Grandparents portrait ‘Loaves and Fishes’ 2010 is also there on page 348. The book is published by Thames & Hudson ISBN 978-0-500-51645-4 and is available on Amazon.
The Knitting and Stitching Show is nearly upon us and I shall be travelling to London for the first show at Alexandra Palace next week. I am helping to install the 62 Group of Textile Artists’ ‘Package Tour’ exhibition and will also be on our Stand TGJ3 on Thursday afternoon.
My work ‘Some Things never Change’ can be seen in the exhibition. For more information about this work click on the “Some Things Never Change’ link above.
I am looking forward to seeing how fellow members of the group have risen to the challenge of fitting their work within a box of a set size. As I usually present my own work on a stretcher and sometimes frame it I decided to make my work as a hanging and roll it up to make it fit into the box.
It will be great to meet lots of new people at the show and there will be the opportunity to buy the 62 Group book, RADICAL THREAD, on the stand at a special Knitting and Stitching Show promotional price of £15 which is a saving of £4.50 on the recommended retail price. The book which celebrates our 50th Anniversary, is a great read.
The 62 Group of Textile Artists, of which I am an exhibiting member, celebrate their 50th anniversary this year. Their largest exhibition of this celebratory year, 62 @50 opens tomorrow at the Holden Gallery in Manchester with the majority of the exhibiting members represented. I have had three pieces selected for the show and am looking forward with anticipation to seeing what other members have produced when I visit the gallery later this week. I am also looking forward to meeting visitors to the exhibition on 2nd and 3rd August when I will be stewarding. Find more information about this exhibition and my work for the show on my website : www.womanwithafish.com
one 3 pieces selected for 62@50
I decided I was getting a bit set in my way of working and becoming a bit formulaic!
Time to experiment and take a slightly different direction. More of a development than a radical change but nevertheless a new challenge.
I have worked in mixed media before with varying degrees of success using photography and stitch and also weaving and stitch but this time I am combining paint with stitch.
Stitch is still very much the dominant discipline but in my new pieces, the paint , whilst bringing a new dimension is fully integrated with the stitch.
During her recent visit to Grimsby for the 7 Strands Textile Symposium I had a conversation with Tilleke Schwarz about a photograph I had seen of her studio with all her threads neatly arranged in colours in separate boxes. I asked her how she had the patience to wind them all onto bobbins and she replied that she does them whilst watching the television and even though I am rather impatient when doing that sort of boring job I did think I should maybe do the same.
When I told her that my threads were jumbled up in polythene bags she seemed horrified so I resolved to get on and get organised. It did seem to be a huge task when I looked at the number of threads I seem to have accumulated but I have managed to motivate myself to do it and even though I have not yet finished the task yet I am very pleased with the result.
Here are 3 of the 8 boxes I have done so far .I’ll probably need to rearrange them when I have done them all but I am getting there!
I bought my boxes from Barnyarns of Ripon and I they were very inexpensive but they do the job perfectly. I would highly recommend doing this as I can now find the exact colour I want to use.I don’t use the thread numbers to organise them but just do them in colours by eye which is how I use them.
Barnyarns website
womanwithafish 