Rainbow

Got very wet taking this photo and nearly missed it, a rainbow straight out of the sea with a faint double, and extraordinary light.

Weaving and stitching

Garden tapestry

Two textile pieces made as christmas gifts, the weaving was for my sister and just made the last post for Christmas, posted on the 23rd.

If you down to the woods

Sprites and teddy

Rabbit

All the figures in the stitched piece above were found in the shapes made during the dyeing process by uneven patterning, all I did was picked them out and enhanced them.
Hope you all had a great christmas.

Solstice

Hope you enjoyed your Solstice day, we dressed the tree, visited friends to celebrate and watched the finals of Strictly, a good day.
Happy Solstice to one and all.

Santa and a slice of lemon

We were having dinner on Sunday night when we hear Christmas music, opening the curtains what do we behold but Santa and a light festooned sleigh being towed behind a 4x4, we waved, he waved back, how surreal.
The moon looked like a slice of lemon.

Oops

Add caption

Mulled cider on firebowl

Oops forgot to show outside. Willa and her amazing garden

metalwork. We had mulled cider and sausages cooked on her firebowl

Jo Herbert, jeweller, in blue and Willa Ashworth who welds
all the amazing iron work in the photos

My daughter, Jo, Willa and me plus
rusty globe

Also taking part are Liz Hewitt, textiles and Simon Phelps, ceramics. I think that is everyone.

End of the day

Exhibtion

First weekend over, second to come, a few images of the studio and new work.

Paperweights

Beach-jute and silk weaving with shells

Safekeeper bags plant dyed material

General view with my weaving and Sara Parsons ceramics

Dominic Hewitt photography at bottom
not great image

Stitched, paint and weaving

General view

Driftwood with weaving

My weaving and Stephanie Wooster's
neckpieces

My work

Eco dyed recyled clothing

Autumn colour

 I am still furiously working towards my open studio next weekend but thought I would post some photos of the garden. The miniature Acers (they just don't grow) are slowly dropping their leaves which I am collecting for dyeing.

I am also going to try using the strawberry leaves in dyeing, haven't tried them before.

The marigolds are still flowering away and I also have a yellow rose in flower and quite a few salvias


Probably won't have much time to post now until my exhibition is all set up.

Treasure Trove

 

I was lucky enough to be picked out of the hat for a giveaway from Christi at sweetpeapath.blogspot.co.uk a few weeks ago.

She called the giveaway a bag of scraps, not how i would have described them, a treasure trove of beautiful designs, fabrics and textures., and a very generous amount. Thank you Christi.

Christmas Exhibition

I am opening my studio again for Christmas this year, slightly apprehensive and excited at the same time. I haven't managed to get much work done this year so its good that everybody else has, plus I have two more artists who may want to take part.
I have eco dyed a few items of clothing, it will be interesting to get some feedback on these and on my stitched pieces. Lots of work still to do, its amazing how long all the finishing off and labelling takes.

Fungi in the Garden, Moonrise and Sunset

Part 3

While we were in Yorkshire we also visited Haworth Parsonage where the Brontes lived. This was very interesting and we were lucky enough to be there whilst there was an installation on by Charlotte Cory
 An installation by Charlotte Cory, one of the country's leading surreal photographic artists. The exhibition is an imaginative, witty and informative exploration of the Brontës and the history of early photography, drawing on the Victorian craze for collecting cartes des visite – portraits once produced in their millions and now discarded. Using twenty-first century techniques, Cory creates colourful new characters for these long forgotten figures, which are at the same time poignantly reminiscent of Victorian taxidermy; animals collected and preserved for posterity in their glory, and now extinct.

 This was fascinating and increased my enjoyment of the exhibition though reading the visitors book there was a mixed reaction, I think people either loved or hated it.
The village is also very pretty and there is an amazing sculptress who has a gallery there whose name I can't remember.

We then travelled on to Grimsby to see Alice Fox's exhibition 'Tide Marks', an excellent exhibition, I loved it all, one day I may get to own a piece of her work. So lucky to get to see this, only because it coincided with Cloth and Memory. look at her site to see work from the exhibition http://www.alicefox.co.uk
Both exhibitions gave me lots of inspiration.

Above me doing my thing on Cleethorpes beach, hubby took the top two photos, the long view and of course I took the interesting ones. This is a beautiful beach and full of interesting finds.

Next stop was Lincoln where we stayed in another apartment with views of the cathedral. I seem to have stopped using my camera by this stage. We visited the cathedral, the castle and walked down Steep Hill, and it was, especially on the way back to see the canal that runs through the town.
Next day we drove back and I went to work on designing and printing fliers and posters for my Christmas open studio.
I've been a very busy bee, hence not many posts recently.

Saltaire part 2 Salt Mills - Cloth and Memory Part 2

Gallery from one direction

 First impressions when you enter the gallery is the immensity of the space, you can hardly see from one end to the other. Its something like 10,000 sq ft.

and the other

Koji Takaki

Jeanette Appleton

Only when you have recovered your breath can you concentrate on the exhibits. These are many and very varied. I haven't taken many photos, I could have taken hundreds.







Most of the exhibitors were either British or Japanese and the differences in their work was considerable, you could see the differences in the textile practices between the two countries very clearly.
The relationship between the artists and the space and history of the mill was also fascinating. Thats all I am going to say, look at clothandmemory.com for further images and information.

Visit to Saltaire and other places part 1

Oats Royd Mill from above, a very steep climb

Morning cloud in the valley

Hebden Bridge

Hebden Bridge

View from apartment window

Views from window.

View from window

I don't know why some of these images are very small.
We have been away for a few days, we stayed in a lovely apartment in an old mill near Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire. Hebden Bridge itself is a fascinating place though we didn't go exploring upwards, very steep, but stayed in the river area.