Some very sad news, my daughter's friend has been found, it appears he drowned in a canal very near to where he was last seen.

Elemental Rainbow

Yesterday delivered my 5" x 8ft piece and 5" square plus some cards to our meeting of the South West Textile group. They will be travelling up the NEC, Birmingham on Thursday as part of the Elemental Rainbow exhibition at the Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch show running from 22-25 March. I am stewarding on Sunday so hope to have some photos to post next week.
Thats one exhibition out of the way so I can now concentrate on my open studio day in April and the exhibition in Bristol in June.

Last week we had a meeting of some of the artists taking part in the Bristol exhibition some very interesting and beautiful work in progress. Its great fun meeting up with other textile workers and discussing ideas with like minded people.

Ceramic driftwood sculpture

 This amazing sculpture has just been installed in my garden by a friend and talented ceramist Tracey Burgess. It was specially commissioned after the death of my father to represent my parents, myself and my siblings.

Each piece is like a driftwood fence pole with nails and metal embedded in it. This is not a literal translation of my family though I guess all families have their holes and spiky bits. Its just because I love driftwood and rusty metal and all of Tracey's work so it is a wonderful combination.

Driftwood

Found this on the beach, I am looking forward to warmer weather when I can sit outside and start working on it. I get great pleasure from removing all the rotten wood from pieces like this and then hopefully it may be suitable to do some weaving on. If not I may be able to remove the ivy from it or just keep the whole piece for its sculptural effect.

Baskets

This is a picture of a little basket I made out of paper covered wire, its about the size of a two pence piece.
By coincidence I've also done a 5" square piece of weaving in similar colours based on the tree lichens.
I've made some more baskets which I am attaching to the weaving and hoping to add lichens.

I had great fun making the baskets, I got the idea from a book by Janet Edmonds 'Three Dimensional Embroidery' which is full of amazing stuff.

I have my first follower, welcome.

Birch trees and other thoughts

I am still having trouble with my tapestry Birch Trees, the branches still don't look right and now I am getting nearer the top the weaving is getting very tight but I would like it to have a little more length so am struggling to weave at the moment.
 I'm feeling a bit despondent with my work at the moment, I haven't been that pleased with the last three pieces I've done. They've all been for exhibitions so maybe its just the extra pressure or maybe its because I'm a little out of my comfort zone.
Though saying that I did really want to do the trees.