Turkey

Istanbul

Caravanserai-hostels on the silk road

Cappodoccia- fairy chimneys

A couple of pictures just to prove we actually did go to Turkey. John has taken loads of photos and they arn't on my computer yet. We had an amazing time visiting some very interesting places.

Just back from Turkey

Have just got back from a fabulous tour of Turkey, more later, and seem to have come back to summer. I think we timed that very well, though saying that have just been outside and there is a sea mist coming in and it feels quite chilly.

Trip to Wales

On Monday myself and some textile friends drove to Wales to visit two exhibitions in three different venues. We drove over in rain and cloud but by lunch it was beautiful, warm and blue skies, the weather is so unpredictable at present. Anyway back to exhibitions.
We visited a John Piper exhibition in Cardiff Museum of his paintings of Wales. All extraordinary, his use of colour, line and light is amazing.
Cardiff Museum is well worth visiting, we didn't have long but it has an excellent collection of modern art and contemporary ceramics, and also does a good lunch.
We also visited an international touring exhibition of felt makers titled 'The Climate is Changing'. This was spread over two venues. The first we visited was the Llantarnam Grange Art Centre in Cwmbran, a beautiful gallery space that needs better signage. The second venue was Crafts in the Bay in Cardiff, by the time we arrived here it was warm enough for ice cream, tea and cakes outside.
Both galleries where filled with the most amazing pieces of felt, some I felt had a rather loose interpretation of the title and one or two could have been better presented but on the whole it was an excellent exhibition. Several pieces really stood out for me Mollie Littlejohn's Winter weeds, portraying a jacket expressing aspects of drought in South Australia in the future. Fiona Rainford's 900,000 tonnes, the amount of textiles sent to landfill in the UK each year, and Empty Vessels by Lyn Griffiths portraying Freeze, Flood and Famine. Many more deserve a mention but that could take forever.

Again no camera with me. However I bought myself a smaller piece by Jenny Pepper who was a guest maker at Craft in the Bay. I love anything with pebbly features in it. The contrast between the background felt and the pebbles is greater than it looks here.
Anyway must dash going out for tea and cake.

Rotorua

Rotorua 3

Rotorua 5

 These are my 3 Rotorua pieces all nearly finished.
Unfortunately the colours don't show up too well here, the light wasn't brilliant.

Rotorua 4

Overall I am very happy with them, lets hope visitors to the exhibition will like them as well.

Stroud visit

Yesterday we visited this years Stroud International Textile Festival exhibition. It has a different flavour this year and mostly takes place in the Museum in the Park. Based on Pairings, two artists of different disciplines have collaborated to produce work for the exhibition.

The resulting exhibition is fascinating and worth a visit, unfortunately I forgot my camera but you can find info and pictures on the website. Reading the blogs of the participating artists as they discuss their working practices, thoughts and processes also makes fascinating reading. Some of the pairings, to my mind anyway, worked better than others, I didn't feel that some of the work really gelled.

Two of the pairings struck me as working particularly well Sharon Blakey and Isimi Samanidou used cloth and ceramic in an aesthetically pleasing way, their work complimenting each others perfectly. If these pieces had been for sale they would most definitely have been on my wish list.

The other collaboration that I felt worked particularly well was Dawn Mason and Nigel Hurlstone whose pieces used a limited palette of colours but was very effective in provoking thoughts of loss and sorrow. Nigel Hurlstone's large portraits being particularly striking and evocative.

The other artists involved were Alice Kettle, David Gates and Jane Webb: Kate Egan and Vanessa Cutler.: Annie Shaw and Shelly Goldsmith: Jane Keating and Jilly Morris: Janet Haigh and Rachel Kelly.

Tomatoes

I have been hardening off my tomato plants though weather not ideal for this, but they are getting leggy.
Anyway put them out yesterday in a frame covered with fleece and went out for the day. When I came back the fleece had blown halfway down the garden and the tomatoes are looking very sad, not sure they will recover. The vagaries of our British weather. Had a night of high winds, rain and power cuts and the day seems to be going the same way. I think I have also lost the cucumber plants, they are still outside suffering I guess I'm going to have to brave the weather to see if I can save them.

Rotorua

Rotorua 5? detail

 Number 5 on the loom and yes the original colours of the branches and mud were purples.

Rotorua 3? detail

This was going to be part of the longer strip but decided it didn't want to be so I guess this is going to be number 3. These pieces don't look much until they are attached to the backing fabric. At the moment this is just lying on the mud dyed strip cloth and still needs finishing and attaching. The weavings are about 10 to 11 inches long and the finished pieces are about 6 x 15 inches.