Tuesday 25 November 2014

Available at my next events

Here are a few things that will be available at my next events ...

Christmas cards & tags

Packs of Bike Cards

Felt Necklaces

Knitted Wire Bird Brooches

Liberty Print Fabric Necklaces

Vintage Button Brooches

 
Made by Me Kits

 
Resin Button Brooches


and lots more.  Hope to see you soon!

Monday 24 November 2014

K&S Show Harrogate 2014 - E.A.S.T. , Materialistics & HUE

Anne Norton - Devastation (E.A.S.T.)

































Not all the textile work on display at the Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate was in the Textile Galleries, the Graduate Showcase or the Knitted Textile Awards.  Some you had to seek out around the exhibition halls. Here are my selections from 3 more exhibitions I saw ...

E.A.S.T. - Between the Lines
This exhibition by East Anglian Stitch Textiles is based on the group's response to the centenary of the First World War.

Anne Norton - Devastation - her fractured vessels illustrate, literally, the horrors of war (see above).

Libby Smith - Remembrance - based on the devastated landscape & WWI poetry 

Libby Smith - Remembrance

Tricia North - Starching the Tablecloth - troops return home and find home comforts and horrors intertwined having made homemade grenades out of jam tins from their rations and metal remnants at the front.
 
Tricia North - Starching the Tablecloth

June Carroll - Based on the landscape and barbed wire that was so in evidence in the trenches.

June Carroll
June Carroll - Detail

Janette Bright - Treasure, Hope & Friendship - based on the individual hospital bags made for military personnel to keep their papers and personal items in when admitted to hospital.


Janette Bright - Treasure, Hope & Friendship

This exhibition will be touring - Braintree District Museum - Braintree, Corinium Museum - Cirencester, Pond Gallery, Snape.  I thoroughly recommend you visit it if you get the chance!

Materialistics - Home is where the heart is
A group of knitters and stitchers who take you on a rainbow fantasy journey through the rooms and garden of their home.

Black
Red

Orange
Yellow
Green

Blue
Violet
White

Indigo

HUE
Members of the HUE group of textile artists exhibit their individual work. 

Carola Garvie - Silver Birch

Helen Mastrandrea - Swirl


Hope you enjoyed my selections from the above exhibitions.

Sunday 23 November 2014

K&S Show Harrogate 2014 - The Textile Galleries

Prism - Julieanne Long - The dying flower provides the seed

The work on show in the textile galleries at the Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate is magnificent and varied.  Here are some of my picks from some of the galleries ...

Prism - Coded: Decoded
Reflecting "the many ways textile practice secretes coded and hidden meanings and concepts" - Exhibition Catalogue


Consuelo Simpson - Boundaries & Hedgerows I & II
Jackie Langfeld - Anonymous
Jackie Langfeld - Dis Functional Series II
Celia Stanley - Stuffed Shirt 3
Celia Stanley - Constrained
Diana Barrett - Missing

zero3 - Signature
Each artist presents their own style ...

Lesley Morgan - How Many Mountains
Cindy Kearney - Textile Moon

Ann Small & Sue Walton - Walk on the Wild Side
This was "a collaboration, evoking and recapturing deep seated memories and emotions, inspired by tales and stories from their past - magical, curious and slightly scary" - Exhibition catalogue.  I think that about sums it up perfectly!
Ann Small
Ann Small
Ann Small

Sue Walton
Sue Walton

Jo Beattie - Precious Moments
Based on memories of people we love and how they are associated with what they wear - memories of patterns and colours becoming inseparable from the image of the person defining them in a time, place and culture.  This work also uses shadow on a plain background some distance away to enhance the idea of memory.

Jo Beattie

Mary Flynn - The Shore Archive
Made from fabric salvaged from the shore, a number of large sea banners are displayed along with a display of many colourful plastic objects that have been sorted by type.  The exhibition addresses the relationship between people and the environment and highlights the impact of plastics on marine life, the human food chain and fertility.


Mary Flynn
Mary Flynn
Caren Garfen - She was Cooking Something Up
Caren's humorous and thought provoking pieces relate to women's issues such as domesticity, work/life balance and dieting.  This is a kitchen installation where the "lady of the house becomes totally preoccupied with food, and is locked in a world where she obsesses about what she can or cannot consume".  We are made to question our approach to food and the media's role in publicising celebrities dieting success stories and also their failures.
 
Caren Garfen
Caren Garfen


This next piece highlights the imbalance between the male/female international heads of government in the 21st century. Countries with pink borders are lead by women and blue borders by men.

Caren Garfen - It's a Man's World

No photos were permitted at Lindsay Taylor's Endangered Species exhibition which was fantastic but her work has been featured in Embroidery Sept/Oct 2014 issue if you want to track down a copy (excellent magazine by the way!) Also no photos at Out of the Fold - The Journey Unfolds but loved the Patched Festival Poncho by Marion Baker (which she tells me she will be wearing!), Priscilla by Helen Marchant & Jo's Journey by Lynette Domoney.

This was by no means all there was to see just my top picks!

Saturday 22 November 2014

K&S Show Harrogate 2014 - Graduate Showcase & Knitted Textile Awards

Maria Boyle - Graduate Showcase

The Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate is the highlight of my year - inspiration and supplies on a grand scale.  What's not to like?  Here's a flavour of my favourites from all the fabulous work on show in the Embroiderers' Guild Graduate Showcase and the Knitted Textile Awards sections:

Maria Boyle - This collection entitled "Lichen" was rich in colour and texture and was inspired by the Sami herders and the migration of the reindeer in northern Sweden from the summer mountain pastures to the lichen rich forests in winter.  Specially dyed silk, needle felting techniques, printing and stitch were all in evidence.

Maria Boyle - Detail
Maria Boyle

Caroline Bell's hangings dyed with leaves and stitched were also rather wonderful with their muted tones

Caroline Bell - Embroiderers' Guild Scholar

and Olly Mason's concrete, fabric and thread creations were a contrast of hard and soft surfaces 


Olly Mason

Other talented exhibitors in this section can be found here.

Moving on to the Knitted Textile Awards Graduate Section...

Emma Wright - Everything Stops for Tea collection - colourful & humorous
Emma Wright

Elmina Fors - Folk art inspired (silver award winner)...

Elmina Fors

Amy Leigh Green - highly patterned & colourful ...
 
Amy Leigh Green

Camille Hardwick - Oxymoron collection (gold award winner)...

Camille Hardwick

Georgina Lindsay - interesting use of materials ...

Georgina Lindsay
Did you spot the loom bands?

Hannah Watson - very light and delicate

Hannah Watson

There were, of course, lots of other talented Knitted Textile Awards Finalists on show including all those in the Open Category.  You can read more about them here