Olga de Amaral at Lisson Gallery

 Golden textiles, woven and painted (not dyed) -

How does she do it? Gesso and gold leaf are involved - this is the front of one piece -

... and this is the back -

Some of the work is massive - most of it is large -

Sometimes threads (linen) are woven around sticks -

Sometimes strips that have been woven are woven yet again -

Fascinating, intriguing, clever, beautiful. And how lovely to be among these works, that golden glow...

Olga de Amaral (b.1932) is a Colombian textile artist who, the gallery says, "spins base matter into fields of color and weaves tectonic lines through space, unselfconsciously testing the borders between crafted object and the work of art". She traveled widely in the 1950s and 60s, studying textiles at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1952 and teaching at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in the 1960s. She represented Colombia at the 1986 Venice Biennale. She is married to an artist whose works appear incidentally in the two films that are shown.

The show runs till 29 October.

Not exactly a Studio Saturday

Out of the studio and into the advent fair! In addition to the ready-to-go leftovers from the MSF benefit sale in April, I made a few small, inexpensive items - microwaveable handwarmers and little notebooks.

Setting up at All Saints, Highgate -

 Ready to go, thanks to the transport (and company) provided by Gill Harding -

Six hours later, taking down -

Lovely venue - the sun shone, what a bonus! - with food and coffee and live music -

The Georgian Choir sometimes has concerts in the church, I'll be looking out for those - love the harmonies (the Georgian scale is based on the fifth rather than the octave).

My only purchase was a lovely blue jug, made by Alastair McKay -

On arriving home I was so jazzed up from the day that I immediately tackled The Back Wall, which has long since needed a sort-out. It took a mere three hours to rearrange the piles of books and magazines and the vases and those "saved for best" bottles of wine, and to bring the rickety bamboo shelf down from upstairs, and hoover and dust, and discover things that needed "throw or keep, and if so, where" decisions....

... and to clear the coffee table!

But OH MY, the difference it makes to sit in a room with (mostly) cleared surfaces! (It all started with the desk, which has been an oasis of calm for a few months now.)

These times and places of calmness come and go, but - do yourself a favour - clear a surface ...  

Studio Saturday (not)

Instead of pots being made, preparations continue for the MSF fundraiser, which starts next weekend. But pots, and a return to the ceramics studio, are very much on my mind, especially after the visit to Ceramic Art London....

"Sewing companions" for sale -

 12" square quiltlets, mounted on canvases -

 6"x12" pieces mounted to fit A3 frames -

 7"x10" quiltlets mounted to fit A3 frames -

They contain "travel lines" fabric, screenprinted in 2011 when I was doing the art MA at Camberwell -

Down memory lane

Coffee in hand, first thing this morning I started looking for the box of safety pins, as they are needed for a temporary transformation. These delights -

 emerged from this area -

The safety pins were not in "the needles and pins drawer", but from the top of the cabinet came the wooden box, which turned out not to be empty. This seemed to be encouragement for continuing the search and seeing what else might be lying forgotten.

Oh my. What a trip down memory lane!

First, though, the set of letters -- just what I need for a little pre-xmas project -- appeared -

 And those slips of paper, hmm... when did I write those? they have a title page of sorts, "Then and Now" and consist of phrases that describe just about any point in my life, things I was writing down (in capital letters!) in attempt to get them out of my head, clear my mind...

Thought-provoking: "too much of the wrong things"; "what's missing"; "pay attention"; "always something else to do"; "keeping busy / moving forward". It has me thinking about what we choose to do in our lives, and what is thrust upon us ... and whether thoughts like this are useful in daily life.

But the search for the safety pins continues, widening a little from the area where I thought they were most likely to be. More things emerge - more wooden boxes, for a start, and other containers that need looking into.

 In the basket is a textile piece that was exhibited in 2000.. I made hundreds of leaves out of metallic organza and strung them together, not all that well it must be said. The leaves went on to be used in a series of wall hangings, including a breakthrough piece exhibited at Art in Nature and then the Festival of Quilts. The box of badly painted pages use paint left over after a day's painting of the Colour Dictionary The tomato pincushion has some very useful large needles stuck into it, and at the back are a cross-stitched hanging made by my mother for her first grandchild (my son) in the late 70s, and a postcard of the textile outcome of a project done in an illustration course in the late 90s.

In another box were the gathered components of a project based on marks arising from overheard conversations -

 Textile magazines that didn't get filed away ...

Part of the "memory balls" project (2012), very fine thread and very light, still attached to its source yarn -

 Some work from the art foundation course, 2009-10 - a drawing project and the "self reflective journal", a printout of posts from this blog -

How far back does this go? It was made in a class (with John Bentley?) at Ormond Road workshops, which closed not long afterwards, in the late 90s perhaps.I printed it on paper and several times on fabric, to be made into cushion covers. It was one of those works that "just happened" - the source image is from a Senufo mud cloth -

 Finally, some little pictures that were taken down during the Great Renovation of 2015-6 -

Grade 2, General Gordon School (Vancouver) 1956

Made at a study day, Museum of Mankind, early 1990s - it was this little
bit of stitching that made me realise how much I'd missed sewing etc

Made in my second class at City Lit, taught by Julia Caprara.
Machine embroidered on soluble fabric, but I didn't wash out the fabric,
I liked it just as it was. That was about 25 years ago

The safety pins have yet to be found, and there are a quite a lot of shelves and corners to look in, but only two days to do it in! (There is a Plan B.)

Knitting & Stitching Show

Let's start with the purchases - well there was only one, a couple of hanks of wool intended for a camisole (aka woolly vest) - and I can hardly wait to get knitting -

The wool is from a flock of Wensleydale and Bluefaced Leicester sheep raised on a farm that's mentioned in the Domesday Book. The wool is scoured, spun and dyed in Yorkshire.

Mention sheepdogs while you fondle the hanks and you might get a story about the latest trainee, Sam, who for the first six months after arriving thought his name was "Out!"

Quite apart from my love of using wool for knitting, felting, and general wearing (including darning), this sort of enterprise ticks all the boxes for me - the old traditions, the links to the past, the support of local industry, the personal contact, and not to forget the amount of work and sheer slog involved. Plus, rare breed sheep ... and the joy of wool ...

So, that was my favourite thing at the show - the pleasure of buying a couple of hanks of wool.

Close second came the work of Consuelo Simpson, also concerned with keeping lost skills alive -

 And Yoke: Undercurrent, based on the Yorkshire canals - those are giant (inflatable) lock gates -

Stitched portraits of people and animals by Emily Tull =

 Lyrical landscapes with a sprinkling of chairs, by Helene Carpenter in the Fabricated Narratives display -

 Amarjit Nandhra's take on the pulkhari tradition -

 Debbie Lyddon's use of natural materials from the shore as dyestuffs -

"Thirteen" textiles near Waterloo

The annual show of the Thirteen textile group is on at WAC (Waterloo Action Centre), just round the corner from the train station, till 6 October, open 11-6.

Sue McKay's banners (upstairs) are related to
Jeremy Gardiner's paintings of the Devon coast

Sue's work in the entrance, based on gardens, reflects her recent
interest in eco-dyeing

Rosemary Chapman's new works hark back to medieval sources

Moe Casey focuses on hands and fingerprints - the labyrinth of the
fingerprint shows the winding creative path 

Sylvia Whitehouse is drawn to details and concerned about the
fragility of nature, species "on the margins"

Pam Smyth's stylised animal portraits highlight the plight of endangered species

Other artists from the group are showing too - and the exhibition includes work in other media, photographs and paintings that are part and parcel of members' artistic practice.