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 -

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.

Stumbling upon a textile exhibition

Walking home from Tuesday Drawing, I found myself north of St Pancras station - passing St
Pancras Old Church

and then St Pancras Hospital, one of those old Victorian edifices, which had a big sign on the gates -

So I went in and found the Conference Centre Gallery (it's right near the restaurant) and had a look. The exhibition runs till 12 January, and the display was set up by the charity The Arts Project. It's rather tucked away. I've seen no publicity for it.  The name of the show, "The Sewing Circle Rethread", references a similar exhibition held two years ago.

Twenty artists are taking part in the exhibition. Work ranges from the exotic to the subtle - what you might call eclectic!

Rag rug by Julie Roberts

Chair by Catherine Mueller

Buttoned cuffs - and collars! - by Sue Kreitzman

Pictures by Caroline Kirton (left) and Cassandra Whitfield (right)

Impressive work by Aran Illingworth -

"that famous photograph"

Closeup

Wall full - some figures are 3D

Needlepoint by Julie Roberts made me want to get designing and stitching

 Silk weaving by Sara Bowman -

small...

... and large

Much on a Frida Kahlo theme, by Kathy Keefe

 An arresting and poignant piece by Chris Czainski -

The story

Detail of couching on canvas

Stitching away

Since clearing out my scrap boxes and gathering up scraps for making "chimneypots", I've been making good progress with them. The box of bits travels around the house and garden,

and a bag with precut threads lives in my backpack for stitching on tubes and trains as I catch up on podcasts (though sometimes this happens in the garden too) -

On my design wall -

Before the reorganisation of scrap boxes

Two weeks later

The recent pots are heavily stitched -

The one on the left is part of a fancy skirt from the charity shop, with metallic thread added. The one with the white lines was once a leaf made with metallic organza; I hope the heavy stitching with thick thread will leave a white area -

Another bit of the skirt is ready for a sprinking of glass beads -

They'll be photographed individually before slip-dipping and firing. Much of this is still experimental, to see what kinds of fabric and types of stitch work best.