Alexandra Palace

The Knitting and Stitching Show is a fantastic opportunity to see both contemporary and traditional work. There are lots of people demonstrating and trying to sell you things you never knew you needed. For me, the best thing is that you get a chance to actually talk to all these wonderful artists.

As usual there were plenty of interesting things to look at. Ann Small and Sue Walton had collaborated to produce a collection called 'Walk on the Wildside' making use of found objects.

 There was a lot of felt on display this year. Fi Oberon and Alula's Garden had some beautiful felted animals on their stand. (alulasgarden.co.uk)

This work by Jo Beattie entitled 'Precious Moments' was so fine and delicate. She had produced much larger pieces as well as these small framed ones. Jo was there very enthusiastically explaining to anyone how she produced her beautiful work.

Black Sheep - The Darker Side of Felt contained some very unusual felt pieces

 Caren Carfen's 'She Was Cooking Something Up' considers women's issues in the 21st century. It took quite a while to read all the captions. (carengarfen.com)

This work 'Ripeness and Age' by Renate Keeping featured wonderful watercolours and embroidered 3D apples showing their gradual decay. (thekeepinggallery.co.uk)

 Another take on felt was by Stephanie Metz who produced lots of organic looking items (stephaniemetz.com)

These felt pieces by Bridget Bernedette Karn were so fine and detailed they didn't look like felt. (bridgetbernadettekarn.com)

 There was quite a lot of 3D work on display this year including these pieces by Jean Bennett

 Environmental issues were again a popular theme. These pieces by Lindsay Taylor emphasised the effects of our rubbish on wildlife. (lindsay_taylor.co.uk

'The Shore Archive' by Mary Flynn used rubbish, particularly plastic, that she collected on the beaches on the the Isle of Wight.

EAST (easttextile.co.uk) had an exhibition called 'Between the Lines' and is a response to the First World War. This piece by June Carroll particularly caught my eye.

Gilda Baron was there again with her stunning work, still sharing her enthusiasm with everyone but particularly students. (gildabaron.com)

This work by Robina Melville was made using bobbin and needle lace. It formed part of an exhibition called 'Shape Shifting' by the Westhope Group. (westhopegroup.org.uk)

Of course after a long day walking around and being inspired we had to stop for something to drink

Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch

Last week I went to see the above show at the NEC. There was some lovely work on display and I had the chance to have quite long chats with several of the artists.

Two of my favourite artists are Linda and Laura Kemshall. I subscribe to DMTV and so it was lovely to see in 'real life' many of the pieces I had seen on the screen. Linda had been creating a series of painted birds from her garden, these were then digitally printed onto fabric. Of course I had to buy one for myself and one for my daughter.

Laura had been working on some large quilts and these were displayed behind their workstation.

There was also plenty of printed and dyed fabric and threads.

I was looking forward to seeing the project 'Barkcloth to ArtShoes' as it was promoting the charity 'Hands up for Uganda' and my daughter has recently returned from living in Uganda. The shoes were decorated by a whole variety of artists and were beautiful.

 The shoes were displayed alongside traditional baskets and mats made in Uganda.

I was also captivated by the work of Gillian Travis who kindly let me photograph her work. You may notice the resemblance to photographs on earlier posts. Gillian has travelled widely in India and we had a good chat about the textiles we had seen there. I recommend her book 'Journeys in Stitch'.

There was an amazing exhibition showcasing embroidery from Palestine.

 These are wedding pillowcases from the Hebron area in the 1920's.

The picture below on the left shows a historical Qabbeh and the one on the right is a modern interpretation of it.

There was an exhibition of costumes from the film version of 'Les Miserables'. Costumes worn by Helena Bonham Carter (the Thenardiers) and Hugh Jackson (Jean Valjean)

Costumes worn by Russell Crowe (Javert)

Costumes worn by Sasha Baron Cohen (the Thenardiers)

 Another artist whose work I really admired was Hilary Beattie. Not only was her work wonderful but she was more than willing to explain how she had constructed each piece. She gave a good hours length demonstration of how she creates both her canvasses and her collages. I highly recommend her book 'Make it Personal'  which is full of clear pictures and instructions on how to create your own work.

Echinacea 1

Echinacea 2 and 3

Beauty Matters 2 and 1

It was a lovely show and I enjoyed the work but I still think £10 for parking is a bit steep. Of all the shows I have visited only the NEC charges this much, most have free parking.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Here are some images from my wanderings around Amsterdam.
From top left: flower market; clog slippers; tulips
bridge; canal; the 'skinny bridge'
raw herring (yum); fancy doors; cheese

Obviously whilst here we had to visit the Rijks Museum. The building was lovely, all cleaned and restored and it did contain some beautiful work, however I think we have more impressive museums and galleries in Britain.

From top left: printed fabric by Chris Lebeau 1911 - 1915; concentration camp coat worn by Isabel Wachenheimer; paisley shawls
Saint Vitus 1500; charger 1750-75; Saint Ursula and her handmaidens 1323
small horse sculpture; ceramic plate with lovely bird; delftware flower holder

Of course we had to do all the 'tourist' things, riding on the trams, taking a canal ride, eating raw herring and smoked eel. We have had a lovely three days but it is time to move on ...

Antwerp, Belgium

On the way from Bruges to Amsterdam we called in to see Antwerp. It is one of the fashion centres of Europe and there was a fashion museum that I wanted to visit called the Mode Museum.

Antwerp is famous for the 'Antwerp Six'. The museum featured an exhibition by many designers who have been trained at this centre since the 1960s. Each designer had selected a garment to be displayed.

After this we went to a print museum called Museum Plantin-Moretus. There were examples of printed documents from the 15th century until the end of the 19th. Many were really beautiful. They also had a variety of printing presses, many of which still work.

I also saw more beautiful buildings - I really like the shapes of the roofs and all the windows.

Bruges, Belgium

This is a really beautiful place to visit. What do you think of when you think of Belgium - lace, chocolate, beer ?

There were so many lace and chocolate shops - I had the best hot chocolate ever. There were also many places selling beer, and such a variety. We even found gluten free beer so of course I had to try one. Not sure how the horse fits in but it was covered with bits of old jeans and I had to include it.

It goes without saying that there are many beautiful buildings, I became fascinated with all the different shapes of windows. As well as a gothic influence you can definitely see the Dutch one, by the way most people seem to speak Dutch and all the signs are in Dutch.

These are three things that have inspired me - the soldier looks really fed up. I like the layout of the altar painting and the floor mosaic would make a good applique or quilting pattern.

We saw an amazing exhibition 'Colour Full People' by an artist called Mieke Drossaert. As well as painted canvasses much of her work was printed onto fabric and made into wool and silk tapestries. They were wonderful.

Lille, France

We arrived in Lille after an uneventful journey from the UK. Campsite is small but there is plenty of space between pitches. Weather was very hot for the journey so we had to sit and have a cold beer when we arrived.

On Friday we went to La Piscine (www.roubaix-lapiscine.com) an art and industrial museum that is now housed in a 1930s art deco swimming pool.

There was a special exhibition of fabrics and clothes by designer Elisabeth de Senneville. Most of the work was behind glass.

Part of the museum is in what was the Hannart Prouvost weaving mill. On display were fabric swatches and design books from this factory. I really liked the books and will have to do something based on them.

Frances Pickering - A Special Place

Last week my daughter and I attended a four day workshop run by Frances Pickering at Art Van Go. We first saw her beautiful books at Alexandra Palace in 2009. Examples of her work can be seen on her website which is well worth a visit. If you haven't met her or seen her work she will be at the Knitting and Stitching Show again this year.

The title of the workshop was 'A Special Place' and I decided to use my allotment as my inspiration.

Here you can see Frances Pickering (with the red hair) and some of the class

We were going to make little books out of fabric, painted and stitched. The first thing to do was to use thinned gesso (which could be coloured) and rub it into the fabric with a spoon. We then had to thoroughly dry it, this was time consuming and rather boring but essential. Page size strips were then torn which makes a lovely noise.

The first thing to make was the cover. You can see two stages of the cover and the lining.

We then inserted the pages and started decorating them.

It is very easy to draw and paint on the stiffened fabric. The pages now need stitching and finishing off. I am planning on taking the book with me on my travels. I may even make some more.

Here are some of Frances Pickering's books. They are all quite small and fit easily into your hand.

Here are some pages from some of her sketchbooks. You can see how essential it is to try out your ideas before you commit them to your final book.

Here are the books made by everyone in the class.

I asked everyone if I could take a photograph of each of the books. I let them choose which page to photograph.