Weaving and tiles in Marrakech

More images from Linda's recent visit to Marrakech.

This time, she visited a local textile business run by Faissal who took her to see his workshop in the city. He is the third generation of his family to carry on the family’s weaving business. 

The family weave a range of scarves and shawls in plain or twill weaves in wool or cotton. They use yarns in irresistable soft and subtle colours - and a few have been bought over Linda's visits!

Note the wonderful tiles and decoration on the walls and ceiling. The young man winding bobbins is sporting an amazing T-shirt which somehow compliments the traditional tiles behind him!!

Linda Babb

Prehistoric rock art

I'm using the opportunity of a mixed media sketchbook class at theyard:ARTspace in Cheltenham with Sue Brown to play with ideas for a future BBs exhibition on the theme of Inhabit. 

Here, I’ve been looking at prehistoric British rock art and exploring the marks, possibly symbolic, to be found. 

The plan is to develop some of these into stitched samples & see where that leads.

Corrine Renow-Clarke

Visiting Marrakech

Wandering the souks of Marrakech (a favourite haunt of hers) yesterday afternoon, Linda found these exquisitely embroidered textiles.

A close look reveals the simplicity of the stitches used, cross stitch on one and chain stitch on the other - timeless and without boundaries both of them.

It just shows, you don't have to be complicated technically or break dramatically new ground to make an impact!

Replacement

Brunel Broderers will be taking their Bloom exhibition to Illminster in the autumn of next year, augmented with some new work.

I'm continuing to develop the work previously shown in Cheltenham and to replace some pieces which sold. Currently, I'm completing one piece I was working on before the exhibition opened but didn't have time to complete.

45 cm square when mounted and framed

It feels as if the next step now is to try out all sorts of other ideas using the same core images but with a different approach since I want all these pieces to relate to one another and to be part of a developing series. In Photoshop Elements, I've been manipulating the big rose tree shapes, working on them in black and white and then colorising, distorting, and layering them and playing with opacity levels.

So far, these have materialised ... but I'm right at the beginning of this whole idea!

And, I suspect there is much more to come before decide on which path to take and begin work in earnest ...

Margaret Robbie

Moving On

 'Bloom' has been put away until it is shown again next year in Ilminster  [details given nearer the time]. So now to move on with ideas for a new collection of pieces with the word 'Inhabit' in mind.
After a busy year making large scale work including a commission for St. James Church Chipping Campden Liz is trying to refocus, still with the images of Gothic churches in her head. Too early to come up with any plans the way forward seems to be to simply stitch, and enjoy the process, but on a small scale.

Thinking of the colours of medieval stained glass seen in the rich tracery of church windows simple blocks of colours are used with the addition of machined lines carve the shapes in the surface.

One thought leads to another and the reading of a magazine article suggests the use of a rather neglected Embellisher to indent colour in and through the surface.

Lets see where this might lead!

Bloom in Cheltenham

Our BLOOM exhibition is now up and running in the Gardens Gallery in Cheltenham and will be open for viewing until Tuesday 10th September.

Shown here is a snapshot of the work by all six members of Brunel Broderers on show in this lovely gallery. So far, we have had good footfall and fascinating conversations with visitors. We will be stewarding every day and would very much welcome anyone close enough to pay us a visit. 

Full details are given in the poster in the sidebar of this blog and on the Gardens Gallery website. 

Margaret Robbie 

Chenonceau Gardens and Bloom

Much work is ongoing to finish my submission for Bloom. Seen here, is part of a piece 1 metre long which develops studies of the planting in the formal gardens of the Chateau at Chenonceau seen during a recent visit to the Loire region of France.

The image was printed onto fine cotton and then cut out and applied to a length of a white damask table cloth before stitching began. It is as yet unfinished and therefore unstretched.

Further details about the thinking behind this piece and others in the series are to be found here and details of  the Bloom exhibition are given in the sidebar of this blog.

Margaret Robbie