join our mail-list

Keep in the loop with upcoming exhibitions and activities from the Brunel Broderers, send us your e-mail address and we will include you in all our mail-outs. We promise not to send you spam or give your address to others. e-mial your name and e-mail address to mail@stephaniewooster.com

postcard project continues with help

Please keep sending in your postcard creations, we love receiving them and adding them to the collection.
Two cards came today with a very flora and forna theme, not sure if they are from the same person or if serendipity is at play.

Another beautiful donation from Heather Anne.

Monday 18th September, the Textiles for Thought discussion group met at my house today and we sat around the dining table busying our hands whilst we talked. Many thanks to Liz Hewitt, Deborah Pawle, Patricia Brownen and Janet Clarke for their wonderful creative contribution while we discussed the range of exhibitions we'd seen over the summer.

Many thanks to Heather Anne for sending us this fabulous postcard.

Very excited to receive the first two postcards. Both very different and both wonderful.

We were pleased to see how many people took our postcards from the exhibition at 44AD last week and from the West Country Quilt and Textile show the weekend before. Many thanks to those who took them. We can't wait to see what you have done and including them into our next exhibition in Bampton.

work in progress

Hoping to finish for the next exhibition in Bampton, Corinne

and now in colour

I started with experimenting with textures and patterns on the sandblaster, added crochet in linen  and mohair threads, all in ecru. But I do love colour and after the summer workshop where discussions included an very interesting one about our individual confidence in the use of colour in our work I decided to quit ecru and use the colours I'd gathered at the workshop. This has bought me to knitting and crocheting colours and textures together. I hope to create a range of lengths for the exhibition, now I am considering how I will display them at 44AD.

colours

 crochet detail

 my delightful assistant modelling a length

what's in the box

An excitement this morning with the delivery of the new fliers for our exhibition at 44AD in September

a visit to Bath

Five of our group having a cuppa before visiting 44AD. It was great to see the space as a group to start considering what work might go where.

books

17 April 17 - Corinne Renow-Clarke

For a number of years I have made sketchbooks to take away on holidays and trips. Each book takes about a day to make as there are lots of pages to cut and paint before stitching the pages together. I try and work in them every day when I’m away maybe noting colours in the landscape, traffic details on roads, people, quirky windows, doors and chimneys etc when we’re actually travelling. On our days out I love to go to museums and stately homes where I can revel in drawing the wealth of patterns and details to be found or to draw landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes. Drawing is fundamental to my work; I need to draw every day.

My intention is to make some sketchbooks based on Bath. The Victoria Art Gallery, the Holburne Museum, the American Museum, the Fashion Museum and the Roman Baths are just a few places to visit and draw. Then there are the many wonderful architectural buildings and landscapes to record in and around Bath. These sketchbooks will be on display at our Underpinning exhibition at 44AD near the Abbey in September along with any work inspired by my travels.

 

   

memories of Newark Park

Taking down the work at Newark Park it was a sad day to be leaving the wonderful National Trust property. Many thanks to all the wonderful people who work and volunteer there. It was such an inspiring place and I was fascinated to see how my work changed and now I am back home with my work I'm re-evaluating the pieces I've made to look at developing them more. The wear of daily life is still central to the work and I'm wondering if I should place them outside again now I know what the weather does to the fibers. The second idea is to re-structure them to make objects. Or possibly both...

the traces we leave behind

Textiles seldom survive over long periods of time and working with such a historical building as Newark Park the evidence of humans is in the bricks and mortar more than the fabrics. My work progresses on the gallery piece for Newark Park exhibition, pulling together ideas on the traces we leave. I’ve gathered lengths, some that were left in the garden for two to three months, these have been stained and partially destroyed but still link to the pieces in the garden and the kitchen. I wanted also to bring into the piece some of the ideas that sprang from the workshop that Carla held in October, where I worked with found objects from the garden at Newark Park and to use some blind stitching techniques I had played with where I found myself stitching around my thumb print.A strong connection to the ephemeral.

outside

Easter has been very productive with the completion of the 48 lengths for the outside piece for Newark Park

wrapped up in a bag it all looks so contained for 32 meters of seams, 13.3 meters of crotchet and 32,496 rows of machine knitting. Now I just have 22,192 rows of knitting for the kitchen piece.

And on a recent visit to Newark Park I took some of the lengths to trial them in situ, here's a short film of them.

Quinary Exhibition

Lateral thinking

From an exercise in the use of primary colours, a quilt at Newark Park and orange and yellow flowers came the idea for an outdoor piece for the exhibition. It will take the form of another screen, this time dyed, painted and stitched organdie over three five foot bamboo hoops joined together.

Last few days

Last few days to visit Centrespace Gallery in Bristol to see the latest work by Steph Wooster and Liz Hewitt. Centrespace is set in an old Chocolate factory on a medieval lane, just off Corn Street in Bristol. We are exhibiting with five other artists who specialise in ceramics, 3d collagraph structures, screen print and painting.

Steph is showing 3 knitted jumpers which she has delicately reconstructed with the most intricate Swiss darning, plus has created a lovely film to show the delicate movement of these garments. 

Liz is showing her rust prints on fabric and paper, with added stitch, plus black & white dry point etchings and monoprints. 

It's a wonderful exhibition, in a beautiful space, and you have until 5pm on weds 2nd Dec in which to visit, we hope to see you there. 

Arboretum - The Art of Trees

Went to see the latest exhibition at the RWA, in Bristol last week  - Arboretum  - which explores the art of the tree. With this installation of white sycamore, steel & bone, as a centre piece. 

One of my favourite pieces by Fiona Hingston who has used earth & charcoal on paper to draw these trees. A beautiful ethereal piece.

The whole gallery had a lovely peaceful atmosphere as we walked through. I feel truly inspired, but perhaps I am biased as my passion is trees.

It deserves another visit.

Tracing the Blueprint

Kay & I visited the Museum in the Park yesterday to see the Tracing the Blueprint exhibition, a fascinating insight into resist printed indigo fabric of Hungary and how these patterns and techniques made their way to Africa via Manchester printers.
The story was told through photographs illustrating the past & present production methods and how the cloth is worn both in Hungary.  The second half of the exhibition illustrated how the fabrics are produced, used and worn in Africa today. It was reassuring to read that the fabrics are being produced in Africa.  The sad news is that the Manchester printers are now closed but many of their patterns have been shipped to Africa, meaning these fabrics are still being produced, plus new contemporary designs.
Lots of beautiful lengths of fabric displayed in interesting ways, added to our enjoyment of the exhibition.It's well worth a visit, and is on for another 10 days.
We ended our day with a trip to Gallery Pangolin, which is situated in the Pangolin Editions art Foundry, they describe it as one of Gloucestershire's best kept secrets, and we'd agree, as well hidden, thank goodness for the directions on their website, which made it easier to find. The gallery space was stunning and full of drawings by sculptors who use the foundry to cast their pieces, plus small pieces of sculpture, my favourites by Terence Coventry & Peter Randall Page. Our favourite drawings were 6 small unframed  pieces hanging from metal strips by Ann Christopher.
An amazing setting, with lots of activity as you would expect in a working Foundry, we caught glimpses of people making moulds for new pieces, as we drove thought the site to the gallery. Two impressive sculptures greeted us, Vulcan by E. Paolozzi  and Reach for the Stars by Kenneth Armitage, with other smaller sculptures along the river bank outside the gallery by Terence Coventry.

Curiously Enough Opening Party

Here's a selection of images to tempt you. The exhibition is set in a lovely ground floor room in Ruskin Mill. The tree outside the door laden with pom poms. Wonderful gardens outside to explore after a visit to our exhibition and delicious cakes available in the cafe.

Brunel Broderers Birthday Candles!

For our 21st Birthday there were many more than 21 candles at the Silk Mills in Frome!!!

Thanks to all who contributed by bringing a candle or
making one during the Curiouser exhibition

We hope to show Curiouser again at a Bristol venue
next year - will keep you posted!

Louise's moths

Linda's doorway

Curiouser Collages

Lizzie, Susi, Liz H, Kay