The latest from Linda

 Last Friday we saw Linda's latest work and admired the subtle colour scheme

Stitching the smock

Stitching onto the smock ... 

I’m finding the back of the stitching as interesting as the front.

Carolyn Sibbald

The Lingering Brain

As shown by neurological research, the capacity to create images in our minds is essential for human learning and wellbeing.

I am showing our brain lingering at the threshold, through which text and image are inextricably linked.

Carla Mines

Small Weavings

I've been dyeing yarns and then weaving on a variety of small looms recently. 

First of all is a landscape triptych completed on a tapestry frame ...

Then here is a strip of little woven landscapes created on a tiny fixed heddle loom. The warp is only 2" wide and the whole loom measures only 3"x 5.5". Apart from the bottom piece, the rest all use hand dyed threads done over the past 2-3 months. Now it might be time for some more dyeing sessions to see if I can get a wider range of colours. 

This time, I'rying out some new cotton yarns on the tiny fixed heddle loom to see how they might go together. Next I may try a more balanced weave to see how that goes. 

Last of all, these black & grey two heddle weaving patterns were done on a slightly larger heddle loom I bought recently. I'm trying out weaving patterns from an old Dryad booklet from 1971. This was quite fun to do but the cheap yarn used for the samples was a beast to warp up.

Corinne Renow-Clarke

Stitching on a smock

Transferring information onto the smock and starting to stitch the history of my family living at the farm. My grandparents moved there as tenants in 1906.

Carolyn Sibbald

Take a Stitch for a Walk

 My work for the next exhibition takes the form of a Museum Box in which is archived a roll of cloth and a series of sketchbooks. These are the small pocket sized books that I have been taking with me when I walk around the village.

 I also fashioned a narrow strip of cloth, about 200 yards long which I took, began to stich and photographed during the walk. This was never finished but now I am using the cloth with text and images from the sketchbooks to tell the story of my walks

Liz Harding

Hexagonal form

I'm currently working on a 3D structure to explore elements of high rise buildings and their reflections. It will be hexagonal in form with cutouts and look-throughs. Samples of progress so far are shown here. 

 More photos and comments can be found on my blog here.  

Margaret Robbie

Moroccan doorways

Some ideas for our next exhibition Inhabit - more stitched and dyed doorways I've observed and delighted in during my many visits to Morocco.

Linda Babb

High rise images

I've been working further on an image posted last year at the very beginning of explorations for Inhabit, the Brunel Broderers' exhibition in Stroud later this year. During a visit to Sydney, Australia, a few years ago, I saw and photographed this striking high rise building just behind Darling Harbour as I passed by on the top deck of a bus.

Despite a relatively fleeting impression, this image has remained with me and is providing endless hours of visual challenge as I investigate the structure, reflections and colour within. Some recent manipulations are shown here. 

When I work in this way, changing colour, selecting, cutting and pasting, and then overlaying small sections of the original to make a new whole, it always surprises me just how far removed from the original image I become as I try to represent a story. It is what fascinates me in the process. 

These images are no exception - but I doubt they will be the final end point.

Margaret Robbie

 

A family smock

As I work towards Inhabit*, the Brunel Broderers' exhibition now sheduled for later this year, I have been adding a great deal of new stitching to a smock which dates from when my family farmed in Somerset, certainly as far back as the mid-1800s and maybe further back still. 

The work on the smock tells the story of the farm, its history and that of the members of my family who lived and worked there. Further details can be found in previous posts here, here and here. 

The smock needed a great deal of repair as the linen was quite damaged and was worn very thin in places. Before stitching onto it, I basted a lining into it to add strength. I have mainly used a fine silk to add as little weight as possible.

* Inhabit will be on view in the Landsdown Galleries in Stroud from 7th to 20th September 2021, Covid restrictions willing.

Carolyn Sibbald

Doorways

More of my obsession with Islamic doorways! Thinking about our autumn exhibition, Inhabit * in the Lansdown Gallery in Stroud.

* A note of hope for your diary: Inhabit will be on view in the Landsdown Galleries in Stroud from 7th to 20th September 2021, Covid restrictions willing, of course.

Linda Babb

Swans in lockdown

                                      

Swans in the park in Cirencester recently, been following them through 2020 as they they have raised their six offspring.

Carolyn Sibbald