Work at the Gloucestershire Guild

Liz and I will have work at the Gloucestershire Guild Exhibition in Painswick July 31st - August 13th for me, till Aug 30th for Liz. Open 10 - 6 every day - click on the link in pink to see more  here 
Here are 2 of my pictures, one butterfly and one of ants. I saw woodants at the limestone pavement at Gaitsbarrow on holiday.Amazing moss and ferns - lots of inspiration!
Louise

More Knitting!

Images of work by Alison Harper at Interactive at the One Two Five Gallery - group show curated by Carole Waller and Gary Wood.
Alison uses crisp packets to make yarn and invites viewers to sit in the knitting chair and add to the work reflecting on the fact that each discarded packet produces just under 5 metres of yarn - a material that does not degrade in the environment.

Crisp Packet Yarn

Tiny basket brooches, each made from one packet's worth of yarn

Alison's knitting chair is having another outing to CCANW on 8th August. The centre is having an exhibition of sustainability in fashion and textiles - for more info click on the link here

The making process - knitting and poetry!

Whilst doing my research for Curious Drawers I talked with friends and family about their experiences of making things for each other in the family. Knitting was consistently discussed - all the wonderful, colourful and sometimes curiously shaped garments and the effort, love and special qualities of the hand made providing warmth, protection, decoration and individuality (and much more!).

The Poetry Society have an inspiring section called 'knit a poem' and if you click on the link in pink it will take you to the poem that resonated strongly for me - also click on the 'poem of the week' and see 9 more poems about making... click here 

 Doll's vest knitted by my mother and my stitch response

Susi

another print!

 
more random this time, faded ghost prints.... curious how the process takes me back to the themes that always excite me!

Printing

I loved the drawings Kay did when she was away in Cornwall - see post  for 14th June 2010 (click on 'older posts'  at the bottom of the page on the right and it is on our previous page.
We had a conversation about how they inspired me to do more drawing from nature.
I saw some vibrant hydrangeas last week in the outdoor garden at the V and A. 
The colours ranged from dusty pinks to blueberry violets and china blues often all in the same flower head! The ones in the garden here are just emerging. My favourite time is actually when they have turned into delicate skeletal forms and a papery parchment colour.
 I decided though to inspire myself with strong colour and to make a print block. This is the first run to test the block. I love the process of printing - in this case peeling off the block to reveal the vibrant colours I chose in the end ... Susi

Hi-Arts at the Stroud Festival

Have a look at this site (click on link in pink at the end of this paragraph) for Hi-Arts and you will see a feature on the artists whose work was showing at the Stroud Festival at Made in Stroud and who participated in the events. On the right hand side of the page there are two reviews of the Festival as 'downloads' to look at - Wendy Inkster's  talks about the Brunel Broderers and Susi's work - we had a lovely talk when Wendy visited.

What a lovely dream I have of a Brunel Broderers visit to Shetland....! Hmmmm..... worth thinking about more.. Click on the link here..   Hi-Arts

 Also, have a look at the Burra Bears - Wendy's site here - the thinking has such integrity - to 'recycle an entire handknitted Fair Isle patterned Shetland woollen jumper into a bear' - to give new life to the beautiful colours, patterns and handwork.

BBs at Art Camp

Here is Paul Harper. The BB's have worked with Paul and Alias before, benefiting from contact with artists from different disciplines and outlooks.

On Saturday we were indeed lucky to have both Amy Houghton, who was until recently a BB and whose website is linked in our 'websites we follow' section, and Caroline Morris - see more about Caroline and her research by clicking on magpieseven
 Here are Amy and Paul in dialogue..

Our activity at Camp 0, which focussed on various ecological activites, was called 'shelter' and involved making do and mending various tents, awnings and tarps to make a 'quite large' structure.
This was hopefully to be used by the whole group as a meeting place. Meanwhile an intellectual slant to the proceedings was taken with the group having pre-read a fascinating paper by Isis Brook entitled 'Craft skills and their role in healing the world' (Plymouth College of Art)  
Paul also brought along an interesting book 'The Case for Working with Your Hands' by Matthew Crawford who presented a paper at the Crafts Council  ' Assemble' Conference last week as well as 'Art As Experience' by John Dewey. For details of all these look at the Alias website or contact Paul Harper at Alias.

 








Liz Caroline and Alison talking and making 

Here are Susi and Caroline drawing from the shadows of the plants and foliage..

The grasses were inviting to work with..

We wove ourselves into the landscape and created a BB place within it to share..

The big tarpaulins were decorated with drawings of flowers and drawings of broderer stitches and, of course, a bit of BB humour!

Art Camp again...

 Art Camp 0 - part of the 'SITE FESTIVAL 2010'

 We were asked by Paul Harper of Alias to contribute to this event: 'a residential camping weekend of participatory and collaborative events, discussions, workshops and artworks about culture, change and the limits of global growth'. (Festival Programme 2010) Here is the link to Alias where you can learn more  - Alias

The event was in the beautiful setting of Westley Farm - see the Alias site for details of the events and setting.

Art Camp 0

I wonder if you can guess where some of the BB's were yesterday?

No - not Glastonbury!
Art Camp 0 - part of the SITE Festival 2010 - working with Paul Harper from Alias.
More about these and links tomorrow.

We did some 'make do and mend' as well as constructing, weaving, decorating, drawing... why?

More about what were thinking about, discussing, reading tomorrow. 

We had some fantastic help - pictures of Amy, Caroline and Paul tomorrow... and Susi got very hot in this amazing midsummer heatwave!

 More tomorrow .....
Susi, Liz, Alison.

Chris' travel journals / sketchbooks

Some more on the sketchbook theme!

Chris' journals attracted much absorbed browsing during Curious Drawers.

Here are a few pages from various travels....

Mexico

Door designs

Peacock memories

Bird Sanctuary

Desert journey to Jaisalmer

hardakerandpope.blogspot.com

What a delight to see this blog post about Curious Drawers - and what a pleasurable and interesting browse of their blog and Sarah's site at hardaker and pope - click on the link and scroll to the post for 30th May 2010. Thank you to Jo and Sarah and we have linked your blog (see right hand side for blogs we follow) - best of wishes.....

Drawing in Cornwall

Some of the drawings I did in Cornwall.