Exploration - Cape Cornwall - Brisons Veor Residency

In June I was part of a Residency at Brisons Veor

which enabled me to spend a week

experiencing the beautiful wildflowers

the intriguing coastline and changing weathers

with artist Susan Williams MRBS, 

photographers Gareth Williams 

and Andrew Rushton

We walked separately

in pairs

 or as a quartet

We brought our own works in 

progress to continue or pursue.

We enjoyed convivial company

and I had the most intense period 

of making and installing work.

Just a week, but what a week.

I continued to work on the pre-felts made during the course with Jeannette Appleton and developed a piece inspired by the Oblique Strategies cards by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. I had no definite plan other than to let my surrounding sing to me and my experiences guide me, I was swept along by a tremendous energy drawn both from my surroundings and my companions. 

It was a jewel-like and infinitely precious.

An album of inspirations and experiments which informed the work can be found here.

Deep Roots Tall Trees - Remembrance and Rebirth

Very proud to be part of Ring Of Fire 

and of The Deep Roots Tall Trees Choir 

here we are waiting to perform our 

Rememberance and Rebirth Concert at 

May 5th 2016

Davide Mantovani,

Barb Jungr, George Reilly, Mark Brennan, Gareth Fuller

Rosalind Stoddart, Sarah Mellor, Gill Arthy

Ann Gray, Denise Sharman, Eddie Askew,  Simon Steptoe, David Mason, Margaret Marshall, Brigid Gibbs, Jaqui Dowsett, June Smith,  Leony McPherson, Elsebeth Elsa Holmes, Catherine Morrison, Gill Arthy, Sarah Mellor, Philomena Brown, Maggie Boothby, Margaret Hemmings, Janine Bianchi,  , Shusha Walmsley  Karen Diane, Jenny Williams, Carole Miles, Janice Crane Davis, Rosalind Stoddart, Barb Jungr, George Reilly, Mark Brennan, Gareth Fuller and quite a few more! Photo by Andrew Rushton

About the  project

Ring of Fire with Barb Jungr during the creation of the 4 Montagu Monuments Songs

The Prince's Regeneration Trust

The Montagu Monuments

Photographs of the performance by Andrew Rushton

More photos 

Continuum - a New Commission for Miles and Dacombe

Deep Roots Tall Trees -  Dreaming Our Woods

Jo Dacombe and I were delighted to be commissioned by Deep Roots Tall Trees to create a walk with interventions for the Our Woods Festival. We have a period of research to walk and create together in Thoroughsale Woods. We will be exploring the seasons and our walk will be called Continuum. Very exciting, I hope you can join us!

Photos by Kate Dyer

See the complete program of exciting events here

Exploring Ideas and Fibres with Jeanette Appleton

‘My focus is to help the individual find their unique way of making and designing. An art/ design approach discovering the various marks and mixes with the fibre and additional materials. The potential of discovering ideas at each stage of the felt process is enormous.

Briefly experimenting with art materials heightens ones awareness of the texture and surfaces possible with textiles. There are various ways to layer or mix the fibre, which are made into pre-felts. As these are partly felted they hold as a cloth but still pliable to attach more fibre or other materials. They are excellent to fold and manipulate to suggest three dimensional forms, also using a tailors dummy for garments. Pre felt can be pulled and cut to discover many more shapes and compositions. These change again when fully felted but this magical transformation of materials reveal new surprising marks and textures.

The aim is not to know what you will make but explore the possibilities of a prototype or finished item, depending on what emerges through the process. I encourage developing an A3 folder to display these ideas with the samples as prototypes for future one-off textiles, interior or fashion items.’

www.jeanetteappleton.com

Beginning Again

I have built up a range of skills by felting but  this was my first experience on a course with an artist totally immersed in using fibres to explore meaning, place and context. It felt very much like beginning all over again and sometimes that can but just what is required in order to move forwards.

laying out single threads on paper to understand

their unique properties.

Exploring fibres, 

textures and colours

Using a mask to think about garments

First pre-felt with black chiffon

Pre-felted colour blocks

Two different colour ways

textures

and shapes

added to existing pre-felts

the bottom of the sea

exploring folds

At the end of the two days I had four or five pre-felts whilst others had larger, more finished felt pieces. I thoroughly enjoyed the two days and Jeanette's approaches to using felt as a material for art making or a as component part of an installation. I love using the wool / alpaca, I thought I was going to make a coat, now I am on a journey with these unfinished things wondering where they will take me.

Willow Weaving Day with Iris Bertz

This year I am striving to learn new skills and try new things

so in April I attended a wonderful willow weaving day 

in Kenilworth using locally grown willow

Iris makes this look so easy

even though I remained a woman of more thumbs than fingers

I'm delighted with the basket / nest I managed to wrangle together.

Weaving in a sunny garden gave me lots of time to reflect, the group was lovely and the food provided by our host Deidre Vernon, was spectacular. I would be really tempted to go again if there is a course next year.

Alpaca Adventures

This time last year (I know I'm very behind with my blogging!) I spent a happy week creating vessels out of Alpaca fleece for my friends Ros and David who were getting married in April 2015. They own and care for the beautiful boys above. Ros had been off on her own Alpaca adventures to make her wedding dress and David's waistcoat from nuno felted Alpaca fleece. She also thought it would be lovely to have felted vessels as table decorations at the wedding and this became my wedding gift Part 1. Ros had dyed the fleece in a lovely range of colours. It was very different to work with than merino tops and quite a challenge. The first attempts were a bit of a disaster but after some practice I got the measure of this new material. We laughed a lot as I danced between the kitchen sink and the dining room table twirling and smoothing wet, wobbly vessels! It was also lovely spending time with my friends and feeling very much part of the preparations for their celebration.

I had hoped to sneak the vessels off for a bit of an installation 

but there wasn't time

I rather liked them before embellishments were added

There was much debate as to what we should add to the vessels ( hearts, sweets, fairy lights) and how we could ensure they remained stable (jars and gravel). Ros and david also gave every vessel a place setting number and the people with the place numbers got to carry off they vessel at the end of the evening. You can see more of the table settings here

Their cake was a work of art full of personal symbolism and I was there as the artist (in the background) had the nerve wracking task of assembling and suspending it in the marquee!

In April, prior to the wedding I was also sent on another Top Secret wedding mission as their dear friend Barb Jungr had written an extra special wedding song for the happy couple. Barb thought it would be lovely if I could illustrate the song and as I didn't like to say that I'd already made my wedding gift, I said yes! The illustrations include spring wild flowers, the bride a groom, honey, bees, Mr Bumble, David's motorbike, tea and cake and of course the Alpacas Ronnie, Reggie, Victor, Valiant, Truffle and ?

I was a bit worried about how to have it reproduced with the words in place and in the burnt orange that was part of the wedding theme. I rang the ever wonderful Kate Dyer at Corby Community Arts and said "Help! Short notice, rush job, bit of a panic..." and she came magnificently to my aid. The printed songs were sealed in Top Secret envelops as an extra surprise for Ros and David on the day.

The song was called Dancing With Alpacas 

sung with love and great gusto to 

the tune of Going to the Chapel

Apart from being long time friends, Ros is the reason I discovered I could still sing after many years of silence and the reason I joined the most marvellous Deep Roots Tall Trees Choir, got to know Barb and have been whisked off on new and exciting creative adventures! 

As the Choir has such a special place in Ros's life she invited us to sing three songs at the wedding celebration - I Believe in Miracles, Love Train and Higher and Higher which got the evening off to a joyful swing! we had a wonderful time, it was a beautiful day from start to finish and we got to dance our shoes off into the bargain!

Pudding (no wonder my dress no longer fits!)