Took a few more of these to the Platform Gallery this week. The current exhibition there is Precious, all work "produced from objects which have had a previous life" - in a word, recycling. I really loved Pamela Schilderman's 'Punctum' - vast drifts of punched paper circles (the tiny ones from an ordinary paper punch), strung on monofilament. Just my sort of thing, in fact I have tried (of course I have, gg) stitching those little circles myself, but even I haven't got the patience to take it as far as Pamela has. Wonderful.
And yesterday it was Art in the Pen at Skipton, an art and craft fair in a cattle market (yes it does smell, a bit). Strangely there was a panel discussion about the merits of art fairs in the afternoon, featuring Michael Brennand Wood with a London art critic and a Manchester art fair organiser. Interesting stuff, but they were from a different world - Origin, Collect and Frieze haven't much in common with Art in the Pen. For me this fair doesn't quite work - there's no atmosphere (maybe because it's too small for the building?) and no selection, so standards are variable.
In my own studio the experiments continue - mini thread bowls, felted crochet corsages and new ideas for shadow play pieces. I ordered (and received) a batch of custom box frames too, so I've no excuses for not getting on with those pieces now!
The new Textilia III exhibition opened yesterday in Halifax (details on the website). We had a lovely opening, thanks to Karen Lewis and Joan Tillotson of Calderdale MBC, as well as Rachel, Jane and Margaret of Textilia III who did all the hard work. All I had to do this time was hand over my work - four framed pieces and five little bowls, all on my Antarctic theme. I took a few pics for the group website but they're not great as there were a lot of reflections.Apart from that I'm still putting together ideas for the christmas shows. Inspired by a custom request on Etsy (thanks Nia!) I made a batch of embossed velvet brooches. And remembered how much I love those - when they work that is, lots don't get past quality control! I think they'll be great for one of the shows. Still on textile jewellery (something of an obsession), I'm also designing new felted crochet corsages and possibly necklaces too. A lot of trial and error here - I made some real horrors! But maybe some promising ones as well? We'll see.
I can never remember why it's 1st August, but I'm happy to celebrate Yorkshire any day. And where better than where we live - On Ilkla Moor (b'aht 'at)! Well almost - just below the actual moor.Today my new website went live - it's now on both annehoneyman.co.uk and annehoneyman.com - I've got the annehoneyman addresses all "sewn up" (groan).Stitch-wise, I've been experimenting with new shapes and new materials for my "shadow play" (see website!) series. Nothing quite ready to take forward yet - let's just say I'm narrowing down the possibilities :-(I've also thrown out, yes THROWN OUT, lots of my old embroidered art from pre-City and Guilds days. Well it was never going to see the light of day again, no point having it stuck in a cupboard - and I really really need the space. To make it easier to let them go, I took photos of the pieces I quite liked, and even cut (!) pieces from some of them too. Then I stuck/stitched these onto postcards to add to my shoe-box collection of samples. Nice to have little reminders. Any spare samples that don't belong anywhere else get added to the box (box 3 now, in fact) and it makes a great resource to flick through for inspiration... or just to see how I got here!
Took a few more of these to the Platform Gallery this week. The current exhibition there is Precious, all work "produced from objects which have had a previous life" - in a word, recycling. I really loved Pamela Schilderman's 'Punctum' - vast drifts of punched paper circles (the tiny ones from an ordinary paper punch), strung on monofilament. Just my sort of thing, in fact I have tried (of course I have, gg) stitching those little circles myself, but even I haven't got the patience to take it as far as Pamela has. Wonderful. 