New Hippystitch necklaces for cambridge contemporary crafts - August delivery

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

 

Another lovely selection of my fabric necklaces has arrived at cambridge contemporary crafts...

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

Go and take a look - cambridge contemporary crafts have lots to choose from for the perfect present or as a treat...

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

As well as jewellery, there are ceramics, prints and paper, sculptures, glass, textiles and cards. Find them at 5 Bene't Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QN.

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

Always worth a look!

Issam Kourbaj - Urgent Archive at Kettles Yard, Cambridge

Issam Kourbaj - Our exile grows a day longer and a day closer is our return (detai1)

 

Kettles Yard in Cambridge has been showing an exhibition by Issam Koubaj, entitled Urgent Archive.  Kourbaj's art is inspired by his home country of Syria and its continuing conflict and other conflicts in the Middle East.  He reflects on the suffering of his fellow Syrians and the destruction of his cultural heritage.  Since the Syrian uprisings of 2011 Issam Kourbaj’s artwork has taken many forms and here's a flavour of it all.

The two artworks shown below - "Abundant, No Abandoned" & "Don't Wash Your Hands: Before the Quake, Aleppo City and Citadel", use materials that Kourbaj associates with Syria.  The map - "Abundant, No Abandoned" is created from indigo pigment which he, as a child in the late 1960s, smeared on their windows in southern Syria to act as a blackout so that the Israeli planes would not detect them as they flew overhead on their way to bomb nearby areas of Jordan and Palestine.  The map itself shows the "dead cities" of north west Syria.  His choice of title suggests the existence of extremes - abundance and abandonment. "Don't Wash Your Hands: Before the Quake, Aleppo City and Citadel" is created from Aleppo soap...

Issam Kourbaj - Abundant, No Abandoned & Don't Wash Your Hands: Before the Quake, Aleppo City and Citadel

In "Blue Blackout" you can see the use of indigo pigment smeared on a window.  Here he is using it to draw our attention to people in the Middle East trapped in cycles of war and violence...

Issam Kourbaj - Blue Blackout

Kourbaj, reflecting on the survival of Syrian women in times of war, adds a new piece to "Agony: 156 moons and counting", with every month that passes since the start of the Syrian conflict.  He points out that women, being less able to flee conflict than men, have to remain to look after their homes and families...

Issam Kourbaj - Agony: 156 moons and counting

This work, "Killed, Detained and Missing (Women)", contains the handwritten names of Syrian women who have been killed, detained or are missing as part of the conflict in Syria.  They are written on a pianola scroll.  This is to emphasise how women's experience of war goes under reported...

Issam Kourbaj - Killed, Detained and Missing (Women) - detail

"All But Milk" contains shelves of baby bottles containing anything but nourishing milk.  It is a reference to the suffering of the children in Gaza and the need for a ceasefire...

Issam Kourbaj - All but Milk

Issam Kourbaj - All But Milk Inventory

In "Our exile grows a day longer and a day closer is our return", every day since the start of the Syrian conflict is marked with a  date stone stitched to a found canvas tent (see also first image above). The number of stones (4750), and the scale of the piece, emphasises the trauma of the conflict and of exile but offers hope for a time of return...

Issam Kourbaj - Our exile grows a day longer and a day closer is our return

"Damascus, Fragile City I", made from old book pages coated in wax, was one of the first works Issam Koubaj made when the uprising in Syria started and serves as an abstracted map to reflect the destruction of homes and communities in Damascus...

Issam Kourbaj - Damascus, Fragile City I 

Issam Kourbaj - Damascus, Fragile City I - detail

There is a wealth of different media and meaning in this exhibition and it is well worth a visit...

Issam Kourbaj - Fallen Springs

Unfortunately it closes on Sunday 26 May 2024 so you'll have to be super quick to get there.  Do go if you can!

New fabric necklaces arrive at cambridge contemporary crafts

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

A new selection of my fabric necklaces are landing at cambridge contemporary crafts this week.  It's quite a luscious selection...

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

Go and take a look - cambridge contemporary crafts have lots to choose from for the perfect present or as a treat. 

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

As well as jewellery, there are ceramics, prints and paper, sculptures, glass, textiles and cards. Find them at 5 Bene't Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QN.

More fabric necklaces head to cambridge contemporary crafts

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

 

This is just to let you know that a new selection of my fabric necklaces have made their way to cambridge contemporary crafts this week.  Can't decide which my favourite Liberty print is.


Go and take a look - cambridge contemporary crafts have lots of great things that would be perfect for a present or a treat. As well as jewellery, there are ceramics, prints and paper, sculptures, glass, textiles and cards. Find them at 5 Bene't Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QN.

New fabric necklaces head to cambridge contemporary crafts

Hippystitch Liberty Print Fabric Necklaces

 

A new selection of fabric necklaces have winged their way to cambridge contemporary crafts recently.

Hippystitch Liberty Print Fabric Necklaces

There are lots of lovely Liberty prints to choose from...

Hippystitch Liberty Print Fabric Necklaces

Why not go and take a look? cambridge contemporary crafts have lots of great things that would be perfect for a present or a treat.  As well as jewellery, there are ceramics, prints and paper, sculptures, glass, textiles and cards.  Find them at 5 Bene't Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QN.

Ai Weiwei at Downing College, Cambridge

Ai Weiwei - Tree outside the Heong Gallery

  
Ai Weiwei's "Cubes & Trees" were at Downing College in Cambridge recently.  If you didn't get to see them here's a taster...

Ai Weiwei's Cubes in the Heong Gallery

Each cube is a metre square and they are made up of Crystal Cube 2014 (Cystal), Ton of Tea 2008 (compressed Pu'er tea), Cube in Ebony 2009 (Zitan wood) & Treasure Box 2014 (Huali wood).

Ai Weiwei - Ton of Tea (detail)

Ai Weiwei - Treasure Box (detail)

The cubes show Ai Weiwei's preference for simple forms and at the same time his repect for the properties of different materials and traditional craftsmanship.

Ai Weiwei - Trees outside Downing College Chapel

Ai Weiwei's dramatic trees are sculpted from parts of different types of dead trees, some hundreds of years old.  The nuts and bolts used to hold them together are visible, emphasising that they are constructed.  They are tree-like yet rather strange.

Ai Weiwei is an outspoken Chinese artist who has been critical of the Chinese Government particularly on issues relating to the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake.  Here schools collapsed as a result of the use of substandard building materials and little effort was made to determine how many students were killed.  Ai Weiwei and his team compliled a list of more than 5000 names and his related artwork was included in the RA Exhibition in 2015.  His criticism of the Government resulted in the confiscation of his passport between April 2011 and July 2015.  He is currently working in Berlin and Lesbos where his work has focussed on the plight of refugees.

Flowerpower Yarnbomb Blooms in Cambridge

Flowerpower Yarnbomb, Jesus Green Tennis Courts, Cambridge

Recently on a trip to Cambridge, I came across this wonderful yarnbomb on Jesus Green.  Those of you who follow my blog will know that I love a good yarnstorm and this was very inspiring.  It was designed and organised by Clare Collier, yarnbomber, and Sarah Clark from The Sheep Shop, Cambridge with pattern assistance from Liz Marley and Just Add Crochet and made by members of the local community and those further afield.

Knitted and crocheted Rhapsody clematis flowers and leaves

You will see a thousand knitted and crocheted Rhapsody clematis flowers and leaves extend across 9 metres of the Jesus Green tennis courts' fence.  Most of the flowers are purple, but 1 in 5 are blue.  This is to highlight the fact that 1 in 5 women will suffer sexual abuse or rape during their lifetime.  It also promotes the work of the Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre, a specialist sexual violence charity who provide support to survivors of sexual violence in Cambridgeshire.

Most flowers are purple but 1:5 are blue

The use of flowers was inspired by Naomi Lawrence, a former Cambridge yarnbomber and street artist now living across the pond in New York, who uses flowers in her work.

The display will be up till the end of October after which the flowers will be taken down, made into brooches and sold to fundraise for the Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre or you can donate now, here.

At least for a time you can listen to Leigh Chambers from Cambridge 105 Drive radio interview Sarah Clark and Clare Collier here.  Although a difficult & distressing subject, this is a great way to raise awareness, involve the community, fundraise and to let survivors know they are not alone.  Do go see it if you're in Cambridge.

e-Luminating Cambridge

Colouful Fitzwilliam Museum

It just so happens that the e-Luminate Festival was on in Cambridge when I was there.  Apparently 2015 is the UN International Year of Light!  It was fun to see the City's amazing architecture lit up in weird and wonderful ways!  It's over for this year now but here's a flavour of that city's bright lights ...

King's College Chapel

Peterhouse

Senate House

Senate House

Senate House

A date for your diary next year perhaps!

Kettle's Yard House, Cambridge

Kettle's Yard House - Entrance

I discovered this little gem on a recent trip to Cambridge.  I can't believe I've never found it before especially as I used to live in Cambridge.  On the edge of the city centre, it is tucked away behind Kettle's Yard gallery which has changing exhibitions throughout the year.
 

View of Kettle's Yard House from the Gallery

Now owned by Cambridge University, it was the home of Jim Ede from the late 50s until the early 70s.  Jim was a curator at the Tate Gallery, London in the 1920s & 1930s and as a result met and befriended many artists.  Over the years he amassed an astonishing collection of 20th century art.  I've never seen so many paintings by Alfred Wallis (a personal favourite)!  They are displayed without labels throughout his house amongst his collections of natural objects and other works of applied art.  It is kept largely as it was when he lived there with his wife, Helen.  You are encouraged to sit in the chairs and see the art as he would have viewed it. It is a personal curation of his taste over a particular period displayed how he wished it to be experienced.  There are works by Ben & Winifred Nicholson, Christoper Wood, Willian Congdon, Joan Miro, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Italo Valenti, Henri Moore, Barbara Hepworth & others.  

There's also an amazing spiral of almost spherical pebbles that came from a beach in Norfolk - I want to go there too!

It's fantastic, it's free and on Fridays one of the grand pianos is used for lunchtime concerts.

Kettle's Yard Gallery

If that's not enough you can pop across the courtyard and take a look in Kettle's Yard Gallery and shop.  The current exhibition is Beauty and Revolution: The Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay

This place is a gem - go see!