Making As Learning - The Sixty Two Group - Salt's Mill, Saltaire

Jae Maries - Widening Horizons

 

The Sixty Two Group's recent exhibition Making as Learning has now finished in the roof space at Salt's Mill in Saltaire.  We are told that "The theme 'Making as Learning' was inspired by and dedicated to former 62 Group member Audrey Walker MBE (1928-2020), both as an educator and artist.  The exhibition explores the role of making and learning in our creative practice.  Members interrogate their textile practices, unravelling working processes and inspirations as part of a continuing journey of discovery." 

Jan Beaney - Transience

There was some great work on display and here are just some of my top picks.  I am drawn to mixed media pieces, assemblages and texture so expect to see a preponderance of such works.

Jae Maries's shoreline scene (top image) experiments with new techniques, materials and approaches to her textile art.  Off cuts from a visual diary and old work make up the boardwalk. I love the movement and texture in this piece.

Jan Beaney's Transience (above) is inspired by Charmouth beach and the eroding and etched stone surfaces revealed at low tide.  You just want to run your hands over this to feel the uneven surfaces.

Ann Goddard - Collection #2 (Collaged Constructions) detail

Ann makes constructions from rusty objects, natural materials, recycled artworks and other items from her stash.  She experiments with these materials and I am fascinated by the results.

Eszter Bornemisza - Delve and Discover

Eszter experiemnts with new materials and techniques as a matter of course to turn her ideas into something tangible.  Distortion, layering and transparency are all techniques employed in her joined up samples here.

Gavin Fry - Unfinished Symphony II

Gavin's assemblage of handstitching and found objects is an expression of the foregrounding of touch over practicality.  This is a particularly pleasing, curious piece.

Jane McKeating - Flight Path

Jane McKeating's work is a connection between the story she is telling (what is happening in the world beneath a flight path) and the materials she chooses to experiment with to tell it (roller blind fabric, printing, gouache and inks)

Hannah Lamb - Inheritance

Hannah's cyanotypes and textile making is something she has learned through making, through watching others, through doing and undoing to gain knowledge which she can now pass on to her students whilst also recognising that she can also learn things from them.

Helen Yardley - Cerise Wall Felt & Cornish Grey Wall Felt

Helen Yardley's colourful wall felts are decorative acoustic wallhangings inspired by Matisse's collage with added paint, print and stitch.  I love the stitched elements of these simple abstract pieces.  They are quite wonderful.

Debbie Lydon - Findings (out)

Debbie Lydon collects found objects with which she experiments through manipulation, treatments and reworking.  They may be stitched, waxed, painted, glued, bound, suspended or contained and remain her learning experiments rather than finished pieces.  I love them.

Shuna Rendel - Spinning out of control

Experimenting with apple prunings, bark and maize husks, Shuna has experimented with her materials to create a piece inspired by the mill setting in which it is exhibited.  She is hoping to evoke a picture of bobbins of wool with trailing threads.

Sue Stone - Integrated detail

Sue's piece, Integrated, is a collage of digital prints of previous works which have then been worked on with hand and machine stitching to provide extra detail. A combination of traditional and modern techniques, they are hung so you can see this stitching clearly on the reverse as another layer, and almost another work. 

Lucy Brown - Loss (Ball 'n' Tress) detail

Made from the artist's hand spun hair tresses and handmade hairballs, Lucy Brown's piece references the mill's spinning room.  In fact Lucy taught herself to spin using her own hair to create the piece.

A selection of pieces from this exhibition will be on display at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate so you may have seen them there if you missed them at Salt's Mill.

Lasting Impressions: Cloth Taxonomies at Salts Mill, Saltaire

You may remember that last year on a trip to the Saltaire Arts Trail, I took part in textile artists, Hannah Lamb & Claire Wellesley-Smith's Lasting Impressions project which you can read about here. To put you in the picture, we were asked to leave imprints of our clothing on small porcelain tiles and in doing so, to consider the value of cloth and clothing and to complete an information tag about the garment.  One year on, the artists were back in the Spinning Room at Salt's Mill, so I went to see how the project was developing.

The Lasting Impressions project laid out

The imprinted tiles had all been fired... 

Imprinted fired tiles

My tile, 234, bearing an imprint of my cardigan, was there too...

My tile is no. 234

The garment information collected on the tags last year, was being used to create a series of weavings.

Finished woven strips

The fibres identifed as making up the garments were selected and woven into fabric strips incorporating the information tag.
 

Table showing various fibres

 

Fibres

 

Fibres on cones to be selected for weaving

I worked on no. 27 and was given the tile and the tag in a cardboard box.  I had to weave a section of the fabric strip using the information on the tag.  It said that garment was made of viscose and polyester.  From the cones hanging above one of the tables I chose two strands of fibre - one viscose, one polyester, each about 2 metres long.  Next I threaded the tag onto the fibres so that it was in the middle of the length of fibres.

Tag 27

Table loom

Under instruction, I operated the table loom so the fibres and tag were incorporated into the woven strip of fabric.  A piece of red thread identified the start and end of my weaving.  Once my weaving was completed, the associated tile was stored away such that the tiles moved from drawers at one end of the display to the other end as their information was catalogued through the weaving process.  The loom was now ready for sometime to carry on and catalogue no. 28.

My completed weaving for garment no. 27 lies between the two lines of red thread

It was interesting to see the project develop and to be involved in this new stage.  Fibre content was the aspect Clare and Hannah had concentrated on, and the chosen method of development leant itself well to audience participation, also to exploring what the different textile fibres look and feel like and how woven fabric is made.  


What might be next?  They could explore the garments' country of origin, age or what people like about them.  Or perhaps they could scan the tiles and print out the textures on fabric and make some composite textural piece or country of origin based piece?  Who knows, we'll have to wait and see.

Lasting Impressions in the Spinning Room at Salts Mill, Saltaire

One of my recent trips was to the Saltaire Arts Trail where I visited The Spinning Room at Salts Mill.  Textile artists, Hannah Lamb & Claire Wellesley-Smith were there encouraging us to leave imprints of our clothing on small porcelain tiles and in doing so to consider the value of cloth and clothing.

Porcelain tiles

Every participant was given a porcelain tile and a numbered tag.  You left an imprint of your clothing by pressing it into the tile and numbering it to match your tag number.

My tile with an imprint of my cardigan

Then, on the tag, you gave some info about what garment it was, where it was made, what from, how long you'd had it and why you liked it.

Information tag

The tags were then hung up so you could read what people had said about their garments.  It was interesting to read through them.  Some people's clothing was special because of comfort and familiarity, practicality, where it had been bought, who had made it, or from remembering happy times when wearing it - a "material" representation of memory and experience.

Everyone's information tags

The tiles were stored in drawers until they could be taken away to be fired.

Imprinted porcelain tiles

As a reward for taking part, you could have a gold or silver stitch made on your clothing - one lasting impression in return for another.  Thanks to Hannah for my silver stitch!

Silver stitch on my cardigan - another lasting impression!

I am looking forward to hearing more about this project and where it is going next.  I'm sure we'll be hearing more about it soon.

The Most Excellent David Hockney & The Arrival of Spring - Saltaire

David Hockney

 
On a recent trip to Saltaire, I went to visit Salt's Mill and took in David Hockney's The Arrival of Spring.  These drawings catalogue the changing seasons on Woldgate, near Bridlington in East Yorkshire. They are a series of fantastic iPad drawings made from late 2010 through 2011.  Using the iPad allowed Hockney to complete them quickly and it was always planned that they would be printed out at a large scale.

Here are a few of the wonderful artworks ...

From The Arrival of Spring series - David Hockney

From The Arrival of Spring series - David Hockney

From The Arrival of Spring series - David Hockney

From The Arrival of Spring series - David Hockney

   
If you are in or near Saltaire do take a trip to Salt's Mill.  Apart from David Hockney's works there are restaurants and cafes, an excellent bookshop and all manner of other interesting stuff from jewellery to chairs to art supplies - to mention just some of my favourites!

There is also a nice parade of shops and cafes on Victoria Road and Victoria Hall is often home to vintage and makers events (e.g. Rose and Brown Vintage - which is where I got my vintage suitcase - take a look here & Saltaire Inspired.)  There is ample parking at Salt's Mill and there is also a carpark on Victoria Road.  

Makes a great day out rain or shine!