South London Gallery

Passed a pleasant hour or two at the South London Gallery recently.   I called in initially to have lunch at No 67, their cafe/restaurant.  It was extremely good and I only wished I'd had room for the delicious looking cakes as well.  Their current exhibition is Welcome to Iraq which was very interesting.  I particularly appreciated the imaginative recycled seating by Akeel Khreef ...

Akeel Khreef - Woollen rug on metal generator frame

Akeel Khreef - Bicycle parts

Seat detail - from tyres

Kadhim Nwir's untitled paintings were colourful, quite abstract and the use of some text and numbers gave them a graffiti like quality.

Kadhim Nwir - Untitled

Furat al Jamil's Honey Pot sculpture shows honeycomb frames dripping into a broken pot.  This is supposed to convey sweet melancholy combining the sadness she feels for her homeland but also hope for the future.

Furat al Jamil - Honey Pot

The Welcome to Iraq exhibition, which includes lots more, is on until 1 June 2014.

Sensing Spaces - Architecture Reimagined at the Royal Academy

Alvaro Siza in the RA Courtyard

I was lucky enough to get along to the Sensing Spaces exhibition at the RA before it closed.  I wasn't quite sure whether I was going to like it but actually it was hugely enjoyable!  This seemed to me to be about experiencing architecture in a very direct way through the use of light, sound, smell, touch, structure, movement and participation.  Seven architects from around the world were involved.  

Alvaro Siza (Portugal) was represented in the entrance courtyard with columns reflecting the columns on the building.  



Inside Eduardo Souto de Moura (Portugal) had made casts of two of the archways between the galleries drawing your attention to the differences between them which otherwise might have gone unnoticed. 
 

Eduardo Souto de Moura's Cast Arch

Eduardo Souto de Moura's Other Cast Arch

Grafton Architects (Ireland) played with light and the contrast between light and dark. 
 

Grafton Architects from Light

 

to Dark

Kengo Kuma (Japan) used light and smell in his installation - not so effective for me as I don't have a very good sense of smell.  
 

Kengo Kuma - Light & Smell

Construction detail

Diebedo Francis Kere (Burkina Faso & Germany) brought colour to the proceedings and an active chance to participate and colour the surroundings while moving through his tunnel.  His was the most crowded part of the exhibition when I was there and the exhibit where people spent the most time as they made their contribution to the piece.  

Diebedo Francis Kere - Outside of Tunnel

Tunnel View

Add your own colour and detail

Pezo von Ellrichshausen (Chile) had constructed an interesting tower accessed via winding staircases or a ramp and from which you could peer out from spyholes at different heights.  This looked the most monumental in structure.  An unexpected benefit was that you could also see the RA's decorative features up close.
 

Pezo von Ellrichshausen - Tower

Winding staircases emerge at the top of the tower

Tower gives close up views of RA decoration

Finally my favourite was Li Xiaodong (China) who brought a sense of the outside in (wooden walls), added sound (crunching pebbles), space (mirrored wall), light (walkways lit from below) and surprising spaces and lots of texture. 

Li Xiaodong - Wooden passages lit from below

Hidden spaces

Mirrored room - adding space with a mirrored wall + sound with pebbles underfoot

 It was a great exhibition!

Rachel Lombard - Contemporary Stitched Textile Art

Embroidered Mirror - Rachel Lombard

Rachel Lombard was another of our speakers at the City of York Embroiderers' Guild. Rachel is a textile artist & designer based in the North East.  She believes that everyone has an innate creativity and that part of yourself comes out in your work.  Rachel stresses the importance of choosing a theme, then developing your ideas through to a finished piece rather than starting with the idea of a finished piece.  Her works make extensive use of paper, print together with hand and machine stitched surfaces.  She has written How to Be Creative in Textile Art with Julia Triston and they have another book, Contemporary Appliqué due out later this year.

Take a look at some of the great work she brought along to share with us ...

Embroidered Mirror - Rachel Lombard

Artist's Book - Rachel Lombard

Embroidered Boxes - Rachel Lombard

Embroidered Panels - Rachel Lombard

Knit a Bike for Le Tour Yorkshire

This year the Grand Départ of the Tour de France, the world's largest annual sporting event, is coming to Yorkshire.  The Yorkshire Festival 2014, and York: Be part of it are celebrating this momentous event with 100 days of art & culture from 27 March to 6 July 2014 when Le Tour leaves York.  We are "being part of it" too.  Hippystitch is joining up with Deborah New to knit (with your help!) a giant bike (& some jerseys) which will be part of a yarnstormed installation in Rowntree Park, York.

In order to be ready in time we are holding our workshops in Craft & Design Month - May 2014. (Last year we had great fun in Craft & Design Month preparing for the Yarnbombing Event at the Rowntree Park Party). Do join us this year to try out some finger knitting, arm knitting, (yes, bring your arms!) & big knitting with very large needles.  We hope to be doing some wheel weaving too!

March/April 2014 Issue

We had fun in Craft & Design month last year - so come & join us again this year!

The workshops are on:

Saturday 10 May 2014 - Your Bike Shed
Bicycle Cafe, 148-150 Micklegate, York, YO1 6JX
2-4pm

Thursday 22 May - Rowntree Park Cafe
Rowntree Park, Richardson Street, York, YO23 1JU
2-4pm

There's no need to book just drop in - all materials are provided

The Knit a Bike installation goes up in Rowntree Park on Friday 6 June 2014 and will remain till after the Grand Depart.  Find it by the tennis courts near Rowntree Park Cafe! 

Sponsored by Friends of Rowntree Park and one of the Yorkshire Festival Events

 

Woolly Bike Workshop for The Woolly Bike Trail

Completed - York Viking Woolly Bike

Cassandra Kilbride is running the Woolly Bike Trail Project.  She is aiming to produce 10 themed woolly bikes across Yorkshire as part of the Yorkshire Festival 2014.  This is a 100 day festival in the run up to the 2014 Tour de France Grand Depart (5-6 July 2014).  And she is looking for willing participants to join her workshops.
 

Cassandra & Viking Shield Wheel

A friend & I joined her at the Designer Outlet in York contributing some time and knitting/crochet to the York Viking Woolly Bike along with other like-minded folk.  There are 2 free workshops associated with each of the 10 bikes.  The other Woolly Bike towns and cities are Wakefield, Leeds, Hepworth, Huddersfield. Scarborough, Haworth, Halifax, Hebden Bridge & Sheffield.  Each has a different theme.  And there's still time to join in with other workshops across Yorkshire.

Our crocheted & knitted covers for the front forks

Here are the links if you want to find out more about the Woolly Bike Trail ...

http://www.yorkshireswoollybikes.co.uk/

or the Yorkshire Festival 2014 ...

www.yorkshirefestival.co.uk/ 

or the Grand Depart ...

http://letour.yorkshire.com/

There will be an exhibition of all the woolly bikes in Sheffied Cathedral at the end of the process.  So watch out for that one! 

The finished York Viking Woolly Bike ...

York Viking Woolly Bike

... I think you'll agree it looks quite special!

A Final Big Knit Cushion & Moving On

This is just a very short post because so far this year I've bored you all rigid with my big knit cushions.  But there is one you haven't seen yet ...so here it is:

Another big knit cushion!

This used 10 different yarns - one of which was a silk fabric yarn. The needles were 25mm needles and it was k1,p1 across 18 stitches - all rows.

Now I'm moving on ...to arm knitting I think.  Watch this space!

Some New Stuff & Some Favourites

At my next event on Friday 14 March 2014 there will be some new things and some favourites.  So here's a sneak preview of the new stuff:

Vintage Coin Cufflinks

Vintage Domino Brooches - new size

Vintage Geology Map Notebooks & Pouches

Resin & Button Cufflinks

Felt Earrings

Felt Necklaces

Knitted Wire Bird Brooch

Penny & Ha'penny Brooches

Vintage Car Cards

Gardening Hints Cards

Wild Flower Cards

Bird Cards

Trees of the Countryside Cards

 

Vintage Geology Map Cards

There will of course be my People & Places range, Liberty print fabric necklaces, button brooches & bracelets, map notebooks, wild women & magical mermaid brooches, resin button brooches and rings and some monster egg cosies.  In fact lots of things suitable for Mother's Day, Easter or just to treat yourself! Take a look in the my gallery for some extra pics.