Planet South Bank's Craft-y-Crawl - Sunday 22 November 2015

Hippystitch - brooches, bracelets, necklaces, notebooks

Coming up on Sunday 22 November from 11am to 3pm, makers in York's South Bank are throwing open their doors and inviting their friends, neighbours and anyone who's interested to come and have a look at (and buy) their makes.  This could be a chance to get all your Christmas shopping done whilst having a pleasant walk round York.  Even better, you'd be supporting local makers.  

 

You can get a list of Planet South Bank's Craft-y-Crawl exhibitors here or a map here or you can pick up the info from Sainsbury's on the corner of Bishopthorpe Road and Scarcroft Road, York.  (Thanks to Pie Waller for organising this event!)
 

Nicola's Cards

Deborah New's Christmas Robins

Nicola's Cards - Christmas Cards

Hippystitch (jewellery & notebooks - take a look in the gallery), Nicola's Cards (cards & wrapping paper) and Deborah New (Christmas robin decorations) will all be at:

33 Wentworth Road, York, YO24 1DG

and just next door at 35 Wentworth Road we have Sue Dennis & Ruth Merriman who will have cards and small paintings. And lots more not far away - so do come along.  Hope to see you soon!

The Dragon Awakes at Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk

This summer as part of the Parbold Street Festival, Parbold residents worked with author, Sarah Schofield and artists, Andy & Sharon Shaw.  Through visual arts and creative writing workshops they developed the story and characters of Sunny the Dragon who lives deep inside Parbold Hill and Tia, a little girl who lives in a teacup.  Does she save him when he fails to appear?  Could this be the start of a local legend?

Sunny the Dragon - 7 metres long!

Parbold Street Festival in Action

Design for Tia in her teacup with the fishes who help her

Other characters from the story

The stories and characters have all been on show at Chapel Gallery in Ormskirk. Here's a little taster in case you missed it!

York Art Gallery Reopened

Clare Twomey - Manifest:10,000 Hours

York Art Gallery reopened in August after being closed for 2 years for a £8 million refurbishment.  The gallery is now 60 percent bigger with a new gallery on the first floor which is light and open.  There's an entrance at the rear which leads from a first floor terrace down to an open piazza and on to Museum Gardens.  The gallery has expanded into what was the City Archives next door and with a new larger cafe, new lifts, toilets, shops, it looks altogether better, lighter and more inviting.

First Floor Terrace

Views of the City Walls from the Terrace

Stairs from the Terrace (a lift is also available)

Rear Piazza linking to Museum Gardens

A special artwork by Clare Twomey was commissioned to celebrate the reopening of the gallery.  Manifest:10,000 hours is an impressive quantity of pots!  It is Clare's response to York's collection of ceramics.  There are 10,000 pots which take an hour each to make and are a comment on the amount of time it takes to master a skill.  They have been individually handmade by people from across the UK.

Clare Twomey - Manifest:10,000 Hours (detail)

York Art Gallery now houses CoCA which is the Centre of Ceramic Art and forms the most representative public collection of British studio ceramics in the UK.  It also has an impressive collection of artworks including Old Masters, Victorian to contemprary paintings & sculptures and pictures of York itself.  The Upper North Gallery is hosting an exhibition curated by local artist, Mark Hearld, "The Lumber Room: Unimagined Treasures" - a room of miscellaneous stored objects and artefacts including new work from Mark himself.  This alone is a good enough reason to visit the York Art Gallery.

There has been a lot of controversy about admission charges to the Gallery but with a York Card (available to York Residents for £5) you can purchase a York Museums Trust Card for £11 which gives you free entry for a year to York Art Gallery, the Yorkshire Museum and the Castle Museum which seemes like quite a good deal to me.

Worth a look (or several)!

What Do I Need To Do To Make It OK? - Pump House Gallery, London

Celia Pym - First One's the Best

Recently on a flying visit to London I popped into the Pump House Gallery in Battersea Park to see "What Do I Need To Do To Make It OK?"  It's an exhibition about "damage and repair, disease and medicine and the healing and restoration of landscapes, bodies, minds and objects through stitch and other media".  Some of the work on show follows ...

Celia Pym - I Think I Will

Celia Pym has used darning as a tool for understanding mending both in garments and bodies.  In the "First One's the Best" she continually practised her darning technique recording differences as she became fluent with the process.

Freddie Robbins - Basketcase

Freddie Robbins - I'm So Bloody Sad

Freddie Robbins through knitting, crochet and sculpture explores her preoccupation with sadness, pain, fear and anxiety.  (You may remember her Knitted Homes of Crime which were part of WOW - the Contemporary Art of Knit & Stitch exhibition at Rheged in 2012 where Celia Pym was also exhibiting)

Dorothy Caldwell - Comfort of Fog

Dorothy Caldwell - History of Stone

Dorothy Caldwell describes her work as "a map of land and memory".  In the wild landscapes of the Artic and Australia she has looked for traces of current and past civilisations and records these through techniques of patching, mending and darning.  I have written about Dorothy's work before - you can find it here. 

Saidhbhin Gibson - Comfort & Joy

Saidhbin Gibson - Huddle 2D (print)

Saidhbhin Gibson is concerned about humanity's impact on the environment.  Her work interacts with nature often through stitch as in the crocheted addition to the thrush's nest in Comfort & Joy.  There is ambiguity in her work as to what makes things better - art or nature.

Karina Thompson - 60 beats a Minute

Karina Thompson - The Leper's Skull

Karina Thompson's work looks at the physical aspects of disease through heart scans e.g. the machine embroidered "60 beats a Minute" and scans of historical bones from medical archives such as "The Leper's Skull".

If you're in London this exhibition is well worth a look.  It's on till 1 November 2015. 

"Beauty is the First Test - Contemporary Craft & Mathematics" was also on at the Pump House Gallery. You can read about it here.

Just in @ the Ropewalk, Barton upon Humber

There has been a new Hippystitch delivery to the Ropewalk in Barton upon Humber this week ...

Liberty print fabric necklaces, button bracelets and button brooch

People & Places brooches + map pouches

Vintage button brooches

Knitted wire bird brooches

Spotty button brooches

Coin brooches

Colourful button brooches

Vintage Mother of Peartl bracelets & brooches

Ceramic button brooches

Lace button brooches

Small domino brooches

Large domino brooches

and more so go take a look.  There's always something good to see at the Ropewalk.

A Workshop with Wonderful Weaselworks, York

A sample of work by Helen Young (Wonderful Weaselworks)

This weekend I joined members of City of York Embroiderers' Guild for a workshop run by Helen Young of Wonderful Weaselworks.  If you managed to get along to the Guild's Embroidery for All Exhibition at the Guildhall in York this summer you will have seen some of Helen's fabulous work on display.  Helen is a talented embroiderer and quiltmaker who runs workshops and sells vintage & recycled craft materials.

Dark Side of the Moon - Helen Young (Wonderful Weaselworks)

Part of a series inspired by images under a microscope - Helen Young (Wonderful Weaselworks)

Detail of work - Helen Young (Wonderful Weaselworks)

Helen started by inspiring us with her work and enticing us with her fabric, threads & buttons ...

Buttons, fabric, threads, cords and yarns

and there were lots of interesting books and more samples to inspire us too ...

Details from samples - Helen Young (Wonderful Weaselworks)

Helen then showed us how to get started and encouraged us to begin ...

Heken's example of how to begin ...

 

and here was what I came up with - as yet unfinished ...

My work - unfinished!

I had to leave at lunchtime but it was a lovely morning and I can't wait to see how everyone else's turned out.

If you fancy booking Helen to give a talk or run a workshop for your group, you can contact her on:

wonderfulweaselworks@gmail.com

Workshop with Priscilla Jones @ Made in Whitley Bay

Priscilla Jones - Spoons

Priscilla Jones - Tea Cup & Jug

Priscilla Jones - Flower

I have been intrigued by the work of Priscilla Jones since I first saw it at Farfield Mill in Sedburgh several years ago.  By magic (I think it was actually Twitter) I came across a workshop that Priscilla was doing that I could go to and had spaces!  It was at Made in Whitley Bay, a delightful cafe, gift shop and workshop venue run by the lovely & talented Jeannie Gallon.

Priscilla Jones

Priscilla has a degree in embroidery from Manchester Metropolitan University and creates amazing stitched 2D & 3D mixed media pieces.  Her work explores the concepts of identity, memory and nostalgia. 

Examples of Priscilla's Work

Priscilla was showing us how to make 3D wirework pieces using wire, fabric, wax, paint, thread, stitch & buttons.  After a demonstration we began to build up our wire structures ...

Wirework underway for Mandy, Anne & Shirley

and after a break for a delicious lunch ...

Delicious lunch prepared by Jeannie

went on to add fabric, wax, paint and decorate our pieces ...

Waxing and decorating - Jeannie, Mandy, Shirley & Anne

Finally they were finished - just in time for a show & tell:

Jeannie's Flower

Anne's Dish

Shirley's Jug & Flower

Mandy's Mermaid

My teacup, saucer & spoon

My spoon

It was a thoroughly fabulous day and I can certainly recommend a course with Priscilla or a course at Made.  I can't wait to make some more pieces!

And by the way - Jeannie has lots of lovely things to buy at Made including things she makes herself.  I snapped up these while I was there ...

Needlcase & Pin Cushion made by Jeannie Gallon

They were going to be a present but I might have to keep them for myself.