From Within by Textile Lincs

Spurn Point

There was a lot of creativity in the studio last week. I will share this in a later post though as yesterday I went somewhere magical to primarily see an exhibition by Alice Fox.

We travelled north over the Humber Bridge,

 turned east and kept driving until we reached the sea. Spurn Point is a coastal reserve, 3 1/2 metres long and very very narrow in parts. It stretches out into the mouth of the river Humber and is now a Nature Reserve. The sea defences are eroding rapidly and you can see just how much they are breaking down and crumbling. The image below came from google.

 

 The exhibition was in the old lighthouse. This was built in 1895 and closed in 1985. It is normally not open to the public.

 I lost count of how many curving steps there were up to the top of the lighthouse but the views were stunning. This is looking out to the end of the Point.

 Looking the other way, you can just see the skinny strip of land between the sea that (on a good day) you can drive on.

 The lighthouse provided an amazing backdrop to Alice's work. She kept a blog about her time as artist in residence here. There are lots of photos of her work and the lighthouse.

 I had permission to share some images of her work. This piece was 10 metres long and hand dyed using rusty metal found on the beach and wrapped round groynes. Some of it had been submerged by the tide.

Alice dyed silks and cottons. All the colours of her framed work, handmade books and larger Spurn Cloth just seemed to compliment the colours found within the lighthouse. I know from my own rust dyed fabrics that you just do not know the colours that will finally come out. Alice has published a short book detailing her time as artist in residence at Spurn Point. It has wonderful images of her work, Spurn Point and extracts from her diary. If you didn't get to her exhibition and are interested I think that you could contact her to buy this.

Just to prove just how fragile the beach is, these show just how close the tankers are as they travel in to port.

After visiting the exhibition we walked from the lighthouse right round the point which is when I took the two photos above, It was such a magical place, and you could really sense the power of nature especially when you turned onto the side facing the North Sea. The gentle waves on the estuary side became more wild, crashing into the already crumbling sea defences from the North Sea.

Memory by Textile Lincs

It has been a few weeks since I last posted as things have been a little pear shaped here. I just wanted to pass on the information about this exhibition by the talented ladies of Textile Lincs (I also have some work in this exhibition). I went down last weekend and it is well worth a visit. It is on until Saturday 26th November.

Zebra returns home

I was really pleased to have my zebra quilt returned today. I didn't get to attend the exhibition which was at a National Trust property in Sutton Hoo but did get this photo sent to me. It is one of the most simple quilts I have made yet I think has the most visual impact. I have an idea in my sketchbook for another one based on the same theme. Thank you Nan for looking after it safely.

Shoes and stitches

The Hub, Design Centre in Sleaford has a new exhibition of shoes designed by Vivienne Westwood and I was able to visit last Saturday. It is on until May 2nd 2011 and well worth a visit. The shoes are just stunning and I could imagine many of them on my feet. This isn't meant to be sexist but from talking to several people I think you need to be female to appreciate the beauty of shoes.

Unfortunately the gallery was quite dark and all the shoes were in display boxes so very difficult (no impossible) to get any decent photos. I did google Vivienne Westwood shoes and the images below were all in the collection.

On Saturday I stitched into a long, skinny piece of cotton to experiment with a little shibori. If it works well then it will be the basis for a much larger piece of work. The aim is for it to go into an indigo dye bath this week, there I've said it so will have to try my best and get it done.

And it all started out like this.............