Monday 14 September 2009

Freedom exhibition

Well the day came at last on Saturday for the 20 finalists of the Charles Henry Foyle Trust Award for Stitched textiles to see our work on display and find out who had won the coveted prizes.

The standard of the entries was extremely high with several finalists having completed their BA's and pushing on to MA's or finishing them, so it was no surprise the that the stunning winning entry was an MA graduate/student (I'm not sure if she has finished her course) of Nottingham Trent University.
Her name is Donna Rumble-Smith and her piece was called 'Casting a Line'. She had used nylon monofilaments and other yarns 'to create a net that would catch technical words and sayings used, and observations made by both fishermen and embroiderers'

The piece was strung across an area of the Needle Museum the made it feel as if it was in perfect harmony with the surroundings, and gave the total 'wow factor'.



As some of you will know, I decided to make a hat for my entry and this was my entry in the catalogue.

On receiving the invitation to make a piece on the theme of Freedom, my first thoughts were ‘creative freedom’. Like many people I have always suffered from an interfering inner critic that does it’s best to undermine my artistic confidence.
I decided that I wanted to make something really special that would give me confidence and freedom from the voice. Every time I wore it or used it I would remember that I processed great creative strength and determination.
I would also like to think that other people might be tempted to make their own inner critic silencer.





It was remarkably difficult to photograph as I'd made it with reflective sheers and shiny threads, as Iwas trying to create a play of light on the fabrics and threads.







And this is the 'all seeing eye' that looks for unhelpful critical influences.

I would like to have shown more pics of the other entries but my DH took all the shots in raw and I can't convert them :-(

But if you get the chance to go in person it's well worth a visit.

9 comments:

Heather said...

Your hat is so beautiful - I think we all need one of those.

Julie said...

Stunning Sharon! It's an amazing piece of work and would definitely silence any inner critic. Congratulations!

Gina said...

Congratulations on getting to the final - lovely piece of work Sharon.

Ruth said...

Hi Sharon,
yes it was a pity that we didn't have a chance to talk more. I could have spent many more hours there reading all the journals/sketchbooks and just taking it all in. So much to process.

I missed the "all seeing eye" - it is difficult to know how to display the objects isn't it? Not sure that my choice was right - all told difficult to display. Thought your glass head with the changing coloured light was a great idea to get the piece noticed.

Well done!
Ruth

Unknown said...

Congratulations Sharon, the hat is wonderful,

Françoise said...

It's beautiful.
Congratulations!!

hippopip said...

Hi Sharon, managed to get to Redditch today and I am so glad I did,your hat is stunning so much intricate work and a superb workbook I was surprised that you did not get an award.Well done for entering and making the final against some stiff competion

Purple Missus said...

Sharon, this is amazing. All your hard work and worrying certainly paid off when you created this piece. The colours look wonderful in the photo - and I should imagine they look even better for real.
Many congratulations for reaching the final - and now whats next? :)

Jackie said...

wow thats fantastic. I saw this when I went through the finalists but hadn't realised it was yours. Congratulations.