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.

Freedom exhibition

I'm interrupting my holiday posts as I've recently received the details for the Charles Henry Foyle Trust Award exhibition.



It's to be held at the Forge Mill Needle Museum in Redditch near Birmingham.


From 12th September to 25th October

If anyone is in the area on the 25th September at 2.30pm for the Private View it would be great to see you, just let me know if you might be there and I'll save a glass of wine for you :-)

Bye for now

Mike Young

The time is rushing by towards the hand in date for my entry in the CHF textile competition, so I have decided to follow the example/advice of a a very wise (hence the owl pic) blogger friend Val and take a blogging break until the piece is finished. I don't really want to be away from the scene, but I spend most evenings surfing and I really need that time to get my sketch books ready and work on the embroidery for the piece.
I shall look forward to sharing it all with you in September when it's gone on public display at The Forge Mill Needle Museum in Redditch.
I shall look forward to returning to Blogland in August.
Bye for now.

Meeting Alice Kettle and the CHF finalists

We had a wonderful w/e, which started on Friday with a lovely easy drive up to a great caravan site just past the NEC at Birmingham called Somers Wood. It's right in the countryside and best of all it's adults only, so it was really peaceful, which was just what we both needed after a very busy week.

As some of you will know I was a bit nervous about this workshop with Alice Kettle and meeting the other finalists in the competition, but as Julie so rightly said it would be fine and I'd have a great time.



The venue for the day was a purpose designed classroom with a bank of new Pfaffs to play with, and lots of lovely fabric and thread for our creative endeavours.

We started with a meet and greet session, followed by a show and tell. Everyone's work was very different, which made for much lively discussion, with Alice offering us all lots of encouragement and helpful suggestions as to how we might emphasise certain areas of our work.

I wish I had taken some photos of the work the others brought with them , but the day was a packed one and the time just flew by. We had a photographer with us for the day so hopefully we will get to see where the photos are being used at some point and I can show you.

During a working lunch Alice gave us a brief history of her career to date and a small insight into what it's like to be a successful working artist. There are some wonderful pics on her web site and we were privileged to see some her work in the flesh, which was amazing.

After lunch we settled down to doing some line sketches and collages of the still life compositions that Alice had set up for us. Our brief was to look at the type of line we could see in the objects and their relationships with each other, with the purpose of using the collages as a design source for our stitch samples.





These are two of my attempts, I had a spiky sanding drill bit, a chrysanthemum flower, a wire wool pot scourer and 2 fishing floats in front of me, amongst other things.



And this is one of my stitch samples, using techniques, stitch settings and materials inspired by some of Alice's samples.

Here are some of the other students work from the day.





It was so nice to meet the other finalists and have a chance to work together, under Alice's guidance, she is a lovely encouraging and generous tutor.

The rest of the w/e was gorgeous too, but that'll have to wait till later in the week as I'm still buzzing from all the advice and ideas I received on Saturday and can't wait to get on with the project.