Beach.

Liz ,as is normal for her ,has been busy with several things involving numerous groups and venues.The piece above, and bottom  relates to beach combing and gathering .

As well as contributing a piece to "Messages "at UWE she and Debby Pawle had their own stand."Gatherers"If you came you will have seen this piece above but in its finished state.the jeans were found pushed behind some rocks.......some Mum will have been bemused as to where they had gone! 

She was also lucky to find some old and rusted saw blades which were discarded in an old shed.

They have been wrapped in tea and Khadi paper to create this effect.

Two more delicious results.

After the successs of the Eco stand at the NEC there are possibilities in the offing of another outing at Cowslip workshops April7-13th ,and even more exciting a trip tp exhibit in Moscow!

Seas.

Sue had been away on holiday.She had taken herself off on a cruise visiting Spitzbergen, among other places.

She had enjoyed sailing along the coast ,seeing lots of wild flowers 

and glaciers.Instead of taking lots of photographs and hiding behind a camera, she chose to fill a book with evocative drawings and notes.She put to use some of the things she learnt on her drawing course to St. Ives earlier in the year.We wonder if this will infiltrate into her work in the future.

Deryll ,meanwhile, had been working on a sea of her own.

Fired up by her successful Fracking piece she had been seeking to use the mound of plastic she had collected.

She has cut and snipped and twisted until she has a 'sea'.She was trying out whether she should put it into a conventional seascape and add in a sky and beach.

What do you think?

Read carefully

Carol ,with her interest in Nature , has chosen to create a quilt about a web ,but not the one we normally refer to these days.She has pieced and quilted a birch forest, very reminiscent of those painted by Gustav Klimt, but in fabric.

Apparently trees have their own internet -Mycelium,a wood wide web, through which they interconnect and communicate.Unlike the World Wide Web it is hidden from view under the earth just beneath our feet.

Endangered.

Kirsten has been working on her pigeon and is creating a perch for him and his messages.

Alongside will be her messages in bottles of species under threat of extinction.

We put them up at UWE yesterday and they look wonderful.She is able to paint with wool fibres ,capturing the creatures she depicts as well as she does with conventional art media.Do pop along to Stand G32 if you are at the show ,we think you'll find our exhibition a little different and definitely thought provoking.

Feathers of more than one kind.

Debby brought her minimalist piece for UWE.It concerns positive messages and affirmations which are written on the feathers .Both sides have been worked on to represent the two parallel worlds we are said to inhabit as human and spirit.

She has used white feathers as they represent the connection between the living and the departed .White feathers also represent Angels and seeing the feathers are said to show the two worlds coexist.

Other work she has revisited are these puffins, and another batik piece of Sea Campions which is being worked on.

This piece was of a photograph taken in Barcelona of St.George and the  Dragon.She had it printed as a  sample by Prinfab on chenille.Where it hadn't quite worked Debby had used Inktense to strengthen the colour ,such a useful medium.

Full speed ahead for August 29,30,31 at UWE.

Our meeting this month was concerned with getting everything ready for Messages at UWE.

Ira has put together several of her previous pieces of work. They have been chosen 

quite deliberately to pose some questions for the viewer.These questions are a hot topic and concern use of materials and categorising of work.

We hope you will visit and give your opinions.It is hoped that  lively conversations will ensue!

Festival of Quilts 2019.

Liz is exhibiting at the Festival of Quilts 1st-4th August ,with a group of artists from around the world .Their exhibit ion is called 'Natural Selections '

They are all eco- dyers but with the proviso that they use no chemicals to aid their process.

Liz has created pieces using oak leaves ,strip cloth and soya milk.

The Oak tree is considered the King of trees and is also associated with the Warrior, for this reason she has created this cloak .

It offers protection for the wearer .

It can be worn or displayed as a wall piece.She was dismayed last time to have cut the neck much too wide and low .However, her solution of adding lots of stitched leaves to fill the neckline looks much better than the original.Sometimes accidents offer a better way forward.

Lots of stitch and beautiful natural dyed leaves.

Despite being very busy with the organisation of the exhibition she still finds time for her bookmaking and boxes.This is a Blizzard box and folds up to just a sliver!