Angie Lewin at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

I've seen Angie Lewin's prints on greetings cards, but never in their original state, so I was keen to visit her 'A Natural Line' exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

I enjoyed seeing the sketches and studies that lead to the finished work. 

Sometimes I find her large prints to be too cluttered, but I found her smaller scale work was simpler which I prefer.

Similarly, the small studies on driftwood are not too dense, and the unusual shapes forces Lewin to adapt the composition to suit the driftwood.

Work swap with Meg Held

It is always interesting to meet someone who makes work of a similar nature to yourself, but who approaches it from a completely different angle.

Like me, Textile Designer Meg Held has an interest in colour, texture and patterns. After doing the fabric printing workshop with her a few weeks ago, we reminded each other that we had agreed to do a work swap, and so today I visited her studio to choose the piece of her work I would like, and she came to my studio to choose the piece of my work that she would like. Work swaps are a great way to build up a collection of artwork without the exchange of any money!

This hand-coloured drawing is the piece of Meg's work that I chose as a swap:

 

Meg and I have agreed to do a skills share whereby we teach each other a skill for free. Meg would like me to show her how to cast, and I am going to be shown how to print on fabric by Meg. 

Meg was telling me about a group she has just joined to promote and sell her work. Check out www.roommagazine.co.uk for more information

Fabric dyeing at the Whisky Bond

Coinciding with the opening of the new exhibition, Liquid Assets, by Danish artist Nina Beier, Glasgow Sculpture Studios had programmed a range of artist-led workshops. I was delighted to get a place on the Fabric Dyeing workshop, lead by textile practitioner Kathy Beckett.

I had no idea what to expect, and thought it would be a great opportunity to learn about something I had never done before.

Kathy is an avid colourist, and the interaction / psychology of colour has always been intrinsic to her work as a textile practitioner. Recently she has been learning about the impact that the production of colour can have on our environment. One of her particular concerns is the need for ecodesign. She hopes to encourage other designers, artists and creative practitioners to be aware that their choices have consequences and that they can be and are part of the universal need for a more ecological economy. Her blog, www.colour-ecology.co.uk gives more information on this work, and her website http://cargocollective.com/kathybeckettdesign covers all aspects of her textile practice.


We learned about natural methods of dyeing fabric. A variety of yarns were provided, and we made hanks from these. We then mordanted the hanks so that the dyes take to the fabric.

Kathy had foraged a variety of plants from the local area from which we could dye the yarns. We used meadowsweet, ragwort, ivy, comfrey and cow parsley. The plants were added to boiling water, simmered, and the yarns were added into the pans, and left.

We also did some cold dyeing, using beetroot and cabbage.

We wrapped silk round wooden blocks, and then  wrapped yarn around the silk.

These were dipped into the beetroot/cabbage liquid and left for a while before removing and washing under cold water. The yarn was removed and silk opened out to reveal the unique patterns made on the fabric.

Even though we did not have much time to leave the fabric in the dyes, I was surprised at how vibrant the colours of the fabric were.

It was a really enjoyable couple of hours, and something I would like to do more of.