New Mills School

Some great work today by New Mills School down at Torrs Hydro 'wrapping the railings'

New Mills Festival

As part of this years New Mills Festival art students from New Mills School Business and Enterprise College are working with me to 'wrap the railings' down at Torrs Hydro. We will wrap, knot and weave using re-cycled textiles  and over the next week the site will gradually be transformed.

Anyone can join in creating this installation by visiting the Hydro at the following times where I will be on site with everything you need to join in.

Wednesday 14 September 2pm - 6pm

Thursday 15 September 10am - 12pm

The 'railing wrap' forms part of the 'Woolly Wander' trail where artists, local community groups, individual knitters and crafting communities everywhere have collaboratively created the ‘Woolly Wander’: a knitted trail on the streets of New Mills. The whole town is dressed with woollies... look out for the main installation, the car cosy !!

Also on the "Woolly Wander" trail is another collaboration with art students from New Mills High School. The installation is displayed in a tree at the main entrance to the school.

Each pupil was asked to bring in an old item of clothing or fabric to weave into a label to hang outdoors on a tree. The students produced some sophisticated results. The work is not only beautiful but environmentally friendly. Each piece holds a bit of its maker‟s history or a story, name, or sentence in text.  

Pupils looked at the traditions of hanging fabric in trees to make a wish for better health or a 

prayer. Tibetan prayer flags slowly disintegrate and it is believed that the text and prayer 

goes into the universe as it weathers and disappears.

Manchester Degree Show - 2011

Next week sees the start of the Manchester Degree Show for Creative Practice BA (Hons) exhibiting in Cavendish Building alongside Embroidery - it see's the culmination of three hard years of study, investigation and practice for me.

The Manchester Degree Show celebrates the achievements and talents of final year art and design students. The opening times are for teh general public are and directions can be found on the Manchester Degree show link on this blog :

Saturday 18th June 10am – 4pm

Sunday 19th June 10am – 4pm

Monday 20th June10am – 6pm

Tuesday 21st June10am – 6pm

Wednesday 22nd June 10am – 4pm

The Show is open to the general public and we also welcome schools. Dedicated School Days are on Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st June.

The Degree Show will also coincide with a University Open Day on Wednesday 22nd June.

'At a Tangent' - Oldham Gallery until 11 April

The 62 Group of professional textile artists includes many with established international reputations. The members’ individual aims are not only to extend their practice by making more expressive work but also to widen viewers’ horizons of their field. Each explores diverse current social, domestic and personal issues.

‘At a Tangent’ at the Oldham Gallery underlines a divergence away from the predictable, as members of The 62 Group take textile art into new and challenging territories. Their message is that textile art should not be ‘comfortable’. The touching point of the tangent is the materials with which the artists work; fibres and filaments such as threads, cane, paper and metal.

In 2012, The 62 Group will celebrate its 50th Anniversary. This exhibition demonstrates the group’s energy and vitality, and their continuing determination to produce innovative, exciting work.

Project eARTh

These textile wrapped chairs emerged from workshops as part of Project eARTh.

The participants worked with artist Amanda Whewell and also tied in with some outdoor sessions in which the group made an oak bench and a living willow arbour for the wildlife garden in Granby Road Park, Fairfield, Buxton.

The group took inspiration from the 'willow pattern' and chose a blue and white colour scheme. They experimented with paper and fabric weaving, this led to the idea of wrapping some branches with fabric and ultimately the furniture.

Chairs had been chosen so the group could create indoor as well as outdoor seating (the oak bench). The group also tie-dyed fabric to use and combined this with with other found fabric and yarns for the chairs. Red was introduced as a contrast colour on one chair. To accompany the chairs the group also created contemporary wall hangings.

If you would like to see the finsihed chairs they are on display at New Mills Original.

Rolf Harris - Manchester

I'm really looking forward to meeting Rolf Harris next Sunday in Manchester for a preview of his new wildlife collection.

He's been a hero of mine for many years and his signed photograph sits proudly on the wall of my studio at home.

For more details follow this link

Buxton Art Trail

This weekend as part of the Buxton Festival Fringe 2010 Buxton will be hosting the Buxton Art Trail at 34 venues throughout the town - maps will be available at various places around the town and from the Opera House. 

I will be at 'Nats Kitchen' on Market Street where I will be displaying some of my recent work created in conjunction with my projects at Manchester University.

Hope to see some of you there.