meabh warburton

How Calm The Wild Water

2011-11-27T12:29:00.001Z

Fiona Hutchison, who exhibited in 'Vive la Tapisserie' at the Tour this Summer, currently has a one woman show, "How Calm The Wild Water", at An Tobar, The Tobermory Arts Centre on the Isle of Mull. 4th November - 31st December. You can see some pictures here.Inspired by the sea, this exhibition explores the sculptural qualities of tapestry, paper and stitch. This new body of work was developed with a personal development grant from Creative Scotland

2011-11-20T12:05:00.003Z

I parcelled up 3 tapestries, including this one, to send to an exhibition in England last week. Imagine my surprise when one of them was delivered to my house having gone to Paris and apparently immediately turned round and headed back down to the South of France. Hmm - not best pleased!

So - if anyone would like this small, mounted tapestry (7.5 x 8cm) and is willing to give La Poste another go (they're usually perfectly reliable - really!), let me know. The price is £90 including tracked postage.

meabh@cantlop.com is the address

kate derum award

2011-10-27T10:34:00.002Z

I have a tapestry in the Kate Derum award exhibition at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne. The exhibition runs until 18th November. You can see the winning tapestry by Joy Smith here.

Home

2011-09-03T10:06:00.010Z

The 'Vive la Tapisserie' tapestries were delivered safely home on Friday to a collective sigh of relief at this end!

The exhibition was well received (771 visitors!) and looked very beautiful in the tower. It always amazes me that a building with such a strong identity, made of such heavy (visually as well as physically) materials can take and enhance such diverse works of art.

I've put some more photos of the exhibition on the Tower's flickr site. Just click on the badge on the right hand side.

two more...

2011-07-26T12:19:00.001+01:00

Joanne Soroka

Fiona Hutchison

vive la tapisserie! 16 july - 18 august

2011-07-26T12:02:00.003+01:00

Some more photos from Vive la Tapisserie! at the Tour de Montsalès. It's not easy to photograph with all that perspex but just to give you an idea. Anyone interested in purchasing work please contact me for prices and more detailed pictures. The works range from 260 - 520€

Fiona Hutchison

Jo McDonald

Anna Ray on left and Sara Brennan on the right

Linda Green

Elizabeth Radcliffe

William Jefferies

walk/overlap

2011-07-21T12:41:00.001+01:00

Walk/overlap - one of my pieces in the S.T.A.R.* show Vive la Tapisserie! at the Tour de Montsalès.

vive la tapisserie!

2011-07-18T12:54:00.005+01:00

Vive la Tapisserie! opened on Saturday evening.

It was a great night, there was a good and very appreciative turnout and after the gallery shut lots of us had supper in the village hall followed by a concert on the green in front of the Tour. Delclaux and Charpentier - accordeon and cornemuse (pipes). I've been trying to post a video of them but without success so far.

There'll be more pictures of the exhibition to follow...

seed

2011-07-08T11:18:00.002+01:00

Busy, busy finishing a tapestry for the S.T.A.R.* show which opens next Saturday and painting the panels that we'll be screwing the tapestries to ( the walls of the tour being too uneven and what's more, dark). Need to get out and put up posters and distribute flyers, collect frames and order mounts, weed and water the veg garden and oh yes feed people!

look!

2011-05-21T12:53:00.005+01:00

I grew (most) of this. See I told you I wasn't wasting my time!

2011-05-16T13:49:00.005+01:00

Rejection should get easier as we get older right? Or maybe you don't get used to it as a tapestry weaver as there are so few decent opportunities to exhibit.

I was very disappointed to be turned down for Art Tapestry 3 last week. I'd been working on my submission all Winter and it was a real blow. The platitudes in the rejection letter were particularly platitudinous (nothing to do with the quality of the work apparently!) and I felt all of a sudden so totally isolated in what is already a rather isolating craft.

Right now the vegetable garden seems like a worthwhile place to spend my time and energy but I guess I'll make it back into the henshed before long. As my ever practical and pragmatic friend Katy always says 'No one died...'! Hurt pride maybe but nothing worse than that.

out the kitchen window

2011-05-03T21:05:00.001+01:00

Totally tapestry unrelated but this is what I saw from my kitchen window this evening. I haven't altered this photo at all!

the uninvited guest!

2011-05-02T12:53:00.003+01:00

at the private view at the tour on Saturday evening!

garden/jardin

2011-04-27T18:37:00.001+01:00

2011-04-21T08:44:00.003+01:00

I've just written this statement for the upcoming show at the tour.

"Living in Salabert I have an acute sense of the seasons, the weather, nature and the passage of time. We are surrounded by tracks and lanes where we can walk and observe the year as it unfolds. From my kitchen window I can see our weather coming to us from the Lot. I feel connected.

My circles, rings, spots and stripes come from this sense of connection. Shapes repeated over and over, always subtley different which mark, physically and symbolically the passage of time.

The technique of tapestry suits these ideas, enduring as it has done, almost unchanged, since the time of the Egyptians. Methodical, slow, rhythmic."

Vivre à Salabert donne un sens aigu des saisons, du temps qu’il fait, de la nature, du passage du temps. Nous sommes comblés par des chemins et des petites routes tranquilles où on peut se promener et observer le déroulement de l’année. De la fenêtre de la cuisine je peux voir la pluie et le soleil venir depuis le Lot. Je me sens connectée.

Mes cercles, anneaux, pois et bandes de couleur sont issus de ces connexions. Des formes souvent répétées mais chaque fois subtilement différentes, qui marquent physiquement et symboliquement le passage du temps.

La technique de la tapisserie convient bien à ces idées et le fait depuis le temps des Egyptians, presqu’inchangée. Méthodique, lente, rythmique.

seeds

2011-04-08T07:21:00.002+01:00

I'm collaging again - I want to make a couple of new pieces for the opening show at the tour de Montsalès at the end of this month. The above is a little sample to see how small I can go with my circles - those are under a centimetre. Expect fresh Spring greens!

past present future

2011-03-24T21:06:00.006Z

It's finished! At 20 cm high and 1.8m wide it's quite hard to photograph. We set it up on a table in Warb's studio and I went upstairs and photographed it leaning over the mezzanine. You can see a photo of the finished piece here.

8 out of 9

2011-03-17T16:43:00.003Z

The end is in sight - I'm on the last tapestry in my series of 9. I've got to admit it's beginning to feel like a slog (well today it did anyhow...) and I'll be so glad to finish. There is one I may have to redo as like a dope I used two colours in the warp and of course it shows. Can you see which one? Yep I thought so...

annie turner

2011-02-28T17:43:00.009Z

Margaret Cooter mentions Annie Turner on her blog today. I have a policy of buying a piece of art or craft whenever I sell well at an exhibition. At Chelsea Crafts Fair in 2006 (I think) I was in the same aisle as Annie. I had one particularly expensive tapestry and promised myself that if it went I would have one of Annie's ladders. It's one of the things I'd rescue if the house was on fire. Spare, elegant, poetic.

There is an online exhibition of Archie Brennan's work here. It'll be there for a few months.

round

2011-02-27T17:23:00.003Z

I've started a new blog purely for fun! It's here.

S.T.A.R.*

2011-02-25T09:15:00.030Z

Susan Mowatt

So here's the news!

I'm delighted to announce that S.T.A.R.* (Scottish Tapestry Artists Regrouped) will be exhibiting at Galerie la Tour Montsalès this summer - 16 July - 18 August. The exhibition will be open every day from 3 - 7pm.

Fiona Hutchison

The list of exhibitors is ... Sara Brennan, Amanda Gizzi, Linda Green, Fiona Hutchison, William Jeffries, Jo McDonald, Susan Mowatt, Paul R. Penrice, Elizabeth Radcliffe, Anna Ray, Joanne Soroka, Lesley Stothers and me.

Linda Green

There will be a great range of tapestry on show from the narrative works of Amanda Gizzi to Fiona Hutchison's textural, three dimensional evocations of the sea, Linda Green's complex textile drawings and lots more.
52 tapestries in fact - 4 from each artist.

Jo McDonald

Please tell your friends, mention this exhibition on your blogs, facebook, twitter (speaking as a facebook/twitterphobe!) anywhere! It's going to a great show and is a very exciting development for us.

Amanda Gizzi

2011-01-27T11:18:00.002Z

I've finally run out of Drima extra strong thread - this is the last warp cobbled together from several spools. I am on nº 5 of my series of 9 tapestries in the as yet untitled series. Will show a photo of them soon.

I'll have some very exciting tapestry related news to announce shortly - watch this space!

christiane wilhelm

2011-01-03T19:14:00.004Z

Father Christmas called bringing with him this beautiful pot by Christiane Wilhelm. It came from an amazing gallery we've discovered right on the edge of the Aveyron and the Cantal -La galerie du Don du Fel . It's a stunning contemporary building in a spectacular location and it's truly in the middle of nowhere. Despite this they have 45,000 visitors per year. That's how good it is!

happy christmas!

2010-12-24T08:46:00.006Z

from the land of the very busy chocolatiers!

used

2010-11-22T12:39:00.006Z

A friend gave me this beautiful piece of linen cloth some years ago. She had had it for a while and didn't quite know what to do with it. I think she thought I might make something with it. It is a heavyish linen which has been patched and darned and the patches themselves darned - the effort which went into prolonging the useful life of this piece of cloth is quite something. It puts me in mind of Japanese Boro textiles.
I couldn't possibly cut this cloth. It has sat in a drawer for ages, being taken out and looked at every now and then. The other day I was fighting to try and keep slippy pieces of paper on my knee to provide contrast with the black warp I'm using when I thought of it and went and got it out of it's drawer. So now I get to admire it often, haven't cut it and have found a use that won't damage it.

1/9

2010-11-18T08:49:00.003Z

The first finished tapestry from the collages in the last post. It's 20x20cm - quite big for me - and I'm somewhat daunted by the prospect of the next 8...

Incidentally, if anyone knows where I could buy Drima extra strong thread I'd be really grateful if they could let me know. Drima were bought by Coats and now the thread is really hard to find. I'm sure there must still be some out there though. It's cotton covered polyester I think and is strong as old boots. Thanks!

collaging

2010-11-09T08:20:00.006Z

Am so pleased to discover Daler Rowney's Murano range of paper. For years I've scrabbled coloured paper together from magazines as I could never find 'in between' shades to buy.

Here's what I've been doing with it...

cycle #1

2010-08-11T21:21:00.000Z

This one was a long time coming...

2010-08-09T16:43:00.002Z

When the henshed was a henshed it had doors and/or windows on all sides bar one. We made a window on that side so I would have the evening light. An unforseen consequence of this is that the birds can see straight through and therefore think that they can fly straight through. We've had a dead woodpecker, blackbird and a stunned bluetit. I hung a makeshift curtain up to prevent any furthur casualties but really didn't want to go down the curtain/blind/shutter path if possible. This is what we've tried then - masking the windows and painting them with opaque laquer. I hope it'll break the light up enough to alert the birds...

Still in painting mode, today I masked a rectangle on the wall over my desk and painted it with magnetic paint - Weird! I've still got another couple of coats to put on. Does it work?

tapestry weekend

2010-08-05T12:41:00.005+01:00

I shall be teaching a beginner's tapestry course the weekend of the 21/22nd of August. 10-12am and 2-5pm both days. Bring a picnic lunch. If the weather is good we'll weave under the plane trees on the village square otherwise we'll be in the salles des fêtes. Warp and frames will be provided but please bring wool to use as weft. The cost is €50 and all proceeds go to Galerie La Tour . If you are interested please email me.

jacques mataly

2010-07-22T12:04:00.004+01:00

We saw this stunning exhibition by Jacques Mataly at the equally stunning Abbaye de Beaulieu in the Tarn et Garonne last week. Metre square photographs which examine the horizon, they had something of Rothko about them. They were powerful yet subtle. Very moving.

2010-07-12T10:16:00.002+01:00

A call for entries for ARTAPESTRY 3 here. Open to all tapestry weavers working in Europe. Tapestries must be a minimum of one square metre.

I'm in!

2010-07-05T13:22:00.002+01:00

Moving in has been a gradual process. I was away in Tours and then had visitors so I've been doing it as and when. There are still more books to be barrowed up there and as yet there's nothing on the walls. This morning however I felt like I was properly installed - we tried out the wireless connection and listened to The Archers!

sooooooooo close!

2010-05-16T12:41:00.002+01:00

lighting the stove

2010-05-06T21:36:00.003+01:00

We are stove fanatics. Jotul stoves, Vermont Casting stoves and particularly Clearview stoves. We love burning wood (and planting trees) There has been enormous stove excitement this week. The stove from the hall was moved to the sitting room, the stove from the sitting room was moved to the henshed, the beautiful brand new Clearview stove was put into the hall and (keep up!) the new workshop stove that looks like a dustbin was put in the painting studio. I think we have reached our limit now!

Here's me and Dilly the dog lighting the henshed stove for the first time. It burns beautifully and the henshed is so well insulated and double glazed that I think I'll be able to run it on scavanged sticks rather than shop bought logs.

So close to moving in now...

still here...

2010-04-30T13:35:00.005Z

...still weaving, though in fits and starts. It's a busy time Spring, there's so much to do in the garden and for the Tour and now there is also so much painting to do. The henshed is just about finished, it's painted and the stove is in but not the flue. Once that's done the sisal matting can go down and I can move in! To say I can't wait is putting it mildly!

Then we have to undercoat Warb's studio which is a much bigger job. Should have been doing some or all of that today but went to see some art instead. René Caussanel at the Musée des arts Georges Pompidou in Cajarc. A great space and an exhibition which provoked an interesting discussion which is always a good thing. Oh and considerable fun to be had in their loos with a camera!

rds crafts competition

2010-04-17T07:44:00.004Z

It's that time of year - (doesn't it come around fast!) - the call for entries for the Royal Dublin Society National Crafts Competition
Go here for full details and the online application form. It is open to all craft practitioners working in Ireland regardless of their nationality and all Irish craft practitioners regardless of where in the world they live.

There are two weaving categories, fashion and furnishings and tapestry. There's also felt, multimedia textiles, knitting, embroidery, printed textiles and patchwork and quilting ( and lots more: ceramics, wood, metal, musical instruments etc...)

2010-04-02T07:20:00.002Z

There is a slideshow of the works in Artapestry 2 here.

take me for a walk...

2010-04-01T20:22:00.004Z

I got another four circles done today - so a total of eight now - and am getting back into the rhythm of things and beginning to enjoy it. Thank goodness - those first four were hard work.

Warb's new paintings here.

2010-03-27T15:42:00.001Z

A tiny medal the builders found on a nail in one of the henshed joists. I guess hens do need watching over!

Alice Kettle's current exhibition at the Crafts Study Gallery here.

nest

2010-03-26T21:22:00.004Z

We're not the only ones building round here. Can you see the tiny strand of International Blue String? Even the birds use it! There's Dilly dog hair in there too. Warb found this on the ground - someone must have had to start over.

henshed i.p.

2010-03-25T14:15:00.004Z

Great progress is being made on the henshed. It should be finished next week and then the builders will be back to working on the barn.

Great progress is not being made weaving wise... I started a new tapestry last week - with a section filled with circles like in Spoon #6 and I just can't do it. Can't make my brain make the leap to thinking in negative and can't seem to follow the marks on the warp in anything like a satisfactory fashion.

So... going to walk the dog...

found (2)

2010-03-10T13:41:00.002Z

We live in a hamlet of three houses. Daniel's cousins lived in one and a cart maker and his wife Berthe lived in the other. They're both empty now. French people don't have the same attitude to property as English people (or Irish for that matter). It's not seen as an asset to be exploited but as heritage to be kept - even if you let it fall down in the meantime. After I photographed my found objects the other day I decided to take a tour round the hamlet photographing all the interesting stuff with no intrinsic value which one day, when someone gets round to it, will all end up at the dump.

Rabbit hutches. I mentioned the waste not mentality the other day - well it runs to food too. People still keep rabbits and poultry for the pot and we all know that the French eat cuts of meat (is offal a 'cut') that are best not dwelt on for too long..(I'm vegetarian btw!)

The precursor to International Blue String!

A bird house chez Berthe

Tractor seat

A door off an old stove (coincidently Scott is one of my mother's names)

A box of stuff

More odds and ends in a cut down can

found

2010-03-03T16:45:00.004Z

The barn and henshed have been cleared and are now completely empty and ready for the builder. Another step away from this house's agricultural past. Small farms like this are disappearing in France just like everywhere else.

I found tools with hand made handles, an old tractor seat, photogenic rusty metal, many, many walnut shells - the remains of many a mouse's (or worse) supper, home made ladders, old bottles, chains, harnesses, a yoke, a flatiron, two crémaillères (for hanging over the fire and holding a pot or kettle).

These aren't things which were used in the dim and distant past but by Daniel, the man who sold us the house and who was born and lived all his life here. It is extraordinary to think how things have changed in such a short time. In Daniel's youth the cattle and sheep were walked out to pasture then watched over until it was time to come home. There were no enclosures. His sister Simone told us that when she left home her parents invested in fencing so that someone no longer needed to watch over the stock every moment.

Everything that could be homemade and mended was. There was a wooden wheelbarrow here when we first arrived. It weighed a ton even when empty. We have several beautiful ladders and know people who even now wouldn't dream of buying a shop bought handle for a fork or shovel but select a branch and make it fit. There is a strong 'waste not' ethos here which has nothing to do with parsimony but just common sense.

winter walk

2010-02-14T12:33:00.003Z

Warb has done an interesting blog post here.

See Joanne Soroka's tapestries here.

winter sun

2010-02-11T19:22:00.002Z

Browngrotta have got a blog now.

GOSH

collaging

2010-02-09T13:22:00.003Z

Ismini Samanidou's Timeline at the Dovecote in Edinburgh.

studio...

2010-02-08T15:46:00.007Z

We met with the builder who's going to be making our studios yesterday and due to a job being postponed he can now start our job next month. This is good news especially as we live in a place where waiting lists of a year or longer are not unheard of. I have occasional feelings of 'oh the money could be better spent on something else, I don't take up much space etc' before I take myself in hand. It is going to be heaven to have a space which is all mine, where nothing has to be put away at the end of the day. That's what bugs me - we have lots of space in the house but tidying work away really gets in the way of any flow or sense of ease that might otherwise develop.

Artapestry 2 has opened in Angers and goes on till May - just before I'm due to go there in June. I think I will have to find a way of getting there sooner. The last time I saw a big exhibition of large scale tapestries was at the Harley Gallery in Welbeck (where Follow a Thread is now on) and must be at least 10 years ago. How ridiculous!

2010-01-31T20:43:00.003Z

Wouldn't you just love a little studio in there?! My henshed/studio to be is surrounded by tall cherry trees and a bay tree but isn't actually in one. Never mind... It really looks as if the studios will happen now, we have found a builder and he can start in April. Very, very exciting!

Yoshiko Nakano's tapestries.

w.i.p.

2010-01-19T14:07:00.003Z

Warb's current work in progress. (180 x 150 cm) I wish I'd taken pictures of it right from the start, it has changed so much already. He is much more productive than me at the moment. What am I saying he's always more productive than me.

For mind bogglingly labour intensive and both funny and touching work have a read/look at Confessions of a trichophile.

happy new year!

2009-12-31T22:02:00.000Z

2009-12-09T16:23:00.006Z

My favourite mountain the Matterhorn seen from St Luc in Switzerland.

Have done some Christmas shopping at Conakry Refugee School. Such a small amount of money can do so much. £5 buys exercise books, pens and pencils for 5 children for a year. £10 pays for 50 school lunches, the only hot meal many of the children have each day. The charity is run by a family we know back in Shropshire and their promise is that every £ given goes directly to the school.

light

2009-11-29T16:03:00.003Z

After the success of Warb's exhibition at the tour we had planned to have a couple of 'open house' weekends at the end of November/beginning of December. The light here in Autumn/early Winter can be so beautiful. Then I got to thinking about the leaden, rainy days where the lights are on from the time we get up.... What if we were unlucky? Our lighting is fine for living with art but not for the scrutiny of a potential buyer. I chickened out but next year the new studios will be up and running with adequate lighting for the exhibiting as well as the making of art.

'Follow a Thread' exhibition at the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh - includes work by Jo Barker and Sara Brennan. Until 31st December.

update

2009-11-04T14:58:00.006Z

An almost edible display of pencils. I want them all!

The last few months in this house have included sciatica (ongoing), flu, an unspecific chest infection and specific bronchitis! Also a dead ibook and camera...

BUT the sciatica is improving, I've finally got antibiotics for the bronchitis, a gorgeous MacBook Pro was delivered yesterday ( all set up and ready to go thanks to Katy and Paul at PC Net Solutions), a Panasonic Lumix has been purchased (the nearest I'll ever get to a Leica!) and project henshed is back on (only nearly 3 years later....things happen slowly around here) as is project 'convert the small barn into a studio for Warb'.

If that weren't all exciting enough we had 6 cubic metres of firewood delivered this morning. Firewood really, really makes me happy!

ps. I've lost everyone's email address with the old Mac. Any friends/family reading this please email me so that I have them on the new one. Thanks!

2009-08-24T18:06:00.003Z

One of Warb's self portraits on show at Galerie La Tour Montsalès. The show is going well - lots of appreciative visitors coming and good sales. It' s now going to run until the 13th of September instead of the 7th.
My apple laptop has died now ( in addition to the camera) - my fingers are well and truly crossed for the washing machine...! Fortunately the tour has a laptop and I can borrow it until I get a new computer sorted out.

BTW... we produced a small catalogue for the show. 20 pages, full colour with essays by Daniel Lefranc and Ian Warburton (in French). We've sold out for the moment but are going to reprint this week. If you are interested please email me. Cost is 5 euro plus postage.

Warb at La Tour

2009-08-16T14:24:00.002+01:00

I wish I'd had a camera this morning. At 9.30 a neighbour came by to collect Warb's paintings and take them to the tour - thankfully only a couple of miles away. Said neighbour has a huge roof rack on his van so a dozen large paintings fitted on easily. Another car load of friends arrived and another neighbour on his motorbike. Once everything was loaded we set off to Montsalès - a convoy of 3 vehicles and 1 motorcycle outrider - we drove all the way there at about 30 mph with the hazards flashing! So funny!

The show is up and looks great. If I climbed the tour once today I must have done it 20 times - I'll pay for it tomorrow. The pv is at 6 pm. Venez nombreux!

and now for...

2009-08-14T11:40:00.002+01:00

something quite different! I had a sudden desire to make this collage so despite the fact that this is probably the busiest week of the year with Warb's exhibition in the Tour starting on Monday, I did! It all worked out paler than I anticipated - ( the letters are covered with a layer of tissue paper but the circles aren't) - but it was good fun!

poplar

2009-08-05T14:01:00.003+01:00

Just had a call from my Mum in Dublin to say that Poplar won 1st prize in the tapestry category at the RDS National Crafts Competition!

colette bessac lefranc

2009-08-03T22:08:00.006+01:00

I haven't got around to getting a new camera yet....here is photo of a piece by my friend Colette Bessac Lefranc who also happens to be the president of the association Galerie La Tour Montsalès and one half of the driving force behind the renovation/restoration of the tower.

I have uploaded photos of the tower inaugural festivities to the website here and a page for Warb here.

Royal Dublin Society

2009-07-20T13:37:00.003+01:00

Poplar will be on show at the National Crafts Competition at the RDS in Dublin from August 5 - 13.

fade

2009-07-15T15:02:00.003+01:00

My camera has died so I'm showing you a multi tapestry I made a few years ago. Including the one in progress I have made four like this. Am just about to warp up the next piece for 'trace' and listen to the Archers omnibus!

I try to stick to talking about tapestry on this blog and avoid 'hellobirdshellotreeshellosky' syndrome. It's hard though when summer is as glorious as it is in this part of the world and most of your food is coming from the veg patch and kids are on holidays and doing the rounds of all the various pools, rivers and water butts (really) at their disposal.... there - I've had my 'hello birds' moment. I'll stop now!

Ian Warburton

2009-07-03T11:58:00.001+01:00

Warb is having an online sale of some small paintings. See them here.

trace

2009-07-02T14:28:00.004+01:00

The first two tapestries for another 9 part piece provisionally entitled trace or perhaps traces. I like these 'multi' tapestries. Small parts of a whole. It seems much more like how I actually experience things - small snapshots, fleeting images, random thoughts.

galerie la tour montsalès

2009-06-29T13:05:00.014+01:00

This is a photo of our village taken from a farm across the valley. There was a chateau here once but all that remains are some ramparts, the tower on the left of the photo and local lore has it that what is now the church was once the orangerie. The tower was built in the 14th century as a lookout point over the valley below (specifically to look out for the English during the Hundred Years War ).

The tower has been deteriorating quietly over the centuries but earlier this month 5 years of hard work - physical (40 skip loads of rubble was removed from the upper floor and a new roof put on) organisational and fundraising came to fruition with the opening of Galerie la Tour Montsales.

This is the president of the association Colette Bessac Lefranc introducing our first exhibitor, graphic novelist Jean Pierre Gibrat.

No event in the Aveyron is complete without sustenance of some kind so after the inauguration of the tower and the private view there was supper for all in the village hall!

This is the first floor which is reached by a metal grille stairs. To reach the second and third floors you have a vertiginous climb up 14th century stones steps (with very high risers) not intended for 21st century accessiblity! Yesterday Warb had to escort a man having an attack of vertigo back down...

This in the underside of the steps.

Bearing in mind that there will be people who aren't able to make the climb there is a slideshow of the exhibition playing on the ground floor. The next exhibition, Charles de Rodat starts this Saturday - private view at 6.30pm - all welcome!

poplar

2009-06-22T19:07:00.002+01:00

Poplar - finished at last and sent off for the second round of judging of the RDS Crafts Competition in Dublin. Lots to tell - back soon!

mobile/minimal studio

2009-05-28T19:14:00.003Z

I well remember the first time I gave thanks for the lightness and portability of the materials and equipment I use. It was the day Lud and I moved from one third floor flat in Edinburgh across town to another third floor flat. Did I mention that he worked mostly with lead at the time?!

The hen shed is still a hen shed albeit minus hens. Sadly it will be a while before we can make it into the cosy studio with the wood burner in the corner. In the mean time I'm still in the house. I don't take up much space though. Everything I need fits into the following...

When I was an artist in residence in a Telford school the kids were given a D+T project to make a useful container for a staff member. Naomi chose me and made this lovely box which I have used ever since (10/12 years?) There are spikes to put my threads on and they are just the right length so that nothing moves in transit. There is a little side section for skeins of thread, scissors etc. She hand painted the box and finished it with brass furniture. Naomi was an exceptional girl/student. We still know her. I taught her to weave or rather just pointed her in the right general direction and let her get on with it. She wove a tapestry that took about 100 hours when she was 14/15. I have some of her work and should show it...

The ubiquitous Ikea drawers - all my sewing threads fit in here.

Two Olympus plastic film boxes (at least I think that's what they are). Skeins of DMC thread live in here.

I'd still really like my hen shed though. I'm sure I could fill it!

under the tilleul

2009-05-25T11:31:00.003Z

We have an extra room in our house in Summer. It's called 'under the tilleul' (lime tree). A good lime tree is a glorious thing - sweet smelling and humming with bees in Spring, a cool, shady, breezy place in Summer. I started the day well listening to Desert Island Discs and finishing n° 5/9 of Poplar. Then I decided to have a sandwich and a glass of wine under the tilleul...

which turned into another glass of wine, bringing blankets and cushions and a pile of books out and settling in for the day. It was bliss!

2009-05-22T13:56:00.002Z

Outrageous floribundance in the car park at Figeac. Gorgeous!

tom phillips has a blog. (He taught Warb at Corsham in the 60's)

also 20 sites n years

2009-05-18T12:23:00.004Z

Tapestry weaving is not for those in need of instant gratification nevertheless I am finding Poplar a bit tedious... The 9 squares make an image which I feel (hope) is more than the sum of it's parts but the weaving of each part is not very exciting. Today I am mostly weaving yellow. Hmmm.

Far more exciting things are happening in the studio downstairs. The washing machine and overflow fridge also live down there and each time I pass through I have a quick look to see what has been going on. This painting ( I've shown you 3 details as I haven't got a good low resolution one of the whole thing) took my breath away.

Ah well back to my yellow..

2009-05-09T15:32:00.005Z

There's rather more gardening than weaving going on at the moment.
Here are some nice links...
Bethan Ash
Elizabeth Brimelow
I love Blackshore and Shingle I and Shingle II.

poplar i.p.

2009-04-29T17:08:00.007Z

Am on the 4th of 9 and starting to get into the rhythm of it.

Have a look at absolute tapestry.com

le troc

2009-04-28T13:05:00.001Z

There's much talk of le troc (barter) in these times of la crise. (I've got a good bread for eggs arrangement going with a neighbour!) Over the years we have been lucky to exchange paintings and tapestries for other artist's paintings, pots, sculpture. The textile piece in the picture is the latest. It's a gorgeous embroidery made by a friend Colette Bessac-Lefranc and one of my tapestries is now hanging in her dining room. How satisfying is that?
I'll take some close up photos of it to show if the sun ever shines again!

aino kajaniemi

2009-04-24T08:15:00.002Z

Aino Kajaniemi's tapestries here.

susan mowatt

2009-04-22T20:24:00.000Z

I tell you it's all happening round here - Spring that is - trees in leaf, wild flowers everywhere, birds singing like crazy, enormous black bees on the wisteria and lots of rain in beween the sunny spells. I have just potted on 37 tomato plants. It is impossible to have too many tomatoes...!

Have a look at Susan Mowatt's blob, I love it.

2009-04-20T19:58:00.001Z

Tapestry 08 catalogue available here

abbott and ellwood

2009-04-19T05:17:00.001Z

I started my day with a smile - lots of smiles actually - looking at Mike Abbott and Kim Ellwood's metal sculptures!

guernica

2009-04-18T04:53:00.004Z

A woven version of Picasso's Guernica is on show at the newly reopened Whitechapel Gallery in East London. Be sure to read the last paragraph of this.

cornelia forster

2009-04-10T13:06:00.003Z

Cornelia Forster 1906-90. I had never heard of this artist (thank you Kathy) and while there's more going on in most of the tapestries than my little head can deal with, there is a lot of beauty too. It seems she worked with Jean Lurçat in the 40's just down the road from here in Saint Céré.

annika ekdahl

2009-04-09T20:54:00.003Z

See Annika Ekdahl's extraordinary lush tapestries here

my little helper!

2009-04-09T15:53:00.001Z

Tilleke Schwarz has updated her website and now also has some work for sale. See it here

1/9

2009-04-02T14:21:00.003Z

I've started weaving the first part of Poplar. It feels odd to be weaving again - there's no excitement as yet which is unusual for me. I don't think there's a tapestry weaver alive who doesn't sometimes shake their head and question the validity of a process which frankly seems so tortuous sometimes. Or if they don't they should. When I was at art school in Edinburgh once you had decided on a design to weave you had to really sell it to the course tutors. Convince them that it was worth weaving, that you could sustain interest in the design for the months it would take to weave, that it was worth the investment in materials, that it would gain something from being woven.

In her piece in Art Textiles of the World : Great Britain, Sara Brennan says 'To be a tapestry weaver it helps if you're a tactile person. But there's a risk with tapestry, that people get carried away with the making. It becomes a way of life and then everyone's too cautious to criticise. Constructive criticism is very absent.'

I don't want to make tapestries just because that is 'what I do'.

poplar

2009-03-13T13:41:00.003Z

Exhibition - Vive la tapisserie! French tradition, Scottish tribute
Institut Français d'Ecosse, 13 Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh. Until 9th April. Artists include Archie Brennan, Sara Brennan, Amanda Gizzi, Maureen Hodge, Fiona Hutchison, Susan Mowatt.

collage 090309

2009-03-10T13:23:00.003Z

collage 060309

2009-03-07T13:04:00.002Z

Using glue now... exciting!

2009-02-27T14:14:00.009Z

Some interesting sites...

IC : Innovative Craft website and blog, Maakin lab and Universal Pattern

wallace and friend

2009-02-27T10:59:00.002Z

I was reminded of Helen Kemp's ceramics today when I saw Wallace enjoying the sun this morning! Her friend was made by Jonathan Barrett-Danes .

2009-02-26T13:40:00.005Z

There aren't many things I miss about England (people - now that's a different matter...) but the small pleasure of writing an envelope with my Parker 60 fountain pen and sticking on a Royal Mail stamp is one of them! French stamps are at best boring and at worst hideous. See the Royal Mail's current Darwin series here.

Our friend Lizzie Farey has an exhibition of her eloquent willow works, 'Spirit of Air' at Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries from 6 March - 18 April.

fingers crossed

2009-02-24T14:56:00.003Z

'Sale' parcels which I have just entrusted (not entirely willingly) to the tender care of La Poste. I shall be keeping my fingers crossed for the next few days.
Now that the internet blackout seems to be over (fingers still crossed over that one) and the school holidays are over I'll be showing you some more collages over the next few days.

sale!

2009-02-18T15:11:00.003Z

I'm having a sale until the end of February. I was all set to start at the beginning of the month but our internet connection died. Back online now - have a look here. Please email me if you are interested in buying anything. Thanks!

not collages

2009-01-28T15:48:00.007Z

Three versions of a not collage (as Olga put it!) today. It's interesting and useful to take photos as I go - that one step's remove seems to clarify the image and helps me to consider/evaluate it.

280109

2009-01-28T14:37:00.000Z

Can you tell I really like this dark blueish/black circle?!

240109

2009-01-24T17:05:00.003Z

230109

2009-01-23T10:44:00.000Z

offcuts

2009-01-22T20:27:00.004Z

I took this photo of spiky offcuts on Tuesday - the last time the sun shone round here. I can't show you yesterday or today's collages as light levels have just been too low.

I find the designing for my tapestries really very hard - much harder than the simplicity of the work might suggest! As I was explaining to a friend recently I have tendancy to stop as soon as I have something I think is worth weaving and weave it. I never get into any kind of rhythm or habit of drawing/collaging and that just makes it even more difficult and anxiety provoking to re-start each time.

So - I have set myself the task of carrying on with these ephemeral collages until the end of the month - not giving in to the temptation to glue anything down or weave. The fact that the collages are just taken apart as soon as they're made does make them feel quite different - if they don't work it doesn't matter - it's really quite freeing. It would do me good to keep this as part of my daily practice.

200109

2009-01-20T19:40:00.003Z

polka dot trees

2009-01-16T22:15:00.003Z

Mistletoe grows really well here. I pass these spotty trees on my daily walk and they always make me smile.

Am collaging every day. No glue though - I cut and place my papers, move stuff around, photograph it, take it apart again and on to the next one. It's an occupational hazard to get too precious about things when you're a tapestry weaver and I'm trying hard to break the habit.

january sun

2009-01-15T15:30:00.003Z

Thank heavens for sun in January...

market day

2009-01-15T15:24:00.002Z

Need any knives, scissors, sickles or scythes sharpening? That's what this man with his Heath Robinsonesque - mostly made from old bikes - machine was doing. And here I am posting his photo on the internet. It kind of does my head in...!

collage 130109

2009-01-13T15:36:00.003Z

Starting to collage again, enjoying playing with colour, wishing I had more coloured papers...

2009-01-12T10:42:00.003Z

Everything is frozen around here including the International Blue String!

Jo Barker has a solo show at the Scottish Gallery until 31st January. There is a catalogue available from the gallery if you're nowhere near Edinburgh. If you are though, you could combine it with a visit to the Henry Moore textiles show at the Dovecote Studios .