beautiful

This beautiful tapestry was made by my sister in law, Cecilia. The weft is wool and raffia and includes plain weave and whipping or binding of the warp. It's about 6 by 8 inches.

excuses....

Here is a picture of my current project and the reason why I have so little tapestry to show you at the moment... This is our bedroom to be and I've been doing the joists for the new floor. The middle of the room is 6 centimetres lower than the sides so it's been a finicky job. I am very, very, nearly, almost ready to start laying the floorboards now!


This is a view of the same room this time last year which gives you an idea of how far we've come (with a lot of help I should say!)



Here is an even slower weaver than me! We went to Aubusson for a day last year. It was strange to be in a place where everything revolves around tapestry. There is a big tapestry museum and numerous workshops large and small to visit - also a very beautiful 16/17th (?) century weaver's house with the weaving studio on the very top floor to benefit as much as possible from the light. The cartoon painter had a room in the cellar, clients were received and business transacted on the 2nd floor, the family lived on the 3rd floor and then the looms right at the top.



Tomorrow we're off to Ireland (Connemara) to celebrate my Mum's 80th birthday. Here is a picture of her aged about 25/26. She's the first woman from the right. Back next week.

packing

I sent the four felts off at huge expense at the beginning of the week - I've got to find a courier firm who would take on an occasional customer like me (any info from other French residents gratefully appreciated) as €67, yes really, is out of the question... I was in a right blue funk, as in addition to the expense I checked out the galleries website with a view to linking to it only to discover that my name wasn't even on the exhibitor list. Plus the price I can charge for the felt pieces makes me virtually nothing when you take off the galleries cut, the cost of the frame and postage. So I really do have to knock the felt pieces on the head.
There you go, sorry to rant... on a positive note my 3 hour intensive carpentry course with my friend Paul seems to have taught me something as I think I'm doing the upstairs floor more or less right. I sincerely hope!

felt #3

Here is the third one (in progress) - one more to go. I've got to admit my priority this weekend has been hammerdrilling a hole in the stairwell ceiling to take the water and waste pipes to/from the new upstairs bathroom. Sounds simple doesn't it? It wasn't! This week we start laying the chestnut floors upstairs and then we may even get to move up there!!

Have a look at Judith James work. I like the order, layers, texture, colour.

w.i.p.

Here is the next felt piece -the second of four. They are very simple, an expression of the joy of colour and texture. I sometimes find it hard to know when they're finished, I keep stitching and building up texture whereas with a tapestry I reach the top and that's it - I'm done! This might seem silly but I've also got to admit that I am slightly scared to leave them too simple, too unembellished. Knowing how I do the way in which people appraise 'craft' as opposed to 'art' there is part of me that feels I need to give people obvious value for money in terms of labour.

For nearly 7 years I had a gallery in England. I dealt primarily in the applied arts but I did sell some paintings as well (my husband Ian's). I noticed that invariably when someone was considering buying a pot, wood carving or textile, they were interested in the process (good) but also the length of time it took to make. When they were buying a painting, if they liked it and had the money to spare, they bought it. The time/labour thing just didn't enter into it. There is an implicit acceptance that you are buying into someones idea, skill, training and reputation - a little part of them in fact - and that that has a certain value. The number of times I've been asked "how long did it take you to make" or someone has said " that must have taken you ages" and if it hasn't I don't let on, feeling that it would devalue the piece in their eyes.

The sad truth is that a only tiny minority of craftspeople make a decent living from their work. I know people with work in major national collections, represented by well known galleries who can only continue doing what they do thanks to teaching or design work or because their partners also earn. The big auction houses have done much in recent years to boost contemporary ceramics prices but I'm not sure it really trickles down to the ordinary maker. Textile prices certainly lag behind, perhaps textiles will always have connotations which are too domestic to merit decent recompense.

Diana Fayt has more to say on the subject here.

Kate Blee has an exhibition at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh in June described in Selvedge as 'new work marking a landing stage on Blee's journey towards the joy of simplicity'.

William Scott- a master of simplicity.

fuzzy felt

Here's a picture of a felt collage I'm working on for an exhibition next month. I learned to make felt some years ago at a workshop with Anne Belgrave at the Greenwood Centre in Ironbridge. I enjoy the process - it's messy but clean (I never could get on with clay!) and something akin to a small miracle takes place as the fuzzy woolen fibres suddenly transform into fabric. My tapestries are very planned but the felt pieces get made up as I go along. I do start with a drawing but it usually gets abandonned pretty quickly. In the end tapestry interests me more but felt provides an occasional and welcome contrast.

squares...

Still weaving squares... Some things seem like such a good idea at the time! I've only woven twenty but I have planted courgettes, aubergines, peppers, tomatoes and sown oriental salad, basil and rainbow chard. Some things can't wait! Luckily the RDS competition accepts drawings and photos of works in progress for the initial submission...