not weaving

This is a little Jo Barker tapestry which has recently come into my possession. She made it in 1986 for her post-grad show. Isn't it gorgeous?

Absolutely no weaving going on here however. My 'Lime tree - landscape' collage got through the first round of judging for the RDS crafts competion but when I started to weave it the niggling discomfort in my arm/shoulder got worse and my fingers went tingly/numb which I take to be a bad sign.

This coincided with my hearing from a gallery that people were remarking how much my work had gone up in price recently and baulking at it. In fact it hasn't gone up at all but I am making bigger things. I have made a lot of tapestries 4 x 4 inches (16 square inches) whereas recently they've been as big as 8 x 8 inches (64 square inches). As I price my work by the square inch you can see that yes, there is a big difference in price. People don't seem to perceive the difference in size though. Both 4 x 4 and 8 x 8 just register as - well - small...

So all in all I'm a bit disenchanted with weaving at the moment. I'll see how I get on with physio for my arm but it may be time to explore other media.

twenty twenty

My work is at Twenty Twenty until June. The driftwood sculptures are by Kevan Hopson.

Fiona Rutherford has been writing a blog about her trip to Australia for the Tapestry 2008 symposium.

Lime tree - landscape

See Jo Barker's 'Dappled Circle - Orange' here and Sue Lawty's 'Line' here .

exhibitions...

'Interwoven' at the Grace Barrand Design Centre has finished but you can see pictures of the tapestries here .

The Stroudwater Textile Festival is on until the 21st May.

cloth and culture NOW continues at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia until June 1st.

Thanks to Jilly Edwards both for her warm welcome and the seemingly effortless hard work that goes into running her lovely gallery space in Exeter - BSW Studios!

My work will be on show next at Twenty Twenty in Much Wenlock from Saturday 3rd May.

jennie moncur

See Jennie Moncur's newly completed tapestry here.

happy anniversary

Anne Madden and Louis le Brocquy celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary today (and also on april 8th!). There's a beautiful picture of them here. I spent some time today looking at le Brocquy's tapestries and marvelling at how well he (a non weaver) understands how to design for the medium. I wonder how much is down to his skill and how much to the weaver's. I suppose it must be an equal balance.