Wednesday 19 March 2008

Exhibits, awards and blog break

Although it was our Wedding Anniversary yesterday I didn't spend the day with my DH as he was at work :(. Instead I popped down to Peterborough with my friend Anne to take in a textile exhibition at Peterborough Museum. The exhibiton was called Textile ART-efacts and was staged by a group of 15 textile artists going by the name Meniscus Textile Artists. The exhibits were all based on items found in the museum itself or among its own exhibits.



This piece, titled "Time After Time", is by Karen Rowe and is based on two grandfather clocks in the museum. The weights are made of silk paper on muslin, stitched and beaded.



This canvas is by Brenda Hickinbottom and is silk fibres embellished with stitch. It was inspired by an encaustic tile in the Museum's Collection.



I'm sorry but I failed to make a note of the artist who created this beautiful dainty child's dress. It appears to be made of silk paper embellished with silk paper flowers and machine-stitching. (edited 26 March: the artist is Alex Messenger. Thank you to Amanda for supplying this information).



This is my absolute favourite piece in the whole exhibition! I love the surface and the fossil theme.



I could not work out what had been used to make the body of this wonderful fish but the fins are stitched. The fish is inspired by the fossil of a caturus fish which was similar to a modern salmon and which was found at Whittlesey. (Sorry, the photo is a bit blurred).






Look at the wonderful surface of the top of this box! You can see that Mulberry bark has been teased out and laid into the surface, to suggest seaweeds maybe. Unfortunately I was so excited that I forgot to write down this artist's name too! Doh! (edited 3 April Alex Messenger has been in touch and told me that Joy Hall made this wonderful piece and the box was made by her husband).
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**As usual, please respect the artists' copyright in respect of these images. **
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After we left the museum Ann and I spent a pleasant time browsing the market and stores of Peterborough. I was fascinated with these jars in a cafe window near the museum.








Aren't they amazing? I love the reflections the camera has caught too!



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Look! Look! Look! Can you believe what John Lewis are doing to poor innocent ducks and lambs?!!!!!!!

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I'm going to report them to the RSPCDL!!!!!! (Royal Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Ducks and Lambs. What else? lol)
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I have been remiss in not acknowledging two awards that I have been given recently. I hope the people responsible will forgive me for my tardiness in expressing my thanks. I will post about them properly when I get back as time is short this evening.
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Back from where? I hear you say! I will not be blogging for the next few days as we are off to my Mum's for Easter. It will not be a rest for us though. Mum is in the throes of having her whole house re-wired so we are going down to chaos and will be helping her sort everything out and hopefully get rid of some rubbish that has been lurking in the loft for 20 odd years! I can see fur flying as Mum is a hoarder #1 and I am a hoarder #2! I can be more ruthless than her but I will be wanting to claim anything that could be pulled into my stash. My DH will just want to throw everything away so you can imagine the scenes.......and the arguments!!! :))) Keep smiling!!!
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Have a Happy Easter everyone! Hope the Easter bunny is good to you! See you soon! :) (I keep typing Happy Eater! Must be thinking of chocolate!! lol)

11 comments:

Digitalgran said...

Thanks for sharing that exhibition at the museum with us. Great idea to base the work on museum pieces!
That box with the fossiled fish is fantastic.

Kate North said...

Love the pieces from that exhibit. Wish I could see that fossil box in person.

sharon young said...

What great pieces in the exhibition. I'm with you, the fossil box is amazing, lovely textures, thanks so much for sharing your super pics.
Good luck this W/E, you never know you might come back with a wonderful find for the stash comllection.

Mrs Moog said...

I love those exhibition pieces and I love the fossils too!

I hope your Easter break goes better than anticipated and that harmony reigns :)

xxxx

artisbliss said...

These are great pieces. Thanks for sharing the photos with us.

Have a wonderful Easter.

West Country Buddha said...

Happy Easter to you too! Your post made me laugh....those poor little ducks - I've had terrible blogging problems (spam and odd emails to do with porn!!- so have had to change the blog again. I hope all will be well from now on though. Enjoy your break and don't eat too much choccy!

Amanda said...

I haven't seen the exhibition but I've heard all about it. My friend Alex Messenger is the artist who made the beautiful dress.

DILLY said...

Aww poor duks an lams!!!

Dilly like pikcher ov FISH best!

Happy Easter!!

¬"

Margaret S said...

Hi Julie, I have just been nominated for an award by Barbara of Embroidery Overlaps as a blog that’ brings her inspiration and makes her appreciate the blogosphere’, and of course I have to do the same to 10 blogs that do it for me! You therefore meet the criteria that I would expect of such a blog. So consider yourself well and truly nominated!!!!!!!!! And only if you have the time please do the same for 10 other such inspiring sites. Although time consuming it has made me look critically at my ‘favourites’ with a different eye. XXX MargaretS

Anonymous said...

Hi Julie,

Thanks for the guided tour of the exhibition - I don't think it's coming to the NW. Loved the "Time After Time" piece.

Aussie Jo said...

The textile pieces from the exhibition are very interesting. The soft toys remind me of a toy lamb that my daughter had. It had a tag on it saying: "eat beef"