29 August 2007
Cas Holmes
29 September - 25 November 2007 ~ Rochester Art Gallery and Craft Case and Rochester Cathedral
Amber Walls
Cas Holmes' narrative works combine recycled materials with digital photographic techniques and methods adapted from Japanese textiles, textile art and papermaking. Her work is informed by personal experience, places visited, stories of her Romany grandmother and old forgotten textiles.
Exotic images, colours and landscape alien to the English experience surrounded Cas during her recent research trip to India, which was supported by Arts Council England. The new works in this exhibition examine cultural links between the Northern Indian art and decoration and her Romany heritage within a broader cultural context.
She has combined the found materials gathered in India with donated waste silks and fabric from the UK, and reassembled them into large wall hangings and more intimate textile canvases. Richly coloured stitched images reflecting patterns and forms from textiles, buildings, posters and street life form part of the main exhibition, and an installation in the Rochester Cathedral Crypt provides a small, enclosed space for contemplation and reflection.
Rochester Art Gallery and Craft Case
Medway Visitor Information Centre, 1st Floor
95 High Street, Rochester, Kent.
Phone: 01634 843666
Open Mon - Sat 10am - 5pm, Sun 10.30am - 5pm
Admission free
www.medway.gov.uk/arts
www.casholmes.textilearts.net
28 August 2007
The build up to the UK's National Knitting Week 2007 has begun!
The dates for this exciting event in the knitting calendar are 13 - 21 October 2007, kicking off with the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, London.
National Knitting Week is a chance to celebrate the world of knit and purl and yarn crafts in general. Why not teach a friend to knit or stage a charity knit-in?
Embrace the world of needles and wool! Spread the word - the countdown is on!
You can find lots more info on the National Knitting Week web site, courtesy of Knitting Institute in assocation with Knitting magazine.
25 August 2007
Sharon Boggon's popular blog, In A Minute Ago, has moved to a new home here, and Sharon's other blogs Mindtracks and Wisdom of the Ages have also moved (these links are to the new addresses). Sharon tells the story of the move in her first post at the new address. If you haven't visited In A Minute Ago before, it's a mine of inspiration and information you really shouldn't miss. Just one example is the Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge, which suggests ways to experiment with a different stitch each week throughout 2007; and there's much more - Sharon always manages to have her finger on the pulse of what's happening around the textile art community, and she updates her blog every day to share the latest news, a great site she's found, a snippet of information or a link to an interesting article. Sharon shares her thoughts and questions freely so there are some very interesting discussions in the comments, and on her new blog it's very easy to join in.
Sharon's Dictionary of Stitches for Hand Embroidery and Needlework is another excellent resource for embroiderers, and was one of the earliest textile resources on the web at a time when many people were hardly aware that the internet existed, let alone finding creative ways to use it.
