Natural Dyeing Course with Jenny Dean

Applications are now open for the 2022 Natural Dyeing Course at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, with renowned expert Jenny Dean, supported by our very own Ross Belton. This is the fourth time this incredibly popular course has run, and this year it will consist of 6 ‘in person’ Sundays at the Museum and…

Natural Dyeing at the Florence Trust – Discover the Beauty of Nature’s Palette

This summer, we are running a series of outdoor workshops at the Florence Trust starting on the 13th of July. On Tuesdays we have ‘Nature’s Palette‘, a 4 week comprehensive natural dyeing course and on Wednesdays we have our regular ‘Dyeing to Stitch‘ days with dyeing in the morning and stitching in the afternoon headed…

Cyanotype Workshop with Helen Dixon

Recently I attended an excellent workshop run by the lovely Helen Dixon at Bainbridge Print Studios in Lambeth. The process is simple but fascinating and capable of producing endlessly variable results. Cyanotype is a type of photogram process, one of the earliest forms of photography involving creating photographic prints by laying objects onto treated paper and…

Tim Johnson – Lines and Fragments

The Craft Study Centre at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham is a hidden gem. Holding a renowned archive collection that includes calligraphy, ceramics, furniture, wood and textiles by influential figures such as Bernard Leach, Ethel Mairet, Phyllis Barron and Edward Johnston, the CSC is used by artists and makers the world over. In…

Food: Bigger than the Plate

Do you want to save the world? Is the smorgasbord of extinction level events (both natural and man-made) that 21st century seems to be providing us with getting you down? Along with the usual threats of volcanic eruptions, coronal mass ejections, meteor impacts we now have biological annihilation, overpopulation, over-consumption, and of course climate change. Our…

Mary Quant

It’s rare in fashion for a designer to be so associated with a certain garment or period of time, but in popular culture Many Quant is inextricably linked to both the miniskirt and the Sixties. Along with Carnaby Street, The Beatles and Vidal Sassoon, Quant’s name brings to mind the moment when London became the…

V&A Diary 101-120

These are a bit late and it’s only now that I am sitting on holiday that I have had time to get this post together. Here are another 20 images in my V&A Diary project, looking at the astounding breadth of content in the V&A collection. One of the wonderful things about spending so much…

Artefact at the Packington Gallery

It’s been wonderful week for us here at moderneccentrics. The private view was a great success with many people dropping by over the two hours, both locals and friends from farther afield and wonderful pastries being supplied by Pophams. As always, we were a touch anxious at the beginning of the evening as there is…

V&A Diary 81-100

When I start a project like this, there is always a nagging doubt regarding whether I will be able to keep it up, so I am thrilled that I’ve reached a century of images. This set of twenty encompasses 18th century silver and Japanese gods through to repurposed Dutch tourist pottery and wooden forks in…

V&A Diary 21-40

I can’t believe that I’ve got another 20 images to post, but here they are. They cover objects from the 6th century through to the 21st and feature objects from across the globe. The more time I spend at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the more I am amazed at the size and range of…

V&A Diary 1-20

Now that I am based at the Victoria and Albert Museum, I have started a new photographic project. I realised that though I have been a member of the museum for many years, I only ever used to go and see the temporary exhibitions and know little of the collection itself. I have set myself the…

Nature’s Palette Winter Course

I can’t believe that we haven’t had a chance to blog anything in September. We’ve been busy delivering our Botanical Inks & Homemade Brushes and Mark Making Artbook workshops at CassArt in Islington and started delivering our first natural dyeing course ‘Nature’s Palette’ at Stepney City Farm. There wasn’t a day in the month when…