Japan – Textile + Craft Festival

It’s great to be part of the Japanese Textile + Craft Festival again, this year in it’s new home at the Gallery Space, Deptford Market Yard. It is also wonderful that this year the Festival is part of London Craft Week. The festival focuses on the ‘approach to process’ in traditional and contemporary Japanese crafts,…

PRISM Members Day and Private View

PRISM were kind enough to ask me back again this year to document their Member’s Day and Private View for members of the group who couldn’t attend. This year was a huge amount of fun for the members which hopefully comes across in the pictures. The Private View in the evening was also a huge…

PRISM Shibori Workshops

On Tuesday we delivered two free Shibori workshops at the PRISM exhibition Edgelands at the Art Pavilion. Both were a great success with participants travelling from as far a field as Wales to attend and see the show. We had return visitors who attended Ross’ contact printing workshops last year and a lady who we…

PRISM Edgelands

PRISM Edgelands, the exhibition at the Art Pavilion, Mile End, which runs until Monday evening has once again been a triumph. It is wonderful to see such a great range of artist who are pushing the envelope of the definition of what a ‘textile artist’ is. No longer are there just weavers and embroiderers, though…

Red, Blue and Yellow – the Florence Trust Artist in Residence Workshops

Well, as they say, that was the week that was! We have the delivered our first series of Taster Workshops as Florence Trust Artists in Residence at our new home in Holy Trinity Church, Cloudesley Square, Islington. We are so lucky to have such a great space so close to home and we’d like to…

Venice – Museo Fortuny & Joan Fontcuberta

Born in Granada in 1871, Mariano Fortuny was the son of an artist and quickly found a place within the art and social world of Paris, the city in which he completed his studies as a painter. A renaissance man, his interest shifted from painting to stage set design (with works such as those for…

Beguiling Beni – Safflower Red in Japanese Fashion

One of the great things about working in the V&A is that you get to experience the smaller displays that the experts at the museum curate again and again, allowing you to truly appreciate the subject they are exploring. One of these, in the Japanese Galleries, is ‘Beguiling Beni – Safflower Red in Japanese Fashion’….

Double Weave: Bourne and Allen’s Modernist Textiles

Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft are marking the ten year anniversary of their major redevelopment with an exhibition about the museum’s co-founder Hilary Bourne (1909–2004) and Barbara Allen (1903–1972), her partner in life and work. Hilary and Barbara lived, travelled, designed, made, studied and sold textiles as a couple from 1936 until Barbara’s tragic…

Colours from Nature – A Natural Dyeing Celebration

Last weekend we caught the 4 day pop-up show that celebrated the work of recent and former graduates of Jenny Dean’s popular 6-month natural dyeing course. Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft’s collection is rich with natural dyeing and textile craft. The likes of Ethel Mairet, Valentine Kilbride, Hilary Bourne and Barbara Allen all helped…

Natural Dyeing: A Heritage of Colour at the V&A

It’s been an incredibly busy few weeks for us, but as we sit this weekend, a little dazed and exhausted, I can safely say our course ‘Natural Dyeing: A Heritage of Colour‘ at the V&A Academy couldn’t have gone better! There was a huge amount of preparation involved in getting ready to teach a comprehensive…

Gabrielle Chanel – Fashion Manifesto

The enduring influence of Gabrielle Chanel distinguishes her as one of the dominating figures of 20th-century western fashion. In a career spanning 60 years, she became renowned as Coco Chanel, a complex, at times controversial figure, who transformed women’s wardrobes with her innovative ideas and pioneering approach to fabric and construction. Chanel, who liked to…

Dolls and Idols – a way of existence

Today is the last chance to see John Lee Bird‘s major solo exhibition, bringing his new DOLLS project alongside work spanning his 25 year career including large scale paintings, print, drawing and film. With influences stemming from film, cult TV, performance, drag and music, the exhibition will be a celebration of culture, London, and the…