Threads

This month I am excited to be taking part in an exhibition called “Threads’ at Salisbury Art Center.

Salisbury Arts Centre’s annual open exhibition this year takes on the theme of textiles.

“The variety of ideas and forms of making within this exhibition are a sampler of current interests and lines of enquiry found within the world of contemporary textiles.” Michael Brennand-Wood, selection panel member.

Threads showcases a varied range of two and three dimensional work by established and new makers who have submitted their work for selection by a panel of professionals from the contemporary textiles sector.

Over 80 applicants submitted over 200 potential exhibits for selectors to choose from.

Selectors were founder and editor of Selvedge Magazine, Polly Leonard, and textile artist, lecturer and arts consultant Michael Brennand-Wood.

I was particularly pleased that both these two selectors , whom I greatly admire , felt my work was good enough!

The Exhibition runs til November 12th, 2016

If you haven’t been to Salisbury ,I strongly recommend it, a visit to the cathedral is a must! There is an amazing contemporary glass exhibition on at the moment which is fantastic too!

 

Silk Scarves

New for October are my silk habotai and silk /bamboo mix skinny scarves. I have chosen my most popular bee, bat and peacock designs and added a few new colourways.

The silk bamboo scarves measure 150 x 23cm , they are  satisfyingly weighty as they are double thickness so should keep out the cold at any glamourous occasion.

The silk habotai scarves are lighter and more delicate with hand-rolled edges. They measure  150 x 27cm and come in a few more colours at present.

I will be putting them on my Etsy shop shortly and they are already available in Fig here in Bristol.

Above are the silk habotai range and below are the silk / bamboo range

New Summery mirrors

I’ve just completed a new edition of Flowerburst mirrors. Each time I make them I adapt something: this time they are mainly painted although some still have sections of silk covered areas.  I’ve blended lots of the colours and then screen printed over the top with a honeycomb pattern. They have quite a tropical feel and the over printing reminds me of Party Rings those brightly coloured iced biscuits!

The bees have changed too, they are still screen printed but they now have pearlised wings -which is pretty difficult to capture on film!

I’ve made lots of smaller ones this time and only a few bigger ones as these seem more popular with galleries. I’ll be sending a batch up to Staffordshire Shire hall Craft gallery at the end of the week to buzz around there for a while.

See the full edition on my Mirrors page

Peacock Parade

Recently, a new customer, having seen my products in Devon Guild of Craftsmen,  did a google search for  Katie Wallis lampshades and found one just like the ones above.  I’d designed and printed only one about two years ago.  I remember I didn’t like the material and I never got around to reprinting – until now – So thank you Charlotte !

Here is my Peacock, Art Nouveau inspired design now available in all the five usual sizes (45cm diameter isn’t featured in this photo but can be made to order) As requested by Charlotte, these ones have been made with a gold PVC interior which seems to compliment the external colours and glow beautifully when turned on.

20cm diameter Peacock Parade lampshade

Gone batty!

Finally, these are my new Bat inspired designs.

A new edition of 7  laser cut mirrors and two new digital fabric designs for lampshades with two colour way options for each. Please take a look at my Mirrors section and Lampshade section for more images and info.

I’ve moved on to different pollinators.

Echolocation, the method by which bats find their food in the dark was the starting point for my designs. I attempted to visualise this process. I also reference cactuses- several species of these flowers hold the nectar that some of the smaller species of bats love and in turn pollenate in hotter lands.

There is a distinct triangular theme which I felt reflected the idea of sound waves and spikey cactuses but also the shape of bat wings.  The three petalled flowers were the outcome of digitally manipulating the triangles in Illustrator.

 

 

My home

Last Sunday the Observer magazine ran a feature of my house in their homes section . The photos were taken back in July by my friend James Balston  who I went to Brighton Polytechnic with-as it was then called back in 1990!-and Charlotte Packer his assisting stylist and writer.   I was thrilled with the photos when James sent them back to me,the house has never looked so good!   But because of lack of room they weren’t able to put them all in so I wanted to share some of my favourites .  My house has been a constant work in progress since we moved here 13 years ago.  The walls have changed colour several times everywhere and have provided the blank canvas for me to develop ideas for my stencilled murals and soft furnishing fabrics  .

I have I really enjoyed opening up my house every year for the weekend of  North Bristol Arts trail with my husband Simon Tozer .  We turn the ground floor into a gallery of our work along with other local artists and we often get lots of great comments about the decor. Both of our work seems to sit well on the walls as we share a similar colour pallet.  However this is the first time I’ve shown the public the rest of my house.

The year of the Bat !

I wrapped up 2015 making  a couple of hanging quilts the one above which I called History repeating itself is a combination of digital, screen printed and hand dyed pieces . All the portraits are bee related -some more obvious than others including the likes of Muhammad Ali, Napoleon, Cleopatra and Karl Von Frisch- who discovered the bee waggle. I think it’s got a rather ecclesiastical  feel to it and infact the screen printed flower motifs around the edge were inspired by encaustic tiles from the floor of St Davids cathedral.

I’m itching to get back into my studio and get on with some drawing of new designs for my new bat range of fabrics- yes you heard right !

I’m moving on to other pollenators ! I attended a fantastic lecture about echolocation last year and I’ve already come up with my first designs ( below) but I have a few more ideas which I need to get on with now- so watch this space!

I’m excited to have been made a member of Design Factory and look forward to all the opportunities that it brings in the coming year.There’s a few more events secured for the coming year but I’ll talk about them soon.

Shaun on the Cob Merchandise

As Christmas is coming I just thought I’d draw your attention to the possibility of perhaps purchasing a piece  of Shaun on the Cob merchandise. I’ve included my original competition submissions here, the legs were originally going to be celery ! I designed a Bristol Post banner too but never actually saw it published, I’m still not sure if it ever was- I  missed it !

Now the trail is over you can still carry on supporting the amazing Grand Appeal Charity , where money raised  goes to the Bristol Children’s Hospital by buying a Shaun on the Cob figurine or a Shaun on the Cob mug just click on the words and you will be taken to the exact page on the Wallace and Gromit Charity shop website.

Colour crazy pin cushions

Also new for October are these Pin cushion caddies

Another challenge to make my designs fit an existing pattern or shape

There are eight different colour combinations.

They are incredibly useful – I made myself one back in May and took it to a craft fair. I got so much interest I thought I’d make a few more. .

The idea came from a blogsite called Sewing By Moonlight where they used found fabric.  Mine are digitally printed on organic cotton twill and stuffed with polyester wadding , the internal sides are stiffened with card.

They look quite different from each angle .

I have posted all eight designs in my PRODUCTS section so please skip over there to see them all.