A talk with Bailey Curtis, "My Colourful Textile Work"

Members and visitors are welcome to come along to our next talk on Friday 6th July, which will be given by Bailey Curtis.

Bailey is a member of the International Feltmakers Association, South West Textile Group and other smaller exhibiting groups.  She has been making felt for 20 years, having been a weaver before that. Her inspiration comes from shapes, surfaces and textures found in the landscape around the country.

In 2004, Bailey exhibited a large felt hanging at the Eden Project in Cornwall along with other members of South West Textile Group.  Recent work has been based on the ‘Poet’s Path’, walks taken by the ‘Dymock Poets’, a group of writers who came to live around the nearby village of Dymock in the months just before WW1 in 1914. The countryside in the area is still very rural, beautiful and unspoilt. The handmade felt from local wool is dyed and pieced, then stitched together to make hangings on this theme.

Bailey's new work is based on Cornwall, where she has been visiting standing stones and other interesting Celtic sites. She has also produced work based on the lovely allotments in Leonard Stanley where Bailey grows her vegetables and fruits. The site is a wildlife paradise and makes for wonderful inspiration for textile work.

Admission for Members: £4, Non-Members: £5

JETS Competittion Success

Five of our JETS sent work off to the De Denne competition: “Underfoot”.

The girls started last September marbling fabric to use as a backing, which they took home to stitch into to form the background grass/mud.  Then in November they used Image Maker to add a photocopied picture of a trainer to fabric, and added holes and eyelets to add laces to their trainers.  Adding more stitching at home using French knots, straight stitches and even arrow stitch, they transformed the trainers.

  

  

They worked really hard in their own time as well as in sessions planned by us to make their pieces.  We are so proud of them all, but especially on finding out that Jess had won Third Prize for hers:

Beth used her own time to make the most magnificent pigeon sitting on a leaf, which won Second Prize:

The leaf was from another JETS session, and the pigeon was made from offcuts of material and lace sewn together to form a lovely bird.

We are really proud of her, as the pigeon was her own design and she made it as well as a trainer. 

Folded Books

Thanks to Christine Plummer's intensive mini workshop, we finished Friday evening with a really useful little fold-out book and the know-how to make lots more.  The beauty is that they can be made any size or colour, portrait or landscape, with or without pockets, .....

Starting with a large sheet of strong paper, we followed strict guidance on folding and tearing it in order to achieve a continuous 'concertina' shape.  (Inevitably, some of us didn't follow the guidance strictly enough and ended up with two separate concertinas - but that just means we will make two books, instead of one, though!)

Then we covered end boards either with some rather nice waxed paper provided by Christine or with our own special papers, and our little books were already starting to take shape.  

They just need finishing off at home with embellishments - and contents, of course.  

One idea to take away was to record a visit or holiday, by sticking in photos, maps and memorabilia, but the possibilities are endless ....