WOYWW a different take

Not desk from me this week as I have been away, but hopefully Julia won't mind that I have linked up to my latest post about the Grayson Perry exhibition as it covers weaving, appliqué and many other mediums.

Whilst we were in London recently we went to the Serpentine Gallery for the free Grayson Perry exhibition titled "The most Popular Art Exhibition Ever".

There was a collection ceramics, digital tapestry, mixed media and much more.

As I live in Bristol I particularly like this little "Banksy" rat hidden at the base of one of his large ceramic pots.

The exhibition was very political and fitting considering everything that is going on at the moment in our politics in the UK and USA.

 

 His ceramic pots are quite large and have so much imagery on them that we were all slowly walking round them so we could see each and every piece.

His digital tapestry's were very cutting edge and each had a statement

from the decline of the working class

 to a modern take on the battle of Britain.

 Some pieces (this was called "Our Mother") stopped you in your tracks as you took in everything and stood in silence as you considered the message

Other pieces took a while to read through each of the statement.  My favourite was this red tapestry mapping out everything that is wrong with the modern cities and the segregation of society and class between the 'have' and 'have not'.

He also had some appliqué pieces

As well as his bicycle (and motorbike, not pictured as I had seen it at a previous exhibition)

 

 as well as several assemblage pieces 

and even a skateboard deck!

A great exhibition and a nice companion piece to the Chris Ofili hand woven tapestry exhibition we also visited during our stay (on my previous blog post).

Kyla

 

Chris Ofili Tapestry

I was lucky enough to have a few days off work and head down to London for a few days of immersing ourselves in art of various types.  

This post is about the Chris Ofili exhibition at the National Gallery.

From his watercolours he stepped out of his comfort zone and designed a tapestry triptych called "The Caged Birds Song" which echos the writer and black activist Maya Angelou's powerful autobiographical work, "I know why the caged bird sings".

 His watercolours and sketchbooks were on display

and whilst the final watercolour is impressive

It really does not prepare you for the final room where the entire walls are decorated in his paintings and in front of you the HUGE tapestry.

The weavers of Dovecot Tapestry Studio in Scotland took over 2.5 years to hand weave the three pieces.

Their rendition of the watercolours and the way the pigment moves is magically brought to life in wool.  They get the flow of colour by blending wools to create the colours.

 

 

The scale and trying to get my head round that this is wool and NOT paint was mind blowing

 

It was a fantastic exhibition, free and not like anything I have seen before, if you get the opportunity to see it I recommend it.

Kyla

 

A new baby blanket

 Something a little different today. 

 5 years ago my brother was living in Ecuador and skyped me to say he had met the love of his life!  He was living up a volcano working for a charity that ran schools for local children where he met Zoe.  I was expecting a local girl....but she also lived in London, only a few miles from my brother!!  Such a small world.

They are now married and back in London and have just had a baby girl, Emily Sisa Rose.

Now, my crafting is not really child friendly (I will have to wait until she is older so she can get messy with her Auntie Kyla) but my mum is a talented knitter and I wanted to share what she made them.

This is a knitted blanket.  The hearts are embossed and debossed on each and every square

 The colour is not a very good rendition as it is not this blue it is more a pale green/blue

I wish I could knit like this, but every time I knit my tension squares differ and there are more holes than a string vest.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

 

Bristo Wool Festival Street Art bonanza

 This weekend I went to Bristol Wool Fair at Washpool Farm in Easter Compton.

What I hadn't realised was that it had previously held a VW festival so there was some great street art, a double bonus.

 The detail of this one is amazing, it looks like lace has been used as a stencil.

 Great to see Dave the Agent here (the one on the right is minion Bane and I was lucky enough to get a Free Art Friday version of this, full details can be found here)

 Love Family Guy

 and American Dad

 Just to prove it was a wool festival here are some alpaca's!

 and a couple of displays

and finally my Mum knitting on GIANT needles!!

A great day out and a really good venue.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

What will the Neighbours say?

 This is a bit of a catch up post.  The other weekend hubby was away gigging (he is in a punk band) and it was sunny so I decided to take my crafting outside!

I sat in the garden and decided to play with dying wool with food colouring (my cousin's wife Kristina did it recently with their young son, so I decided I should at least try it!) and then grabbed some acrylic inks and shaving foam (cheapo 28p stuff!) and lined a baking tray with cling film before filling it with shaving foam and sploshing inks about.

Soon I was in a right old mess, hands, clothes, garden....foam, ink, wet wool, food colouring, paper and the odd gust of wind!  I am sure you can picture the scene.

 I do wonder if the neighbours think I am odd as this was the washing line!

 The wool (plain and £1 a ball from the charity shop) was soaked in a white vinegar solution and I microwaved it to set the colour, when I washed it this was the end result. The blue was not very strong (Kristina recommended a couple of different brands so I will try those next, thanks for the tips) but the red and yellows are lovely.

My foam marbled backgrounds worked out really well, I got about 8 pieces transferred before the ink became a little muddy.

 

Now, I thought I would try the food colouring on a piece of silk screen printed cotton I made previously.  I sprinkled the vinegar soaked fabric with dye and sprinkled some coarse sea salt over to see if this reacted with the dye and microwaved it also.

Note to self....DO NOT do this!  It burns the fabric.  The brown is all scorched.  Where the salt was it ate through the fabric (hence the holes) and the house STANK of salt and vinegar!!  Now, this is a mess but I am wondering that there may be a use for the salt burnt holes in fabric maybe in the future if I am doing some fabric rusting or a wall hanging?  As they say, every day is a school day!  So long as I learn something from an experiment I don't mind.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Keeping me warm

Hello everyone.  This is a bit of a test for me, you see my lovely hubby bought me a Tesco Hudl2 tablet for Christmas.  After hearing about Julia and others who have issues with iPads not allowing access and my trusty over 5yr old net book almost grinding to a hault he decided my wails most Wednesdays were getting too much! The reviews seemed like it would do most things I needed it to and the price perfect.

So, I am trying a photo and a blog update to see how it goes.  My laptop is my main access but I thought I would try this.

The photo is part of my Christmas present from my mum (thanks mum!). She knitted the chunky neck roll and fingerless gloves both of which I wore earlier today.

So there you go.  A quick update now back to Radio 4 and Christmas chocolates!

Happy crafting

Klya