Fibrefusion, Contemporary Textile Art Group at Rufford Craft Center

Fibrefusions very exciting textile art exhibition at the beautiful gallery at Rufford Craft Center will be on display until the 21st September 2014. Our exhibition opened about three weeks ago and has been very well received by +2000 happy visitors. 

For more information about the exhibition and how to get there please go to 
Fibrefusion' website and Rufford Craft Center  
We look forward to see you there!

NEW BOOK! by Fibrefusion - Contemporary Textile Art Group

Seed heads from Belstead gardens

This is so exciting! The textile group Fibrefusion that I belong to, has just had its 5th book published! The book ‘Muslin, a Stitched Exploration of Loose Weave Fabrics’ is an inspirational workbook using the lovely fabric Muslin throughout the book. The book can be seen and purchased from Fibrefusions website. On the website you'll as well find our 4 previously published books.
In celebration of our new book, Fibrefusion will be exhibiting from the 10th September to the 15th October at Art Van Go There amongst others, you’ll be able to see the samples and finished work shown in the book.


Belstead weekend: Muslin samples galore

Muslin, calico, scrim is such a fantastic, but also quite often an overlooked medium, which is why we chose it as the subject for our book. This past year we have had total fun working, exploring and stretching the boundaries for what can be done with Muslin and scrim. The result was an amazing amount of colourful, stunning samples many of which can be seen in our book. A big THANK YOU goes to Pauline Verrinder Fibrefusions mentor, who has done a huge, wonderful job in writing the text, keeping us honest and pulling it all together.


Belstead weekend: Fibrefusion girls at work.

In August the 16 group members met for a working weekend at Belstead house (link). We partly worked on the tying the last bits up for the book and exhibition at Art Van Go and partly on a new body of design work for upcoming exhibitions. We had a superb time and the weather was beautiful.

Belstead: Beautiful wall design

Out Hiking

A couple of days ago my husband and I went for a lovely 7 mile hike in the gently rolling hills south of where we live. Some years ago we came across this book with local pub walks. The idea is brillant. You drive to a pub often set in a small remote village, park the car, change into hiking boots and off you go following the trail set in the book. The hikes are circular so you will always end up by the pub and the car again. Sometimes we have a drink or a meal at the pub afterwards, sometimes we just head home. The one we did the other day is one of our favorites. Since we have done it before, we knew the trail, where to cross the fields, at what huge old oak break left etc. It was a beautiful weather and I ended up at times, doing a bit of stop and go, as there were so many great photo opertunities. My favorite photo is the one that I'm including in this post. I absolutely just love the contrast of the fresh lush violets pushing up next to the old dusty ivy leaves. The contrasts are so beautiful, so symbolic. I find walking/hiking very meditative and a fantastic way to clear my brain and just absorb my surrounding. Sometimes if I've come to a grinding hold with a project, a good long walk can inspire me to get going again.

Cambridge

I went to near by Cambridge, England the other day. Needed to pick up a few things, but wanted as well to take some photos of this fantastic historic city. Every where you look you can find design inspiration. By the way, the colleges of Cambridge are celebrating their 800 year anniversary this year. In front of one of the colleges, I think it was Corpus Christi, there was this wonderful pile up of bicycles. Some looked as if they had just been parked, others as if they had been abandoned. There are bicycles everywhere in Cambridge as it is a great way of getting around. But this heap of bicycles looked just wonderful in the sun. Muted, mat and bright colours intermingled. Beautiful lines and curves. I felt a quilt coming on! I did feel a bit out of place as a group of tourists were taking pictures of the beautiful ornate entrance to the college and there I was taking pictures of a heap of bicycles. Ah well, I'm sure we all were very pleased with our shots.

Design Inspiration

Ely Cathedral North of Cambrigde (GB)is a fantastic place to visit. This morning three friends of mine picked me up and we all went on a daytrip to Ely Cathedral. We belong to the same textile group, and we were looking for inspiration for a new body of design work. I had visited the Cathedral some years ago, so knew that I was in for a treat. The Cathedral was founded as a monestery in year 673. In year 870 it was destroyed by the Danes (sorry :-). Work on the present Cathedral began in the year 1047. So we are talking seriously old! After a lovely chat over a cup of tea, we all went our own ways. With in an hour I had taken 125 photoes. I love digital photos! Everywhere I turned there was another must have detail to take a photo of. There were wonderfull inscription in Latin carved in marbel, worn medival tiles, suprisingly spots colorful details, brass plaques on the walls with the sun reflecting the stain glass windows..... my head is buzzing with ideas how to translate what I've seen to day. How to capture the atmosphere. It is so exciting! I have had a quick look my photoes and will upload them on Flickr in the coming days.