A lovely day of textile art, catching up with friends and buying things I really needed (not!😂)

An annual trip to Harrogate for the  Knitting and Stitching Show is one of my favourite things and I was really looking forward to this one, not least as the Textile Gallery was hosting shows by Alice Fox, Debbie Lyddon and Dionne Swift. 

The journey down showed winter is really on its way from frosty Newcastle via foggy York.

And in Harrogate even the statues were wearing hats and scarves!

Inside the show was glowing with colour, a real tonic. I was so excited to see new textile artwork and I wasn’t disappointed. Interlace textiles combination of colourful fabric and grey concrete immediately caught my eye, and I caught their’s – my orange and lime colour combo matched their Spectrum piece 😄

The lovely Alice Fox is spearheading a rusty revolution, her influence is spreading as her reputation grows. Found objects,beautifully altered and adapted, were displayed like museum treasures in her show. A sense of calm exuded from the work – seasoned with a pinch of ‘How did she do that?!’ So impressed that I had to get the book! 

Dionne Swift’s exhibition ‘Expressive Stitches’ was powerful, capturing the rawness and space of moorland. I love the way the stitched work echoes the drawn lines. Looking at this makes me desperate to get out with my sketchbook..( note to self- do it!!)

And then there was Debbie Lyddon. I’ve been following Debbie’s blog and enjoying the way she writes as much as the art she creates but to see the work firsthand was fabulous. So much so that, yes…

That’s my red dot! This is so redolent of the East Anglian coast near where I grew up. I feel like I can hear the clanking of masts and smell the salt marshes as I look at it . 

A little something I learned about recently at a workshop run by the lovely Shelley Rhodes …

Cola pens are great mark makers, holding ink for longer than sticks and allowing thick and thin marks from the same ‘pen’

Take a drinks can and disassemble

Cut into rectangular sections and fold each in half.

Mark on the shape of the pen – vary the shape to see how it affects mark making. 

Cut out the shapes and tape each ‘nib’ to a drink stirrer/ lolly stick 

Dip the pen into ink or dye and get mark making! 

Enjoy! 

First Friday is Station Steamer day at Central Station in Newcastle. It’s always a good day but a crazy rush to get there.

The general business of the Station means we can only set up from 9 and trade from 10, and as I’m not usually there til 9.30 after doing the school run, well let’s say I’ve earned my elevenses! 

The market is right by the Station clock so we’re good and central, around 20 stalls of gorgeous North East art, craft and design.

So many people come through the Station meaning trade is usually brisk, this time people were loving my new work, especially High Strung Hills and Gallamaufrey- so much so that Gallamaufrey sold before lunchtime! 

So that’s me off to do more sketches and prep new work then! I’m really pleased by the response to the new work, people like the colour I’m developing with my hand dyed fabrics- and the birds seem to go down well too! 

I’m developing new pieces all the time now, in preparation for a couple of big events next year- more details later on this! My poor sewing machines are constantly whirring away- I’ll have to treat them to a service soon! 

I did do a little early Christmas shopping too whilst I was at the Steamer – thanks to the lovely Cath Hodson – one of her new laser cut birds is now hanging in my ‘Aviary’ porch and Jina Gelder’s animal artworks are so vivacious I couldn’t resist! 

So there it is, all laid out and tagged ready to go up on the boards in Ripon Cathedral. The team for the Great North Art Show were so efficient we were all done by 11.30 and let loose to wander the lovely streets of Ripon.

I don’t know if lovely Wendy really recognised me by  my voice, or if she’s just very good at reading upside down(!) but my paperwork was swiftly found, work was allocated a row of seats to wait on and a very kind man tagged each piece with its coordinating number.

Waiting in serried rows

Putting up the boards

As these images show, its quite a mammoth task to organise from tagging and laying out all the artists’ work to covering the cathedral walls with display boards. However I think that years of experience have made it a smooth process. I was happy to leave the work and go explore Ripon – especially as Wendy also gave great tips on where to eat and how to find the bookshop (guess who was with me for the trip!)

Ripon is so pretty, and has the right balance of charity shops and bookshops to keep us amused 🙂 We had lunch at Lockwoods as recommended by Wendy. Fab food set us up for a browse around town…good labels in those charity shops 🙂

Took a detour through Leyburn on the way back, another gorgeous little town.  So we had to have afternoon tea!

Bicycle sculptures from the Tour de Yorkshire, and look at that view!

We found this down a side alley too! (Some sort of water pump?)

And finally the staff in a lovely shop (Milners – I think) let me photograph this – a starting point for a new hospital arts project!!

Colourful cardboard fish mounted on driftwood…

So now I’m really looking forward to heading back down on Friday for the Preview night. Although after circus camping (its a long story) I may need an extra glass of something celebratory to keep me going! So here’s to Ripon and the Great North Art Show, I’ll raise my teacup and keep fingers crossed for sales!