Ropewalk studio artist, Wendy Chan, will be leading one of her popular workshops, Hand Felted Jewellery Workshop, later this month at The Ropewalk in Barton upon Humber.
Textile artist Wendy has a self-confessed passion for processes and techniques and on Saturday, March 24, she will be exploring the techniques for various components of jewellery felt making such as flats, beads, sushi beads and cords.
“Once you know the technique you can create a variety of wearable floral corsage and bracelets. “But I am sure there will be many more ideas on the day,” said Wendy. “My practice is about making an idea, a thought, a word, an image come together with the making process and then stitching these ideas into stories and projects, transforming it into a reality.”
Since graduating from Central Saint Martins College of Art, Wendy has been a freelance artist and workshop leader for both adults and children and has shared her expertise at many Ropewalk workshops.
Inspired by natural forms and colours and the use of natural fibres, Wendy describes felt making as “an ancient textile skill that uses natural, renewable resources for limitless creation.”
The following Saturday, March 31, the textile theme continues with another Ropewalk studio artist, Elaine Burke, sharing her love of textile-based craft pieces with a workshop which is suitable for both beginners and those with some experience of paper and textile crafts.
The fragile, beautiful cherry blossom – sakura – is richly symbolic in Japan and in this workshop students will create beautiful cherry-blossom inspired crafts from both paper and textiles.
The workshop starts with a brief slideshow showing the cherry blossom symbol in contemporary and traditional design in Japan which will help inspire the creations for the day using origami techniques to make paper cherry blossoms with several options to develop these into decorative pieces for the home, card-making and so on as well as creating a pretty cherry blossom brooch in textiles.
Both workshops run from 10.30am until 4.30pm and cost £34 or £30 forRopewalk members. For Wendy’s workshop there will be an additional charge of between £5 and £10 for materials and for Elaine’s there will be an additional charge of £10.
More details can be found on these, and other workshops, on www.the-ropewalk.co.uk/workshops and bookings can be made by either calling 01652 660380 or calling in at The Ropewalk’s Craft Gallery.
The annual Ropewalk Studio Artists Exhibition features work from
David Alcock
Sally Beaumont
Emily Connor
Deborah Grice
Gill Hobson
Richard Hatfield
Judith Land
Tim Needham
Michael Scrimshaw
Reginald Swinney
Shirley Trumble
Keith Woodcock
85 Fathoms
Michelle recalls a frightfully fascinating childhood memory of a former sideshow attraction in Whitby. Her recollection of witnessing a pickled dicephalic baby and the staked bones of Dracula began the blurring of the boundaries between reality and fantasy.
‘Fairground Fables’ was conjured to question the satirical and moral ambiguity of fringe entertainment presented behind the curtains of Vaudeville theatres and Victorian Side Shows. Michelle draws from idioms and fables that play with tales of tragedy and fortune as well as the traces of life that befall the discarded or well loved, by enlivening everyday objects with an air of uncertainty. She assembles things left behind on dusty shelves, creating magnetic forms that encourage the viewer to take an encounter with the apprehension of things. ‘Fairground Fables’ is bent with a nostalgic and melodramatic allure that bestows something provocative and enchanting.
On November 24 Michelle will be running a workshop teaching participants how to make their own Fairground Fable. Bookings can be made in the Craft Gallery.
Richard Hatfield & Tim Needhams’ interest in painting stretches back through careers that began just one year apart. Working independently, both find common ground in their references to landscape, yet it is their divergent approaches which spark the dialogue in this show.
I paint out of doors and in the studio. Landscape embodies form, colour and light. Painting can reflect these primal elements and leave us with an object akin to poetry. I play with the picture plane and use paint on various surfaces, abstracted to convey feelings and form with a sense of the drama of the place.
Tim Needham
The subjects are the amalgamation of the remembered, the fleetingly observed and the repeated, emblematic motifs left, like an afterimage imprinted on the retina. I look for a sense of the unfamiliar in the ordinary – a gentle disquiet. Some pieces recall a particular moment or episode, often dramatic and transient such as the effects of light or weather, frequently in the extreme. It is at these times that nature can reassert itself into our consciousness and provide us with a taste of something that is awesome in the true sense of the word. Other paintings are less dramatic and conjure up emotions and associations of particular memories and universal fears from early childhood.
Richard Hatfield
Max Marschner was born in London in 1929. His early life was interrupted by World War II and evacuation, but in 1943 he enrolled in the Junior Department of Camberwell School of Art. He stayed there until the early 1950s with breaks for National Service and matriculation. He excelled in the design department. These were the wood engraving years.
Throughout his life Max delighted in the unexpected; scenes and buildings which had a tale to tell, or that presented a mood or sharpness which suited his work.
By the beginning of the 1960s he was experimenting with linocuts, monoprints and basic etchings, often using ideas from old postcards and encyclopaedias, which he hoped would depict a sense of surprise and strangeness.
A move to Lincoln at the beginning of the 1970s brought changes. Screenprints was possible: The same ideas, but larger and more colourful prints.
In 1973 Max bought his first ‘real’ camera, a Pentax Spotmatic. This he used for the rest of his life. He enjoyed experimenting with the old ways of photography, developing and printing in his darkroom. Eventually he taught himself Photo Etching. This involved infrared film, large negatives and acids, though changing over the years to safer methods of working.
ALMANAC – the seasons they rolled in and they tumbled
Ron Wilson and Jan Stead hail from the West Riding of Yorkshire. They met whilst studying art and design and teacher training at Bretton Hall over 40 years ago, they have kept in touch – sharing a passion for Yorkshire, art and design and in particular, printmaking.
ALMANAC
An Almanac can be described in general terms as an annual calander which contains a wealth of information such as important days, times of the sun rising and setting and changes in the moon and tides. In the past the Almanac was particularly important to farmers but perhaps their relevance is somewhat diminished. Ron and Jan have each produced a visual Almanac based on the four seasons and the wheel of the year where they have attempted, in their printed pieces, to re-establish the natural connections of the rolling seasons.
Ron: My Almanac wraps localities and phenomena in folklore and myth, elements within the work are symbolic and at times esoteric. The images in the Almanac are lifted from Anglo Saxon and Medieval almanacs and bending them to a response that will resonate with contemporary audiences. I invite the viewer to create their own narrative.
Jan: My Almanac is in Astronomical Seasons where the equinox and solstices mark the beginning and end of each season. It does, therefore, span two calendar years. Spring, Summer, Autumn and the first month of Winter – December are set in 2018. The remainder of winter – January and February, are in 2019. I am concerned with the equinox, solstice and moon shapes on key dates in each month. The images are a mix of Pagan, Christian and general traditions.
Ron Wilson and Jan Stead October 2018
The Box Gallery is housing everything you need to go back to school, college, university and work. From textiles kits to lino kits, book binding kits, notebooks, handmade pens, bags and accessories, there is something to make you stand out from the crowd.
