Banksia Variation Finished

My goodness- the last 2 weeks have passed by in a blur and not without some stress either!

First an update on the Pozible books still to be delivered. We have been told by the shipping company that  French customs have  finally released the 10 boxes of books last week, but unfortunately we still did not get delivery before Easter- we have everything crossed and hope the books will arrive tomorrow and books will be sent out as quickly as possible after they arrive off course.There has been no real  explanation as to why they were held up in customs for 6 weeks, and it's been stressful trying to work out what was going on. Of course apologies to everyone still waiting but there has been little we could do until customs actually released the books.

I have been to Holland and back to teach and spent a day or two in Bruxelles so I could drop some quilts in Mons for the 20 year anniversary Exhibition of the Centre of  Embroidery. I will also be teaching there tomorrow and Wednesday and am looking forward to seeing the exhibition- the brief glimpse I had when delivering the work suggested some exciting work indeed!

I did go to the Chagall Retrospective whilst in Bruxelles- there was over 200 works by Chagall covering all periods of creation- it was well worth seeing and I particularly enjoyed the red pieces- the seemed rich and dense with imagery and pattern.

On the way to the gallery walked through the wonderful city square ( Grand Place)  with its medieval buildings and unbelievable amounts of gilt some of which you can see on the building on the far right.

On the way to the gallery  encountered an arcade of antiquarian books, but  as I definitely don't need  more books whilst travelling I had to close my eyes but oh what little treasures there were. The little folding book in the photo above was by Axel von Leskoschek and was published in 1926- I can't find much information about  him but the little book was rather lovely- just as well the shop was closed!

 And the  photo on the left was of a plaque  dedicated to one of the Mayors of Bruxelles-although it does not actually tell you why. The relief work was lovely.
















And I have finally finished my Banksia Variation piece for the Through Our Hands Exhibition which will be held at the Bilston  Craft Gallery from the 16th of May until the 25th of July. My fingers are  red  raw from all the stitching and I did wonder why I had to  work quite  so large- and entirely by hand, whilst I was on the road....it measures 53 cms by 141 cms and this is my artist' statement:

The Banksia was named after Sir Joseph Banks who collected specimens of the flora during Captain Cook’s  discovery of Australia. Myths surround the flora and indeed one children’s story features the banksia as big and bad banksia men. I have tried to recreate the  Australian landscape of high horizons and starry nights  populated by the knobby intriguing banksia pods. To me they always seem like many  mouths babbling and one can imagine stories told in the night around campfires of strange and wonderful knobbly beings inhabiting the woods, perhaps scarey but always weird and mysterious.

I worked hard at trying to achieve the weird and knobbly effect- and the textile itself is very textural which is perhaps not readily apparent from the photo.The  patterning on the right has been printed with the woodblock I had made whilst in India, and the metallic thread in the sky was some Indian bling I bought in Delhi. It is the first piece I have finished in months as all my creative life seems to have been sucked into  Musing in Textile: France the book ( which can be purchased just email me)