Greenwoods Hotel Craft Fair and Kaffe Fassett exhibition

Well in spite of my good intentions of posting weekly, this is my first posting for a couple of weeks.  Part of the reason for this was that I took part in a craft fair organised by "We are Handmade" at Greenwoods Hotel in Stock, a lovely little village in rural Essex.  The surroundings were lovely with a pond and gardens at the front of the hotel, and a steady stream of visitors.   My new clothes rail had its first outing,  it is a spiral one, which can be rotated and shows off the garments to better advantage I think.

Quite a few people tried on garments but didn't commit on the day, possibly because if you come out for Sunday lunch you don't always expect to buy a jacket / cardigan / poncho etc, so if you were one of these people please don't hesitate to get in contact via my website www.julietbryson.co.uk  I don't have  many photos of my recent work on there (another thing to be done) but if you describe it I can work out  which piece you are interested in.  I am back at the hotel on the Sunday 5th October for another fair.  (It will probably be warmer then than it has been recently - I'm back to wearing two jumpers today!)

Another diversion has been to visit the Kaffe Fassett exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London.  I have been a major fan of Kaffe's work since seeing his V&A exhibition in the late 1980s, and was probably the first ever textile designer I was aware of.  I love his use of colour, and remember listening to him on Desert Island Discs (note to self  must relisten to this now that BBC Radio 4 has all the interviews on their archive)

Anyway myself and a friend H spent a lovely couple of hours going round the exhibition which included his knitting, quilts, needlepoint, mosiacs, paintings.  

This one is called "Autumn Leaves" and looks three dimensional with overlapping leaves, but is flat 2D knitting.  We were allowed to take photos provided that we didn't use a flash, and there was a dearth of postcards to buy in the shop.   

This is "Spanish Fans", a very clever interlocking pattern, with a awful lot of colour changes and detailing.  There was also a video playing, including his visit to Vietnam, where he spied a woman in the market knitting, so took it from her and knitted a couple of rows.  She thought it was hilarious that a Western man would be interested in her knitting,  and also the speed that he could do multiple colour knitting was incredible.  I suppose practice makes perfect.  

I used to do a lot of needlepoint work, so this array of cushions and chairs was lovely to see - at least with needlepoint you only have to worry about one colour at a time.

And this was the "Feel Wall" where we could handle the samples and swatches, and check the back of the knitting ones!

All in all a great exhibition, busy but not crowded, and with a great tea shop / cafe next door.  Resisted the temptations in the shop, as already have countless Kaffe books - who knows one day I might even knit something from one!

At the Fashion and Textiles Museum until the end of June 2013, see www.ftmlondon.org

Crab Needlepoint Cushion by Kaffe Fassett 

Diversity of Stitch - A Textiles Exhibition in Maldon

DIVERSITY OF STITCH - an exhibition by the Chelmsford '93 Group until May 20th, at the Maeldune Heritage Centre, Market Hill, Maldon, Essex, CM9 4PZ.

A free Saturday provided a perfect opportunity for a trip out to the small coastal town of Maldon to visit this exhibition by the Chelmsford '93 Group, which was formed after members completed their City & Guilds in Embroidery in 1993, and also has invited others to join in the years since.  As the exhibition title would suggest there was a wide range of styles and pieces, which made up a very interesting and creative exhibition.  There were individual series of work, plus pieces that had been group projects during their monthly meetings.  Especially intriguing was the small square landscapes in darning / weaving stitch, which were evocative of place, even though they were on a very small scale.  Also interesting were the canvases where the design idea was a magazine page torn up and then reassembled,  turned over and then the results interpreted in stitch.

It was nice to see some red sold stickers already, plus a steady stream of visitors coming in to view.  There were also handmade cards and small items for sale, and I couldn't resist this little owl made by Jo Rawlings, which is now gracing my purple rucksack.

Then some retail therapy along the high street, and a lovely lunch sitting outside - what could more ask for on a Bank Holiday weekend!

The exhibition is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10am to 4pm. Check out the Centre's facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Maeldune-Heritage-Centre

New Blog

Welcome to my new blog.  Although I have been blogging sporadically on my website, www.julietbryson.co.uk,  I've decided to create this new blog, which should be easier to follow, and hopefully will encourage me to post more often.

I create unique knitted clothing and accessories, and sell at local craft fairs, and am also building up my on-line shop.  My knitted brooches are available at Cathy's Coffee, in Leigh Road, Leigh-on-Sea.

I intend to keep more up to date with the items  I have been creating, plus more about my creative process, and also exhibitions and workshops visited and taken.

So I'm off to create a new facebook page as well, so you can follow me on there as well.