AOH at Pretty Neat Gallery

 

Well, the diagram of what Pretty Neat Gallery & Studio will look like, has now become a reality! The gallery has been open for a couple of months or so now, and kicked off with Artists Open Houses which is no mean feat. 

I first met Paula, the owner and founder, at a workshop at Made & Making where I was hosting an autumn themed workshop which didn't end up being very autumnal at all! (You can see the blog post about it here.) She was one of the participants and we got chatting and she mentioned that she was planning on opening a gallery studio in Kemptown, Brighton, selling artist's seconds or work which they didn't feel they could charge full price for but was still eminently sellable to the right people (and for a slightly more budget friendly cost). It would also have workshops on all kinds of different creative subjects, some of which Paula would teach and some she would have tutors come in for - and was I interested in being one of the tutors?

I said yes but then there were complications with the initial location, and then the second location had to be done up so things kept changing but finally it was move in day, and within a week or so of getting the gallery space ready with furniture, painted walls and signs above the door - it had filled up with artwork and was open to the public as part of the AOH trail! Amazing work on the park of Paula and her team. 

We weren't able to get to the open evening for the gallery which was a shame, but went to visit it at the weekend instead to see my work on display alongside several other local artists, all using different mediums. (The above photo has been pinched from one of the other artist's who went to the open evening.)

The set up is a real mix of table displays, wall and shelf displays, with the artists all mingling in together rather than being in a block. Which is interesting because often galleries keep work all together rather than muddle it up but it works surprisingly well in this setting. It's the first time my work has been in an actual gallery though (apart from pop up exhibitions) I think so that's amazing! 

There was apparently lots of interest in my pieces and a few little bits sold, I'd taken cards, prints and framed/hooped originals. I didn't make any major sales though until the day after the AOH exhibition ended and then I sold an original hooped Stitchscape! Woohoo!

I wonder what it is about people not seeming to want to buy textile pieces. At several events people have purchased painted art without really thinking about it, but the textiles - although it earns a lot of discussion and chat about methods and mixed media etc - is a much harder sell. I'm definitely in the wrong industry. 

I really hope that the gallery continues to do well. I know they have lots of different exhibitions planned throughout the year, and I have lots of different workshops booked with them as well, all of which you can find on my events page, or on the PNG calendar page. 

If you don't know where it is, the gallery is in Brighton Marina which has a surprising amount of other things going on there! There is free parking, for starters, and you can also go crazy golfing, eat at a variety of restaurants, go on marina tours in a boat, there are little cafes, a selection of shops....all sorts of things! So definitely make a day of it - we did, after visiting the gallery we took a hungry Fin for lunch at Nandos across the road and did a little wander around the marina. I did try and convince Reece to do a boat tour but he wasn't having it...I'll work on him!

 

Common Threads Exhibition

Well! I can officially say that I have curated a successful textile exhibition! How exciting is that? Another notch on my life skills tool belt.

I'm so pleased that it went well and was received so well by the visitors who came. Some of them drove for over an hour to get to the exhibition and there were many friends and acquaintances from groups that I've taught workshops at or given talks to so I was over the moon that they thought our little self organised space was interesting enough to come and visit.

The weekend seemed to take ages to actually arrive. Isobel Moore and I were talking about it over a year ago and making vague plans in a coffee shop over cake. Then, towards the end of last year things got a bit more serious and picked up again. The other artists were chosen and invited at the beginning of this year and suddenly it was all hands on deck to get the information out, decide where each person was going to display, find out what they needed, advertise, arrange workshops, invite visitors and spread the word. 

I must give a huge amount of credit (and thanks) to Helen, the arts director for the Arts for Wellbeing programme at Victoria Pavilion Arts (part of the Sussex Support Service) who had rented us the space. She did an enormous amount of work for us, organising the marketing, doing social media posts on their Facebook/Instagram pages and tagging us in all of the posts. She sent out newsletters, initial emails to invite the artists (as they are well known for artistic events so we thought it would be taken more seriously if she approached them first), got flyers printer for us and gave us lots of advice in the various meetings we had with her. 

They hold all kinds of creative workshops and events through Victoria Pavilion Arts so they are well worth a follow in case a workshop comes up that tickles your fancy. 

We had nine textile artists display their work, including myself and Izzy. Dawn Johnson, Jennifer Grant, Katharine Rabson Stark, Melissa Kosar, Marilyn Willis and Ana Kirby. (Links on each name for you to look them up.)

All of us are completely different! Different approaches, styles, methods of working - but all using textiles and threads and colour, which is how the exhibition name, cleverly come up with by Izzy, was born. There was a Common Thread between us all. 

I took more videos than photos it seems - you can find the reels about the exhibition on my Instagram or Facebook - so these are the only few photos I have. The above is Dawn's work, she makes the most amazing art rugs which can either be hung on the wall or actually used as a rug. She also dabbles with fabric collage and stitched pictures among other things. 

Below is Izzy's work, lots of beautiful recycled textiles and papers machine stitched with trimmings and other found bits. By the sounds of things she's a bit of a magpie, and an even worse fabric hoarder than myself! 

Both of them sold some original pieces which was amazing!

Above is some of Jennifer's work, although she had much bigger pieces hanging on the wall which had brilliant textures in - they were kind of layered, machine stitched and then cut into and destroyed to make a different texture which was really interesting. 

Oo, here's some of mine. We all had about three metres of wall space (I'd taken the floor plan and worked out where everyone would fit) so I had a bigger wall to the left of this table, and then a few little spots on here. The building is actually the top half of a cricket pavilion so there are lots of quirky eaves and funny shaped walls to fit in with. For gallery purposes they have installed picture rails in every available space, but other than that you can't have things on the walls, or use blu-tac, so it is slightly limiting where you can have things. We made it work though. 

The only part about the weekend event that didn't work was the meet-the-artist evening on the Saturday. We had bought snacks (which I had beautifully presented onto charcuterie boards, with fresh rosemary from Izzy's garden) and purchased wine for the evening but actually I think about three non-artist or VPA staff people turned up. Perhaps if we had done this on the Friday as a sneak preview it would have worked better but, if there's a next time, I wouldn't necessarily bother with this element, nice as it was to eat cheese and salami and olives and sip white wine whilst watching the sunset out of the window. 

Aside from that, both days were really well attended. I think we had around 250 people through the door and there seemed to be a constant hum and buzz of people. I had some brilliant conversations or catch-ups with those walking round and it was so nice to see all of the hugging and smiling taking place! Lots of connections were made or re-established and there were no awkward moments or absolute silences. Art was being purchased, business cards taken, newsletters subscribed to and workshops signed up for as well! Even The Mother signed up to one of Melissa's slow stitching workshops further into the year. 

The hubbub was definitely helped by having workshops running through the weekend. These were over subscribed - we had initially said a maximum of eight per workshop but I think I ended up with twelve on mine and all of the others had extra people snuck onto corners of tables. It was part of the success I think because some people who lived further away, who may not have come just to look at some textiles, definitely came because they had signed up for a workshop, paid their £10 to cover material costs and stayed for a whole morning/afternoon. A couple of people had signed up to all four workshops because it was such good value and thoroughly enjoyed the different processes. 

On Saturday we had Melissa teaching a stitch journaling workshop in the morning, and Marilyn a sashiko one in the afternoon. Then on Sunday Izzy was teaching an intuitive stitch workshop in the morning and I had a Stitchscape one in the afternoon. 

When I wasn't teaching a workshop I was helping to steward, although I wasn't there the whole time, we all kind of dipped in and out. I did stay all day on Sunday though as I forgot to leave over lunch. Luckily the VPA have a pop up cafe on these events so I could purchase some cake for lunch (needs must) and there was a steady stream of coffees during the day. 

I had also taken a big shell hoop to stitch in case there were any quieter moments, or to act as a conversation starter. It was the one I'd been working on during Artwave last year at The Stitching Post (still not anywhere near finished) and it was a really good way to show people what the Stitchscapes look like before they're polished and framed. 

For my afternoon workshop I had put together simple little packs with 10cm hoops in - we only had an hour and a half per workshop (although they were all overrunning because people didn't want to leave) so it was quite quick. Some absolutely gorgeous results coming out though! 

I am still buzzing from the whole event I think. It would be brilliant to do it again and I do have a few ideas on how to perhaps improve it, or to make it a bigger event, involve others...but I'm trying to reign myself in. It wouldn't be until about 2027 anyway I think to give people time to build up new work. We had such lovely comments in the visitors book, thank you to everyone who took the time to write a little something - they've all be shared with the artists and VPA. 

Bits and Bobs

 

This year is shaping up to be a busy one for me! I've just been looking at my calendar and I seem to have something going on almost every weekend for the next three months and those after that are filling up too! I've just agreed to participate in the Artists Open Houses in May at Pretty Neat Gallery opening in Brighton soon, and I've also been asked to considering attending Fibre Fest - all things textile at the Enterprise Centre in Eastbourne on the 17th May. Plus there are so many workshops to organise and get ready for, as well as my own organised exhibition, Common Threads in Uckfield on the 15th & 16th March (more about that below, keep reading). 

Kit making is a priority for me at the moment, especially as stocks had run really low following Christmas. I am now back in stock of Woolydale II and Mini Woollydale kits which is great. Bluebell Garden kits are my next problem because one of the tree fabrics has run out and I've been trying to find an alternative. A new fabric suggestion arrived last week so I just need to see if I can make it work. Luckily the stitching wasn't linked too much to the pattern of the original fabric so I don't need to change the instructions or anything which is great. 

My current battle to get things done is now with the cat who seems to think that he needs to be on hand for every single job, and not just on hand, but on top of! All I need to do is turn my back and he's sitting on the cutting mat or the computer typing his own emails to people. He's actually not that good at giving creative advice either, just stares at me if I ask him a question, or attacks my threads. Worst assistant ever!

I had a great meeting a couple of weekends ago with some of the artists who are participating in the Common Threads exhibition which is sort of being curated by myself and Isobel Moore, with a lot of help from Helen who is the arts director of Victoria Pavilion Arts. We had both enquired about hiring Victoria Pavilion in Uckfield for an exhibition and Helen suggested we might like to get together for a joint exhibition, which has then turned into a much bigger event with 8 textile artists in total, a meet-the-artist evening on Saturday 15th March from 6pm-8pm with nibbles and wine and two workshops a day; Stitch Journals by Melissa Kosar Saturday morning, Sashiko by Marilyn Willis on Saturday afternoon (fully booked!), Intuitive Stitching by Isobel on Sunday morning and Stitchscaping on Sunday afternoon with me. 

The other artists are Katharine Rabson Stark, Jennifer Grant, Dawn Johnson and Ana Kirby. We are all very different, but joined together with our love of textiles, threads, materials and processes!

The exhibition is open 10am - 4pm and is free to enter (workshops are pre-bookable and have a charge), there is lots of parking and the Pavilion has a little café with coffee and cakes available. It's very exciting!

We had half term for East Sussex schools last week so Baby F was off on holiday and nothing much got done. I did have one morning where we decided to let him sleep in as he'd been a bit poorly and he slept until about 8.15am!! I took full advantage and stayed sitting in bed, having opened the curtains to let the morning light in. Stitching in bed with coffee is a real luxury these days and rarely ever happens so it definitely felt like a holiday day to me. 

I've been really enjoying working on my fox. It's only a little Stitchscape (10cm) but the fabrics came from the Ardingly quilt show, mostly from the same stall whose name I now can't remember, sorry(!), and I was really inspired to use them. He's been a welcome companion on my bus journeys for the last couple of weeks. 

Stitchwave for Artwave

I participated in my first ever Artwave this year. It's an event which I've been aware of for a while but had never been involved in before. There are many different versions of it and it's effectively an open houses or artist studio event, but kind of set as a trail so there is a booklet printed with all of the venues and their different opening times and you can walk between them or make special trips. I was invited to be a part of it at The Stitching Post in Isfield and, more excitingly, because The Stitching Post is all about stitching and fabric and gorgeous textiles, Kelly (the lady who runs and owns TSP) turned it into Stitchwave!!

Isfield is on what the Artwave organisers have called 'The Rural Trail', which basically means it's not in Lewes, Seaford or Newhaven where the majority of their locations are. Anyone register to join, either in a hired space with other artists to make more of a mixed exhibition, or in their own studios or houses. Some give over their houses quite completely and throw open the front door, hanging their pictures from every part of their walls and selling postcards off the dining room table. 

There were actually quite a few different venues open in Isfield so it was worth a trip out of the bigger towns and into the much more rural setting because you could make a day of it (especially as there's a nice pub in the village). 

TSP was open for two weekends, although our tables were set up for the whole time so weekday visitors to the studio could see and buy whilst they attended their workshops and bought fabrics from Kelly. The exhibiting artists (including me) were on a rota to come and sit and greet people, make tea and coffee, offer cake (Mr DT made a very nice banana cake for us!) and give demonstrations. Between visitors, there were some lovely opportunities for us to sit in the sunshine, listening to the chickens chooking in their pen, chat stitchy things and work on our own projects. 

I took my BIG project that currently lives next to my sofa waiting for small snatches of time to do a couple of stitches on it. It's not anywhere near finished but did draw a lot of attention with the different beads from Old Bicycle Shop that I've added and the big shells. Although interestingly, there were a lot of comments and questions about my floor stand rather than the Stitchscape clamped into it. 

In case any of you have questions about the stand, I don't know where it came from originally, or how old it is as I'm fairly sure I inherited it from my Nanna (or pinched it, I can't remember now). I would think really a more modern frame would be better, this one is just slightly too short and could do with being a bit higher, or adjustable to go up and down, and the wooden screw pegs are loose so it doesn't tighten up properly which means it could suddenly collapse at any moment. Who says embroidery isn't thrilling?

I do love it though, and have recently had it fixed by my uncle (thank you Steven!) because the whole 'head' section with the clamp snapped off where the dowelling had rotted in the middle and just gave up. I'm really pleased that it's back in action again. 

I did really well over the two weekends and, not only that, I had several visitors who I've previously taught in workshops, a lady who brought along her finished Fire Flower II kit (pictured below), a couple of ladies who wanted to book me for future workshops and someone who has just joined my Stitchscape swap (who brought that month's card with her to save on postage - savvy!). Thank you to everyone who made a purchase; there were lots of kits, cards and prints sold so I hope that you all enjoy your projects or pieces. 

There were nine of us exhibiting there, including Kelly herself showing the quilts she has made and selling some of the older projects or samples. We were all different but complemented each other beautifully, and Kelly had done a really good job of organising her space so that we sat nicely next to each other. 

I was next to Sarah Becvar who is a machine embroiderer and designer. We didn't actually meet as our rota didn't have us together at any point but she was doing really well with sales and apparently her demonstration on how to machine embroider a design on a card was very popular. I have just the teensiest amount of jealousy for machine embroiderers because they can produce work so quickly! Drawing with a sewing machine is an amazing skill, I have tried it before but I can't say I'm very good at it, possibly because it's so fast and I'm a go-slow stitcher. I still appreciate the beautiful design work though regardless of my little green shoulder monster, and Sarah's florals are really lovely - look at the beautiful bee below!

I would love my own space like TSP has. Mainly just the gorgeous shelves of wonderful bright fabrics so that I could hoard more metres and metres of fabrics without feeling guilty for taking up space in our home. (I have fabrics tucked away in every available space - plus a spare room at The Parent's house.) Kelly was making a quilt from the new Kasumi fabric collection from Makower, which I also have just bought to make a Koi kit with (watch this space) and it was nice to see her in action, as well as the beautiful finished articles she had hanging up. Some were for sale because they were previous collections or examples for kits she no longer has, and others were promoting upcoming workshops or currently available quilt kits. She's a busy lady, attending all of the major quilt shows and travelling the country with her fabrics!

Someone even more patient than me when it comes to stitching is Ana Kirby, who is a slow stitch specialist. She is quite measured I think in her approach, and stitches emotions, thoughts or feelings rather than creating things that would be seen as a recognisable image - although some of her little samples are slightly more decorative perhaps, joining fabrics together and just relishing the joy of using fabric and thread. 

These lovely lampshades are by Lexi and Lu, who choose the prettiest fabrics to make their shades. They aren't stitched, so aren't quite the same as the other artists who were in the exhibition, but they sure are pretty! You can commission them, or go on one of their lampshade making courses if you are interested in having a go yourself.

The Bridgerton Ladies are a rather fine little gathering aren't they? They are the work of Marilyn Willis and have been made using scraps of fabric and lace from real dresses made for the cast of Bridgerton! (I assume everyone knows what I'm talking about?) We did have a quick look to see if we could recognise any of the fabrics on a Google search of Bridgerton Season One but nothing jumped out at us. It was decided that it could be a challenge for whoever bought a Bridgerton Lady to re-watch the series and see if they could spot their dress. 

Marilyn has a range of different embroidered items, some upcycled, some created from scratch, and she also teaches workshops at The Stitching Post on various embroidery and textile courses. 

It was a very colourful corner with Alison McDonagh's ethical stitching. She upcycles even the smallest of fabric scraps into these wonderful pictures, book covers, textiles and all sorts really, saving them from landfill. She combines the fabrics with paints, machine stitching, fibres and hand embroidery so they are really textured and colourful with lots to see in them once you get up close. 

What you can't tell in an image, is that the colourful prints on these bags are actually printed on velvet! I couldn't help but stroke one to make sure but they definitely are which is quite amazing - what fantastic fabrics! Carole Brown makes all of her bags to be 'a little bit different', and sells them through her shop Teasel and Threads. There were bags, purses, pincushions and a few other little bits there which were all bright and lovely. 

Finally, these creations are by Jo Oakley, who is just starting out in selling her work so doesn't have any social media or a website or anything to tag her in. She is often at TSP as well though so that would be a good way to contact her if needed. Everything was so neatly and expertly stitched, from the English Paper Piecing to the machined top stitching. I think she did really well too, as all of us did as far as I know, which is fantastic. It was nice to be part of just a textile exhibition/show case rather than muddling in with watercolourists and photographers - not that they aren't worthy, but in this case we got everyone who was genuinely interested in the fabrics and stitching which made it much more personal in a way.