Flower

Shepherds Dene

Have been hanging work all day within rooms at Shepherds Dene, a retreat house near Riding Mill. Shepherds Dene was built in 1906 and is an outstanding example of the Arts and Crafts movement, using high quality natural materials, which have stood the test of time. It is surrounded by 20 acres of gardens and grounds with lots of woodland and a walled garden.

The exhibition brings together the work of myself, Jane Veitch, Teresa Toms, Cathy Duncan, Kim Lewis, Penny Cuthbert and Jenny Mathers. We form the "Overlap Group" and meet every 6 weeks or so to crit each others' work. We each have a room or section of the house showcasing our work. The house is not normally open to the public though many people pass through it every day as it provides residential and day courses. We will be having an open afternoon and evening in May and June when you will be able to gain access to this wonderful house and garden and have a look at our work. I will post information at a later date.

Entrance to house

Looking out of the window from the Terrace Room where my work is hung.

On the Terrace

Many comfortable chairs and quiet places to sit all around the house

Lush William Morris carpeting

and original Arts and Crafts wallpapers

Spring distractions

I am making slow progress with my Maidens Garland work because I have been spending every spare minute this week gardening in the lovely weather. I have completely redesigned my front garden and on the allotment have planted broad beans, red and white onion sets, shallots, gladioli and first early potatoes. I keep a mood board going on my studio wall which reminds me of what I should be doing........

Variations on a Theme

Some new work made for an exhibition opening at the end of March at Shepherds Dene, a beautiful Arts and Crafts style country house near Riding Mill.

Newcastle Vintage Fashion Fair

Some of you may remember the wonderful vintage fairs at the Royal Station Hotel in Newcastle. The last one was some years ago and vintage addicts like myself really miss it. Anyway instead of moaning about it fellow old things junkie Jayne Turner http://missjayneemma.blogspot.com. and I have decided to revive it ! We are at the stage of taking bookings and already have quite a number of quality vintage fashion dealers on our lists. For more information please click on the image and get in touch with us.

Myths and Legends

I love Greek myths and legends and will be running a course in May using this theme as a basis for the development of original prints using the collograph technique. To find out more have a look on the Horsley Printmakers site www.horsleyprintmakers.co.uk where you will find information on the dates and also some images within the gallery section of collograph prints.

Those of us who teach courses for Horsley Printmakers and our students have a show called "Print to Impress" at the Biscuit Factory www.thebiscuitfactory.com at the moment. I was proud to see many collographs displayed from my evening class students who have made outstanding images on an animal theme. Also look out for my friend Zoe Robinson's sculptures of birds (though most of them seemed to have red stickers on last night).

This book is particularly inspirational.It was published in 1959 and illustrated by Alice and Martin Provenson

My favourite image - look at those toes!

Garlands

I was passing through Lincolnshire at the weekend so called in a the Hub (http://www.thehubcentre.info). Up and down the staircases were a vertical paper garden/ garlands constructed by recent graduate Suzie McLaughlin. They worked effectively at bringing the outside in. I have been garland making too, making work for my exhibition later in the year in response to the maidens garlands in Yorkshire. I notice Suzie's were laser cut and stapled but mine are of course hand stitched and each flower is unique. I am using all sorts of papers eg. an old copy of Tennyson's "In Memoriam ", original Victorian letters . I am making one big garland to hang in the church and then an individual flower for each of my maidens.

Anyway here is Suzie's work

and here is mine

The hairy bits are sheep wool picked up from the graveyard where the girls are buried.