Tag Archives: Stroud International Textiles

Upcoming events and workshops: Early bird booking

In October 2015 I’m involved in quite a few things. I will be taking part in a new event in Cheltenham, SITselect SHOWCASE organised by Stroud International Textiles. This promises to be an exciting addition to the art / craft calendar. It runs over three days, Friday 23 October, Saturday 24 October and Sunday 25 October and includes talks, exhibitions, book signings, a conference, workshops and over 70 maker stands. Until the end of July there is a 20% discount on entrance ticket prices. An early bird day ticket is £6 and for 3 days is £18. Children 14 and under go free and there are concessions tickets also.

Do go look at the website www.sitselect.org/showcase to find out more. Highlights for me are the talks ‘In Conversation’ between Isamini Samanido and Jilly Edwards and between Isamini and Theo Wright on Friday 23 October. Details about these and other talks can be found on this page: www.sitselect.org/showcase/showcasetalks

I will be there for the three days as I have a stand. I’m very excited to take part and am looking forward to meeting visitors to the show. I will also be running a one-day experimental papermaking workshop on Saturday 24 October. The workshop will be very much hand-on and we will explore textures and patterns to make a simple zig-zag or pamphlet book. Starting simple means that we can try out all sorts of techniques that participants will be able to use in their own work. The course will include using cotton rag pulps, casting and couching, laminating and embossing. We will use a Hollander beater and we will also explore processes that can be used at home. As part of this day I am giving a short talk about my work and inviting you to participate in my latest project by making and dip dying a sheet of paper.

The workshop is suitable for all.

Tickets: £55. Concessions: £35.

Entrance ticket required. There will be ample time to go round and look at all the other things going on as part of a really enjoyable day.

At the end of that week I am running a short course at lovely West Dean, ‘An Introduction to Creative Papermaking’, Friday 30 October – Sunday 1 November. (Suitable for all)

Course Reference: WE 5743

At West Dean we will be exploring traditional western papermaking techniques to create paper artworks inspired by the landscape. We will make pulps using cotton rag, and learn casting and couching, laminating and embossing, using a Hollander beater but also learn other pulping processes that can be used at home. More information here: pdf

To book please visit the West Dean Short Course booking page here: https://www.westdean.org.uk/CollegeChannel/ShortCourses/Courses/CourseSubCat.aspx?group=boo

Or phone for a brochure: Tel: +44 (0)1243 811301

There is a new on-line booking log-in system which allows one to view the various options (non-residential, single room, double etc) but setting up a log-in doesn’t commit you anything. I really enjoyed my last visit and am looking forward to this one a great deal. As anyone will attest who has attended a course here, the setting is wonderful, the facilities are great, the food is ample and good and there is a very friendly creative atmosphere (and a lovely bar).

The course cost without the residential element is £230.

Exhibition

Also in October I will be showing an installation of some recent work inspired by walks along the Downland paths of Southern England. I can’t say more about it than that as details are still to be confirmed but there will be more information soon.

Land, material and memory, ongoing

Review of Selected 2014 on Helen Terry’s blog

I came across a lovely blog post about the exhibitions which are part of this year’s Stroud International Textiles events.

‘I drove 150 miles to Gloucestershire in the rain on Friday to see what I could of the SITSelect exhibitions. My sat nav guided me up the steepest, narrowest lane with heart-stoppingly beautiful views (when I dared to look) to Newark Park. I read the advice to not use your sat nav only after that little adventure, once I…..’

See the rest of Helen Terry’s post here on her beautiful blog.

Painswick papermaking workshop

On the 10 and 11 May I ran some workshops in Painswick as part of the Stroud International Textiles events. There were two events scheduled at the Painswick Centre, my papermaking workshop and a one day workshop with Sian Martin. The studio for the first day’s event was a little overcrowded but on the second day we moved to a bigger room and had a brilliant time. I always enjoy meeting the people who sign up to my papermaking workshops. Often they have an interest in textiles and related fibre / art things so there is a great deal of common ground. Quite often I feel that we are exchanging information; it isn’t just a one way street. Many of the participants were using the workshop to think over things that would feed into their other art work rather than just using the papermaking as a stand alone project. Anyway, if any of you are reading this, it was lovely to meet you and I found your ability to pick up and run with a new technique really encouraging.

Paper drying during the workshop

Painswick itself is a beautiful town with the most extraordinary churchyard filled with yew trees carved into looming shapes. I was asked if I know the story of the yews. Apparently there are 99 of them and whenever anyone tries to even the number up by planting another to make a round 100, one of the older trees dies. I didn’t count them to check up on the facts but it is definitely the kind of place that grows stories as well as trees.

Some small pieces of handmade cotton rag paper after drying

Venue: The Painswick Centre, Bisley Street, Painswick, Stroud GL6 6QQ

‘A landscape in ten parts’

I wrote in an earlier post about my interest in collecting pigments, stains and impressions from the landscape and the materials of particular places. These traces and the process of collecting them shape the form of pieces of work as well as providing the colours that I use.

When I’m collecting materials towards some work I frequently come back with pockets full of bags of clay or sand or chalk. These samples end up in jars with strips of paper tests to show the colours derived from them. This collecting and classifying urge shows itself in the work that I make which often takes the form of accumulations of cast paper shapes. Process and material are different ends of the same thing in my work. I find it extraordinarily difficult to think about or plan new work without material in my hands but I also need a process or framework of approach to be able to make. Working in relation to the landscape gives me both matter and method.

For the work that is going to be shown at Newark Park I was very interested to be able to respond both to the surrounding outdoor landscape but also to the indoor ‘landscape’ of the house where objects placed in relation to each other form a connection.

The photo was taken in my studio while I was finishing things off last week. I don’t want to show whole pieces of work yet before they have arrived at Newark Park but I am pleased to see the way that individual parts work, overlapped with others.

Countdown to ‘Selected at Newark Park’

In the next few days I’m going to be packing up my work for ‘Selected at Newark Park’ which opens to the public on 23 April. The exhibition is part of Stroud International Textiles’ annual Festival which this year includes various exhibitions, a symposium and a local artists studio trail. More information can be found here: Stroud International Textiles.

There are two beautiful e-brochures, one for the exhibitions, workshops and symposium and one for the trail. Link here.

Artists and makers in ‘Selected at Newark Park’:

Mary Butcher, Caroline Bartlett, Lucy Birtles, Moira Buckley, Jilly Cobbe, Jennifer Collier, Francesca Chalk, Gaynor Dowling, Tara Downs, Ruth Dresman, Susan Early, Caren Garfen, Eleanor Glover, Anna Glasbrook, Matthew Harris, Sue Hartree, Annie Hewett, Annie Hutchinson, Zoe Hillyard, Jo Lovelock, Katharine Morling, Morag MacPherson, Malcolm Martin, Plum Neasmith, Jane Ponsford, Penny Prince, Sue Rae, Bart Sabel, Anthea Walsh, Sasha Wardell, Camilla Ward, Laura Youngson Coll.

Exhibition open: Wednesday 23 April – Sunday 8 June Wednesday – Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays 11am – 5pm closed Mondays & Tuesdays, except Bank Holidays

Newark Park, Ozleworth, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire GL12 7PZ

New work

Jane Ponsford, A landscape in ten parts, 2012 - 13, detail

Jane Ponsford, A landscape in ten parts, 2013 – 14, detail

I’m looking forward to showing some recent work at ‘Selected at Newark Park’ in April. ‘A landscape in ten parts’ is based on material from research trips and walks in different parts of England over the last few years. It is a celebration of the receptive nature of paper in collecting traces and impressions and makes use of pigments found in the landscape, chalk, clay, coal and natural dyes. The form of the work reflects the repetitive processes involved in collecting. Walking has become an essential part of my practice and I hope the work shows something of the meditative and calm nature of the experience of walking, collecting and serendipitous discovery that inspired it.

The pigments and materials that have fed into this work have come from places as far-flung as the Medway and Kings Wood in Kent and Teesdale in County Durham.

Selected at Newark Park

Newark Park
Ozleworth
Wotton-under-Edge
Gloucestershire
GL12 7PZ

www.sitselect.org/
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/newark-park/things-to-see-and-do/events/

Select 2014 at Newark Park

Exciting news about an exhibition at Newark Park in April. I’m one of a number of artists and makers invited to show work in an exhibition curated by Lizzi Walton of Stroud International Textiles as part of a series of linked events related to the symposium.

Newark Park is a wonderful National Trust treasure and was once a Tudor Hunting Lodge. Here 30 extraordinary artists will exhibit work. Among the work will be site responsive work inspired by the magical setting of Newark Park.

http://www.stroudinternationaltextiles.org.uk/

The exhibition runs from 23 April – 8 June and I will be running a two-day papermaking workshop on 10 and 11 May. More details soon.