It's nearly April, and everything is coming together nicely for the three upcoming Exhibitions I've involved with in April and May. The first is ‘Rhythm’ and it’s going to be a fun-filled week with five artist friends at Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh. We all met last year while doing the Professional Development course at Paintbox School of Art, and our friendship grew throughout the year. So, we decided to put what we had learnt on 'how to plan an exhibition' to the test! Our Opening Reception is on Easter Monday, 1st April, 2pm to 4pm. We would love to see you there, and mini Easter eggs will be provided!
As the saying goes ‘buses all come together’ (apparently it’s called bus bunching!) and the same can be said for exhibitions. As the Dundas Street Gallery exhibition closes its doors on the 6th April, the Torrance Gallery’s Spring Show (also in Edinburgh) starts. I’m literally dancing on the ceiling to have been invited to exhibit with them for the first time. There’s plenty of time to visit as it runs right through until the 12th May - by then Spring will definitely have arrived and it will be warm!
When May comes around I’ll be down in the Scottish Borders in the lovely village of Ancrum. Each year they hold ‘Art at Ancrum’ where art of all kinds is exhibited around the village. This can be in resident’s homes, the village hall, the church, private garages, in fact anywhere that art can be exhibited! It’s held over three days, the 4th, 5th & 6th May, and I’m delighted to have been chosen to exhibit with them this year. The village hall is where I will be, apparently with the tea and cakes (so it can’t get any better than that!).
Part of my preparation for the exhibitions has been making Artist’s books. I really like the concept of capturing a slice of the colour palettes and textures used in my paintings and showing them in a tactile form. For this I’m using vintage wooden bobbins, the larger type which would have been used in textile mills. I was an avid collector of them when I lived in France, and I would frequently see them buried with other sewing treasures at vintage markets, or at the popular version of a car-boot sale, the vide-grenier (empty attic).
The bobbins usually have some of the beautiful silk thread left on them. A few of them have Indigo dye splashed onto the soft green thread, and this has given the silk lovely shades as it’s unwound.
It's fascinating to imagine the huge dye vats being stirred and splashing here and there many years ago.
I painstakingly unwound the silk onto card as I didn’t want to lose the length by cutting it from the bobbins. I then gently embedded it back onto the Khadi scrolls with oil pastels, ink and paint. While working on the Khadi paper it became very fragile when damp, so I hung the strips up with pegs from my easel to allow them to dry. Once they dried the paper firmed up really well.
Where the threads reach the end of the scrolls, I knotted and plaited them and popped vintage beads onto the ends to serve as a tie. It was a slow process waiting for the long lengths of Khadi to dry, so I used my old faithful ‘painting’ hairdryer on a cool setting, this was a bit precarious at times as the paper was so light it whizzed all over the place.
I've really enjoyed making these bobbin Artist's Books, and the good news is that now I'm in Scotland I’ve managed to source some more of these lovely bobbins, so I’ll be working on those very soon!
Over the last year or so, I’ve also been researching my ancestry. I couldn’t believe it when a few weeks ago I discovered that my great-grandmother had been a bobbin girl in the silk mills in Knutsford, Cheshire. Life is strange at times, why have I always been drawn to these silk bobbins, it must be in my genes!
Well that’s it until next time - thanks so much for reading ☺️
Bye for now,
Janette
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