Textile Textures: The Grand Opening

Yesterday was the official opening and Private View of the Textile Textures exhibition at Walford Mill Crafts, which some of my work is featured in. I feel very pleased and privileged to be included amongst some truly talented and established names in the world of Textile Art and this has given me a great lift, personally and professionally. Sometimes as a graduate you feel a bit lost out in the 'real world; but being included in an exhibition is an undeniable step in the right direction! Here's some pictures from the gallery:
An overview of my zone:

The 3D beadwork sampler I wrote about previously:

Another strange, alien landscape textured drawing:

Deep Sea Viper hand embroidery with audio reactive LED circuit (I program and install all the lights and circuitry myself):

Hullo, I eat batteries

Some hand embroidery n fluff n stuff:

A framed textural drawing / investigation:

Laser cut bugs in the window!

Note to self: make more of these

Sketch book!

Here's another angle:

Here you can see Heather Collins' finely detailed felted apple / woodland work (bottom left), Valerie Wartelle's moody felted landscapes (top left) and some of Lisa Earley's work (top right).

One of my favourite pieces in the exhibition is Lisa Earley's 'Bad Fairies':

Lisa Earley

It's delicate looking but has a dark subject matter, which I find appealing. When you look closely, all the colours and detail in it are really beautiful too.

There was also a group of first year students from AUB who collaborated together to create some work for the show:

AUB Students

Their theme was 'decay' and particularly the way in which nature interacts with architecture. Their work has turned out really fabulously and I particularly like their drawings and sketchbooks with all the little details they put into the work.

Also in the exhibition are Jen Goodwin (resident embroiderer at Walford Mill and teacher at RSN, who just released her first book), her speciality being incredible photo-realistic animal and bird portraits and Carol Naylor, whose machine embroidered landscapes have plenty of movement and gorgeous colour:

Jen Goodwin and Carol Naylor

Another personal favourite is Amanda Wright:

Amanda Wright

Her large hand embroidered pieces have wonderful texture and also give great narrative.

Here's some people 'milling' around at the opening; we had a great turn out and I got some lovely, positive feedback on my work:

I was especially charmed by Charlotte the Dog, who looking decidedly dogged, deserves a round of appaws as she stayed fur at leashed an hour:

Well although I've given you a good few pictures of the show there's still a lot more to see and as with all textiles they have to be seen in the flesh to be believed, so get down to the exhibition - it's on until June 4th 2017.