With a sun as unreliable as ever I think it might be best to look elsewhere for a burst of colour and light. Spectrum is on show until 9 August and the combined impact of work by Alpa Mistry, Preeti Gilani and Fiona Rutherford would easily equal an hour or two in the sun. Standing in front of one of Ptolemy Mann’s bright woven panels may not actually cause your body to synthesise Vitamin D but it will certainly lift your spirits …
And we would like to bring a designer from New Designers, One Year On to your attention.
Delyth Walsh was the worthy winner of the Textile Society’s Lucienne Day Award. Her textiles demonstrate her “passion for 1950’s design and Scandinavian style” and her clear understanding of the properties of cloth – a skill that sounds obvious but cannot be assumed, even in a textile designer. Delyth has applied her prints to a range of cushions, table runners, and mats.
We have come to the realisation that three entries and lots of good intentions do not a blog make… so we would like to draw a line under what amounted to the “phoney blog”, a fanfare, declaration and very little action and start again by giving a quick round up of the textiles that stood out at this year’s New Designers. Our prize went to Louise Anderson, a weaver whose work, a fresh combination of ikat technique and stripes, is beautifully restrained and of exceptional quality.
The word petrified came to mind during Ma Ke’s (Selvedge 21) show on the 16 May. Like bodies unearthed from ash covered villas in Pompeii the living statues loomed out of the darkness in all their eerie beauty. The audience at this V&A Fashion in Motion event flowed around an illuminated tableau vivant that lasted just 20 minutes – a mere glimpse of intricate workmanship of the Wuyong collection. www.mixmind.com
What do a Scottish man’s underwear, a frowning child and Queen Victoria have in common? In this case all three were part of, Curator of Dress, Dolls and Child Care Noreen Marshall’s entertaining talk at last Saturday’s Play Date event (we enjoyed two lectures and afternoon tea at Museum of Childhood). There was also a chance to see Lynne and Michael Roche’s beautiful dolls. www.roche-dolls.co.uk We have a sneaking suspicion that this may be the first of many Selvedge events.
