Gallery – Feltworks Exhibition Opens
Have you ever seen a stray piece of wool fibre on a hedge or barb wire left by a passing sheep and wondered if it could be used for something? Or wondered at the waste of fleece, shorn every year on the Staffordshire moorlands and earning the farmers almost nothing.
Local artists Ruth Broadbent and Tyra Till are demonstrating the versatile and extraordinary fibre that is wool when made into felt. The rich variety of textures, colours, techniques and combined materials inspire and delight. The natural world is celebrated both in the materials used and the inspiration for the pieces.
From tiny delicate jewellery to large robust rugs are displayed with hand-dyed embroidered images inspired by cell structures and combined with silk. All the felt is hand-made and different from the familiar brightly coloured squares used in children’s craft.
Lamps glow and scarves drape. Organic pictures sit next to plump cushion covers and fleece rugs. It is difficult to describe the range covered by the two artists using such a simple material. Some pieces are useful, some are joyful, some make you wonder.
Ruth has been working with textiles all her life, influenced by her mother’s traditional embroidery and came to felt work about 20 years ago. She has worked with many talented felting tutors learning numerous techniques and is a member of the International Felting Association.
Tyra learnt felting from Ruth and comes from studio pottery through spinning, dyeing and weaving to felt. Before graduating from Camberwell College of Art, she promised herself that she would return to embroidery one day. Her work is influenced by nature under the microscope.
To run concurrently with the exhibition, the artists are teaching three public felting workshops to demonstrate the versatile, extraordinary fibre that is wool when it is made into felt.
14 March to 2 May 2020 –
Wed to Sat 10-4 plus Sunday 5 April 11-4
Meet the Artists: Saturday 14 March – 10-4
See Cabbage Rose website about the workshops.