London larks

Off to the Mall Gallery last week to see the Prism exhibition. This is so inspirational, and was even better this year as I met one of my Morley classmates there and so had someone to rhapsodise with.

There is a “no publication policy” of photos from the exhibition, so I’ve posted some links below to a few of the artists who had pieces on display.

Gina Ferrari lace book

Rachel Gornall

Anita Bruce

Fiona Rainford

I was also intrigued by the work of Bea Sewell, who had a tree draped with samples of textiles dyed with plant and mineral dyes. she had some charming miniature notebooks with scraps f dyeing experiments, accompanied by a tiny sketch on each page. She also had a basket of tiny samples inviting attendees to have a rummage and take a tied bundle away. A lovely touch.

This exhibition really stretches the boundaries of textile art: photos of flowers, cut in to circles and appliquéd on to calico in the shape of a DNA double helix; wooden wall-mounted boxes with only the smallest amount of textile in them; embroidered organza strips sandwiched between blocks of glass , giving a completely different look to the organza. Wonderful.

Then out in to the Mall for some very different textiles.

Statue with a mischievous addition in the eye socket

Colour and form inspiration

Finished off with a dash round Anthropologie, with some quirky textile inspiration as ever

Calico bag, painted to look like a jotter

and then off to Liberty to try on the Richard Weston scarves

and have a scarf tying lesson with the great assistants in the scarf hall ( thank goodness I was wearing my one and only large Liberty scarf already).

Great fun.