Exciting News...

So I can finally reveal that I have been offered a place at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair (GNCCF)!!!

This is a HUGE event, the largest of its kind in the North and it is such an achievement to have been offered a place. Out of over 300 applicants I am one of 150 designer makers who have been offered a place. Yay! Happy happy girlie :)

So pop the dates in your diary now: 4th-7th October 2012

Venue:

Hardman Square,

Spinningfields,

Manchester City centre.

I shall bring you more details in due course but for now, why not have a nosy at the website to get a taster of what you can expect...

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair - 2012 Exhibitors - Textiles - Sarah-Jane Hocking
http://www.greatnorthernevents.co.uk/

The Blood Bag Project Workshops

I have held a number of craft workshops with a group of year 4 children from a local primary school. We have done two after school sessions and two afternoon sessions to create 'Blood Bags' for 'The Blood Bag Project' organised by my friend Leigh.

I have posted about 'The Blood Bag Project' previously which you can read here.

Between the nine children they made a total of 14 blood bags. They all found Chloe's story very sad and were really keen to help make Chloe better. The kids took great joy in explaining to their classmates what we were doing and why.

On Friday 18th May the school held an art exhibition. Each class had studied a particular theme and created art works which were up for sale. The exhibition was open from 2-5pm and we had a table where we worked on the blood bags. We got lots of interest from parents and other pupils in the school and had flyers on hand for them to take away. Hopefully we inspired other people to get involved too.

Some of the finished Blood Bags

close-up of the finished Blood Bags



The pupils hard at work on exhibition day.



Lending a hand; an after school workshop.





'Spring Loaded' at Unit Twelve, Tixall Near Stafford

On Saturday, I went to visit the ‘Spring Loaded’ exhibition at Unit Twelve.

I took a few photos…





Jennifer Collier



Jennifer Collier


Jennifer Collier works with paper bonding with stitch and wax to recreate household objects. If you look carefully, often the papers used have a connection to the object they portray. For example dresses made from dress-making patterns.



Jennifer Collier



I’ve always loved the work of Jennifer Collier ever since I was introduced to her work in A-Level textiles. These dainty little shoes have to be my favourite. So delicately beautiful.



Jennifer Collier



Amanda Mercer combines ceramics and textiles in her work. Vintage and memories are her inspirations creating decorative and wearable pieces.



Amanda Mercer




Amanda Mercer

 'Spring Loaded' is on until 28th April and is open Thursday to Saturday, 10am-4pm. Other artists in the exhibition include: Emily Notman, Audray Vivien, Chris Thompson, Selina Campbell, Sarah Myatt, Anna Calvert, Fiona Hermse, and Jane Johnson.

Unit Twelve,
Tixall Heath Farm,
Tixall,
Stafford,
ST18 0XX

L'Aiguille en Fete

L’Aiguille en Fete or the Festival of Needles as it translates in English, is very much like the Kniting and Stitching show which we have here in the UK (Harrogate, London and Dublin). Talking with the other UK graduates we all felt that L’Aiguille en Fete seemed a bit more refined than Knit & Stitch. It was smaller, with fewer retail stalls (which in my opinion is good as there’s just lots and lots of the same at Knit & Stitch) but there was more space to exhibits.

 

La Grande Halle de la Villette was this years' venue, situated just outside the Porte de Pantin metro. The Parc de la Villette features La Grande Halle, a theatre, bars, restaurants and gardens. It was a fantastic location which I felt was a lovely size for the event.

Please excuse the mitten fluff in the corner! I discovered mittens are not that great when trying to take photos...it was too cold to go bare though!

La Grande Halle by night

Each year at L’Aiguille en Fete, now in its ninth year, they have a different theme for exhibits. This year, it was English textile graduates. Amongst us there was myself and Holly Levell from Huddersfield, Amanda Schenk and Janet Cairney from Windsor, and Lucy Gilmour and Lucy Ruth Crowder from Manchester Metropolitan University amongst others (see images below).

Set-up day

Set-up day went well although it was very very cold, what with all the doors open so people could unload and the arctic temperatures outside (-5 degrees). I went prepeared though with my thermals! Still cold though…

So I displayed my fabrics, it was not the best display but with the little space I had and no option of suspending my fabrics it was the best I could do. I managed to find a table to display my newer products, cushions, mugs and notebooks .

The response was overwhelmingly positive! I couldn’t believe it! The French were very complimentary. Even with my horrendous French I could make out what were compliments, any more than that and I was lost completely. I think I need to learn French…Add that to the ‘to-do list’.

 

Some lovely comments left for me to translate when I got home!

Next years show will be at a larger location…

 

The Festival Of Quilts, NEC, Birmingham, 13th August

The Festival of Quilts

Whilst I was putting up my degree show exhibition, one of the lecturers who I rarely see suggested that I submit work for the Festival of Quilts exhibition. However, when I got home and checked the internet I was too late for this year. So I decided it would be worth going along to this year’s exhibition so get a feel for the type of work submitted etc.

I went to the exhibition in 2009 after winning tickets through Embroidery magazine. I wondered what it was going to be, imagining drab, old-fashioned patchwork. However, it was quite beyond my expectations. Yes, there was plenty of traditional patchwork to be seen, but there were also more contemporary pieces, many involving fabric manipulation and folding techniques, which I thought, were lovely. It was this visit it 2009 which influenced the quilting and white-work elements of my second year work.

So off I went with a fresh head going to check out the competition so to speak. However, I was a bit disappointed to be honest. There were so many pieces that I thought, “I’ve seen that before.” There were so many pieces, which were very similar to 2009 exhibits just in slightly different colour ways. It certainly didn’t give me the inspiration that the 2009 event had which greatly disappointed me..

So who knows whether I will give the 2012 Festival of Quilts a go, maybe. I’m just not sure my quilt-works are not too contemporary – I guess my pieces are quilts in as far as I use two pieces of fabric with wadding sandwiched between…but that’s as far as it goes…

There were a few pieces which did stand out though:

‘Hot Africa’ was a winning piece, by Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga (Winner of Art Quilt, Pictorial Quilt and Best in Show). It’s not my cup of tea in terms of the style but it is beautifully done and it must take some skill to patch together shading and toning like that. I would certainly struggle! My favourite part of this quilt is the sun which I have taken a close up image of. The detail is amazing!

 I can’t remember which piece this was from and don’t seem to have a whole quilt photo either which is a pain. It’s the texture that I love, all those pleats and folds have been masterfully created; beautiful.

 Embroidered fabric envelopes – wow. What a beautiful idea. These would be wonderful for storing little bit and pieces in, jewellery perhaps. It’s a lovely eco-friendly idea, we could all re-use our birthday envelopes – obviously highly impractical if posting and it might help if cards were a generic size…  This was a project from studio 21 a co-operative of artists who create continuum pieces. They had a workshop area with huge lengths of fabric which you c thought it would be a brilliant idea for a community project particularly for children allowing everyone to make their own mark.

  ‘Heartache and Hope’ was inspired by the Threads of Feeling exhibition at the “Foundling Museum and the thought of handing your child over, hoping to be reunited in better times” (Creative Exhibitions, 2011, The Competition Catalogue) I visited this exhibition back in January. It’s a lovely piece and I thought it was nice to see something which came about through a response to such an emotive exhibition. Well done Jackie Smith!