Outside art adventures Part 3

This one was unexpected and I didn't have time to put work together, but again it was a lovely opportunity to put work in a lovely space. I do have to say that these outside instrallations are unpaid, but they fit into the type of the work that I want to make and you never know what might come along, they are also very good for the socials and putting my work into new spaces that would otherwise be tricky to find on my own.

So, back to this plot.......Very early in 2025, I was contacted by Yvonne Elliott from the Westbury Fabric and Fibre guild (and a good textile friend for at least 10 years!) they were putting on a small exhibition of work in the Three Hares gallery found in the Cowper and Newton museum in Olney, about 8 miles north of Milton Keynes. The museum is housed in a lovely Georgian building that used to be the home of William Cowper from 1768-18786.*Cowper is on my mind at the moment because at the time of writing this, I'm enjoying the BBC adaptation 'The other Bennet sister' and said sister Mary Bennet (the over looked sister from Pride and Prejudice) often says she is enjoying reading Cowper poems and this is where he lived! Anyway, I digress.....but if you are a fan of the programme this might be a visit of interest to you? Cowper and his friend John Newton (the local curate in the parish church who lived over the wall behind the garden) and they wrote "Amazing Grace" which was 250 years old last year. They were also very involved in the abolition of slavery and the rights of the local lace makers in the village. So much interesting history to be learnt. Oh and Cowper kept 3 hares as pets in his house! Ideas for these very quick cloths was everywhere haha....

I wanted to focus on Cowpers peoms' about his favourite place and pastime, his garden as this where my work would be place. Also the work he did to support the underpaid lace makers in the village. So I started to look at lace patterns and decide how I could represent them in the work, I do fall back on batik and indigo dye, it's quick and the blue of indigo is so beautiful in a garden setting. The exhibition was due to open at the beginning of March, so the garden would be quite dormant still. I had about one month to put the work together, visiting the garden

Looking back at my photographs, I actually didn't start on this until the 17th of February so I rather recklessly had only given myself only 2 weeks to make the work! Here are the first few images, taking inspiration from a beautiful lace collar I inherited from the family workboxes, finding the motifs and designs that appeal to me. Firstly drawing them in wax, ready to be dyed and then painting them with fabric paint onto some indigo dyed fabrics I had left over from workshops.

You can see where the colour palette is going!

Deciding to paint on pre printed and dyed fabrics was a lesson learnt from previous garden work, the eco printing and indigo dyes do fade over time, so I'm always finding ways to keep the colour from disappearing too much. I loved the contrast as well with white on blue from the wax batik+indigo and the blue on white from the paint on eco print mix. My designs were bold and after a few tries, the patterns flowed really well.

Then came the words, Amanda at the museum, kindly found me a list of quotes from Cowper poems, which I could use to inspire my designs. His love of the garden and poem about the Wise Owl of the wood and the humble garden snail. I also found some of the shorter lace 'tells' or rhymes that children would have learnt while they were learning to make lace, one of which we all know from childhood: Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candle stick! I certainly didn't know that was a lace making 'tell' .

I was happy with how the artwork was going, a good variety of designs and patterns. Then I remembered I had acquired a collection of real bobbin lace and thought how lovely it would be to include some of that! I contacted the friend of a friend and found out who her mum had been, Anne Hough was the lovely mum who had sadly died in 2019 and I had been given lots of her lace samples by her daughter Carole (thank you Carole) What better tribute to Anne than to use some of her work on my cloths in the museum, it seemed a fitting application. I had also been using some of the lace to make some white cotton reel christmas trees, so I have now made sure that Carole has one of these as a 'thank you' she was delighted!

Some links to the museum for your delight.......

Cowper and Newton museum

Lace making