Art is Unity

'just got back from a trip to Cumbria with the Art Workers' Guild. We had been invited up by Grizedale Arts to be involved with their long running community project with the Conniston Institute. There was little in the way of a brief as it was a 'go see' kind of mission but never the less, being artists, we did stuff ! The public were invited to come and learn or just observe the various master crafts people there and many did ! I teamed up with Rachael Matthews of PYF and we decided that various aspects of the institute needed attention. The Ruskin museum is situated at the back of the main hall and there is a large collection of Ruskin lace in it. It was developed as a form of income for local people and combines drawn thread work with needlelace techniques. We took the idea and started developing some ways of making lace that could be printed with . Rachael had a huge roll of jute with her and we made various pieces to explore simple ways to improve the floor and chairs !The above photo shows how I turned a chair into a loom and then made a strip of needlelace on it . This was then wrapped around a roll of masking tape and made into a printing roller by Daniel Heath , another member of the team.

The complete story can be found on the Guilds' Tumblr