Alexandra Palace, the original home to the BBC, in London is currently host to the Knitting and stitching show. For anyone visiting this exhibition it is a wonderful venue, light, airy and with high ceilings and a not too hot or dry atmosphere, a rare thing at a large exhibition.
It is known as one of the best exhibitions for lovers of all things textile from knitting, sewing, embroidery, felt making appliqué, quilting, silk painting and the list goes on and on. There are work-shops, talks, specialist suppliers, advice, galleries and book shops. I was lucky enough to be at the prize giving for this year’s graduates and to have a private view of the work in the Textile galleries and meet some of the designer makers.
The Christine Risley Award went to Lenka Johanna-Marie (Horakova) for her Hand gun tufted Carpet Ideology and her performance installation After The Fall. The core of her work lies in the artist’s experience of communism and capitalism; the East and West divide of Europe by an abstract and a concrete wall. The work is set at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the implications that it had on the artist’s own family as well as Europe as a whole.
(Christine Risley was responsible for setting up the machine embroidery area of Constant Howard’s innovative and exciting textile department at Goldsmiths, university of London in the1950’s).
Twisted Thread have strong links with historic institutions such as the V&A and the American Museum in Bath, this exhibition they have taken MODA, The Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture, under their wing; and are showing Petal Power featuring the work of women employed by the Silver Studio in London between 1910 and 1940. The hand-drawn and painted textile designs produced by the Silver Studio map the trends for printed floral cottons, silks, chiffons and synthetic rayons that were the fashion fabrics of inter-war England. Unlike today with the use of digital printing, in those days the cost of engraving printing was very high and so print runs had to be large enough to make it financially worthwhile. The print manufacturers had to balance new ideas and trends with the public’s preference for floral prints. With Art Deco and cubist designs being popular the dress print manufacturers instructions to their designers was to produce cubist style designs but with added flowers. How’s that for a design brief!
Juliet Bawden - Juliet Bawden is a craft & design writer and broadcaster. She has had over 60 books published. She crafts, cooks -gardens and recycles
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