Artefect 6 - new work for my exhibition Beneath Our Feet

I may have mentioned once or twice that I currently have a solo exhibition called Beneath Our Feet at Salford Museum and Art Gallery. The exhibition runs until Sunday 5th May however I will be holding a ‘meet the artist’ event there on Saturday 27th January from 1pm to 2pm. The event is free and you don’t need a ticket, you can just turn up.

There is another exhibition on that some of your might find interesting. It is called Islington Mill - 200 Years in the Making and contains some textile pieces. Islington Mill has been part of my family life at various times over the last 20 years and it is great to see how it has evolved over the years. The museum also has other galleries, a shop and a lovely cafe that serves really good coffee and cake!

I hope that some of you can join me, even if you have met this particular artist once or twice before!

…… because we all deserve some colour in our life during these grey January days!

May I wish you all a very happy and creative 2024 and express my thanks to those of you who have brought my fabric packs! You are definitely worth it ladies!

I thought I would start the year by sharing one of the new pieces I made for my current exhibition (Beneath Our Feet). This isn’t one that was rolling round in my head for ages, instead it popped out as a fully formed idea after seeing an image of a collection of solid coloured vases made by Pilkington Tile & Pottery Company around the turn of the 19th century. Pilkington is one of the inspirations for my Artefact series with all the quilts I have made so far being pale and quite subtle in their colouring. Not this one though …. which is why I have chosen to not call it Artefact 7.

Pigment #1 celebrates the wonderful, brightly coloured glazes developed by the Pilkington chemist Abraham Lomax and others. The development of these glazes was an early example of where scientific advances, in this case in inorganic chemistry, were applied to the art of the potter. Using Dimitri Mendeleev’s newly published Periodic Table as a starting point, the Pilkington chemists carried out hundreds of controlled experiments. Oxides of copper, cobalt and iron were used to add colour to the crystalline, opalescent, eggshell, transmutation and lapis glazes developed by the company.

I selected five colours - golden yellow, rust, dark brown, a turquoise and a green made by mixing turquoise and dark brown dyes. The fabrics were breakdown printed with multiple layers of print to build up the density of marks. I then added a layer of the appropriate colour to both the front and the back of each fabric creating a set of vibrant fabrics. The fabrics were cut into stripes then into different length pieces. I kept all the golden yellow pieces 3 inches long but varied the lengths of the other colours. I then used my usual composition process - I jumbled the fabrics into a big pile, closed my eyes and picked pieces at random. These pieces were laid out in the order I picked them before being sewn together. I did swap out a couple of pieces but that was all.

All good and such fun. I took photos with my camera as I worked so that I could post on Instagram. And something really interesting happened. The image above was taken with my fancy pants camera at 300dpi and is a really good representation of the colours. The image below was taken with my phone at 72dpi …. and the colours look so different even though the lighting conditions were similar. The green is indistinguishable from the blue and the brown looks much more blue than it actually is. Which is really weird. So I used my camera to photograph pieces of the blue and green fabrics with space around the two fabrics (scroll to bottom) and they are very definitely different colours.

The science of colour is fascinating. How we each ‘see’ colour is unique as it depends on the biology of our eyes but also on the interaction of different colours as they are placed side by side. And how we ‘share’ colour is dependent of the devices we use to capture and display colour.

I love it and am looking forward to having a colour filled 2024!

In what will be a bit of a theme for 2024 I have started going through the studio and our home in preparation for our planned move (and downsize) in 2025. I could have started in the cellar which is full of all sorts of stuff (otherwise known as rubbish) that have magically appeared over the last 25 years. Instead I opted for a very pleasant couple of weeks sorting through my boxes of hand printed and dyed fabrics.

Even though I’ve sold lots of Wonky Printed Inspiration Packs and Absolutely Hand Dyed Packs over the last few years I’ve still managed to accumulate lots of fabric often when researching and sampling my books. Certainly more fabric than I will ever use. And then there are the fabrics that have been dyed and printed for series of artworks that I know that I’m not going to go back to. And so I’ve put together lots of fabric packs that I hope to find new homes for! Have a look at my website here.

Now a more commercially savvy person would have got the packs ready for sale in the run up to Christmas as they do make lovely gifts but I was rather tired after the mad panic that was getting ready for my exhibition. Instead I am going with ‘stave off those winter blues / fabric is for life and not just Christmas / because you are worth it ……’

My solo exhibition is now open and, in my humble opinion, looks blinking fabulous. The team at Salford Museum and Art Gallery have done a great job with hanging the pieces. The exhibition runs until Sunday 5th May 2024 and I’ll be doing a couple of artists talks in the New Year (more details to follow). If you want to read more about my inspiration for the exhibition there is now an extended artists statement online which you can find here.

Having a solo exhibition in such a wonderful location is a really big deal for me so needless to say that I was rather nervous ahead of the opening last Saturday. Would anybody turn up? Thankfully lots of lovely people came and I had some wonderful conversations, especially about my coal mining pieces. In fact I was so busy that I didn’t take many photos during the opening but I will share images and details of the pieces in the exhibition over the coming weeks.

For now however it is all about Christmas. So may I wish you a very happy one!

Leah x

So I have had a little lie down and am getting very excited about my exhibition opening! I’m also really happy with the greeting cards that I have had printed for the exhibition. I used a wonderful little company called The Dandy Arthouse, great customer service and great cards. Very importantly the colours are perfect. Thanks to Hazel and Terry at InStitches for the recommendation. There are ten designs including images of works that are new for this exhibition. If they sell well I will get more printed and added to my online shop.

My second happy dance this week was the arrival of The Quilter magazine which features a short article I wrote for them about the preparation for my exhibition. Very happy with the images and the layout. And sort of happy with the photo of me … I hate having my photo taken but this one is OK (thanks Joe)!

What next for me …. well lots more sleep between now and the opening on Saturday 16th plus a big clean up in the studio. It is fair to say that I used every inch of the studio in the mad rush to get work finished!

And there’s also Christmas to get organised for ….

…….. and I got there! I was very happy, and mightily relieved, to deliver my art to Salford Museum and Art Gallery on Wednesday! I’ll be going to the museum next Wednesday to check that I’m happy with the hanging so expect lots of photos! The exhibition, called Beneath Our Feet will run from Saturday 16th December to Sunday 5th May 2024 with an opening event on the afternoon of the 16th December. You can get more info here.

I’d love to say that getting there was easy with no hiccups but I think the fact that I stitched the last stitch at 3pm on the day before I was due to deliver the art tells a tale! You just can’t schedule ‘life’!

Which is why I had a plan A, a plan B and a plan C …..with different layouts based on different numbers of new work. It pays to be pragmatic. And to have a support package (large quantities of good coffee, mince pies, Maltesers and other healthy foods) in place.

All that said, I would love to see some of you at the opening!

Leah xx

Four weeks until my exhibition, Beneath Our Feet, opens at Salford Museum and Art Gallery and I am delighted to invite you to the opening! The opening event, with drinks, is on Saturday 16th December from 1pm to 3pm. 

The exhibition runs until 5th May 2024 and the museum is well worth a visit. There is parking just outside with further parking a few minutes walk away. There is a lovely cafe and a shop.

The event is free but the Museum asks that you RSVP so they have an idea of numbers. Your can do this here -  https://salfordmuseum.com/event/Higgins/ . You'll need to scroll to the bottom and click on 'register'.

I hope that you can join me! I'll be the nervous looking woman propped up in a corner with a well earned glass of something! But for those of you who can’t I will post photos (and maybe a video) after I’ve had a little lie down ….

My new workshop, Luscious Layers, sold out really quickly so I have just added new dates to the website - the extra workshop will run from Monday 23rd to Friday 27th September next year. I’m really looking forward to this one as we will work with multiple surface design techniques to create layered, complex beautiful art cloth. You can find out more here.

I’ve also added an extra Breakdown Your Palette workshop from Monday 12th to Friday 16th August next year. This is my most popular workshop and I love it! Breakdown printing is my favourite technique and the basis for most of my art. You can find out more here.

In other news I’m still stitching like a woman possessed …. 30 days until I need to drop off the art for my upcoming exhibition. Blimey …..

My upcoming exhibition opens at Salford Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday 16th December and everything is coming together! The lovely people at the museum have created a poster for me which I think looks rather lovely. And they have extended the exhibition - it now ends on Sunday 5th May 2024.

There will be a preview from 1pm to 3pm on Saturday 16th which you are all invited to! More details to follow but it would be lovely if you could join me. The Museum has other exhibitions including one from the residents of Islington Mill on its 200th anniversary, a rather lovely cafe and a shop.

I’m also going to do a ‘Meet The Artist’ session on Saturday 27th January 2024 and a Childrens Print Workshop on Sunday 25th February 2024. Again more details to follow.

In the perfect world I’d have all the art ready …. if only! The studio is a creative mess and I’m somewhat stressed. The exhibition is a combination of new and existing pieces. I’ve aimed to create four completely new pieces as well as substantially reworking one of the older pieces. Which doesn’t sound a lot. And it wouldn’t be a lot if I created small pieces …. the new pieces range in size from 120 x 120 cm to 400cm x 135cm so not small. And my process is quite time consuming. Which is a long winded way of saying that I’m working long, but very happy, hours! So if I’m a bit slow responding to emails please bear with me …

Leah x