Exhibition at Ashton Court, Bristol.

The group I belong to, Gordano Textile Artists, took part in the North Somerset Art Trail over the past few days and held our exhibition in the refurbished gallery in the Visitors' Centre at Ashton Court. It is a lovely venue and one of our favourites, though for some pieces the beautiful stone walls can be a challenge.
On entering the gallery the first thing I noticed was the Pearl Project which we had made to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Bristol Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild back in February. I hadn't seen it in it's entirety before and think the fabric folds and driftwood set all our individual pieces off very well.
The next things to catch my eye were Kirsten Hill-Nixon's amazing felt vessels which are so tactile and Liz Hewitt's columnar strips of dyed stitched African mudcloth. The detail on them is wonderful. Liz appliques small shapes of various fabrics which take the dye differently and add to the effect.

I tried to take photos of several glazed pieces but without success as the glass reflected the lights and everything else, making it impossible to get a clear result. Added to that, I was not really 'with it' yesterday afternoon and trying to decide whether I had hay fever or a threatening throat infection - I'm still not sure.

So I opted for just a few to give you a small taste of what it was like.

This is another of Liz's long pieces which I love. The pattern is oak leaves with lots of hand stitching meandering right down the entire piece.

A close-up of part of it. This picture illustrates how the various fabrics used, take up the dye differently.
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The day after my last post the collared dove fledglings flew their nest. We always took a peep at them each morning and suddenly they were gone. They mature so quickly and it's hard to imagine they were strong enough to fly though we had seen them doing quite a bit of preening. I wonder if there will be another brood this year. I'll let you know, but promise no more photos of them!