Mary Sleigh

Gallery box – Seaweed nests

Jan and I installed our work along Beach Road at the beginning of July. I put up seven ‘gallery boxes’  attached to telegraph posts towards the beach end of the road and Jan installed seven shelves on fence posts.

Gallery box – Reed pocket

Out of place – our interventions along Beach Road speak of minutiae within the enormity of the landscape and express our differing points of view. However, our practice does cross over: the small scale, intimacy and concern with materials and found objects.

I hope that viewers will be curious, dwell a moment and see familiar objects with fresh eyes, each being significant in its own gallery space.

There is plenty to see in and around the church in Cley as well as Beach Road and the shingle bank. The exhibition is ends on Sunday August 3rd.

Have a look at this link to find out more and this blog too.

My four sessions at Stitchcraft Studio were great fun with an enthusiastic bunch of students.

Here are some of their samples creating a textured surface.

Jan & Mary’s first visit to the site

Beach Road, Cley next the Sea, Norfolk – first investigations together on a windy day in January after the storms

My friend and fellow artist, Jan Miller and I have been selected to take part in CLEY14 – A Creative Conversation. The exhibition will be open to the public from 3rd July – 3rd August 2014 in Cley next the Sea.

The curators were particularly concerned to highlight artists’ ideas of ‘a sustained conversation with materials.’ Jan and I have been asked to install our work along Beach Road which leads down to the shingle beach. Jan and I instigated an ongoing creative conversation a couple of years ago. This exhibition gives us an opportunity to develop this relationship further investigating and sharing a new location together to make work for the exhibition.

As you may have read the North Norfolk coast suffered damage in the storms earlier in the winter and then tragedy struck when a helicopter crashed in the Cley area. However, we are all taking up the challenge and art works will be on display in St Margaret’s Church and surroundings, the coastal path, possibly the Windmill and bookshop in Cley.

I’ve decorated a light bulb for the chandelier at One Church Street Gallery to be sold to raise funds for the charity Crisis at Christmas.
I really loved making mine and  covered it with  fine hand made felt, beads and sequins.

You can see all the artists’ bulbs at www.onechurchstreet.com

Gathering 1 & 2

I was thrilled to see two pieces of my work in Pinpoint at One Church Street Gallery. The selectors were looking for a breadth of approach in construction or application of cloth and thread.

I was excited to see works crossing the boundaries of art practice in a contemporary fine art gallery.

You can see more about the exhibition and gallery on their website:

www.onechurchstreet.com

Exhibition is showing from 12th October – 9th November 2013

Open Thursday, Friday, Saturday 11.00 – 4.00pm

I shall be at at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace next week helping with an exhibition of silk textiles from Assam. If you would like to see Muga or Eri silk  and other silk weaving come and see us in the Textile gallery stand L9.

The show will be take place on 10,11,12,13th October 2013 and we would love to see you.

I’ve just returned from a week in The Borders – a beautiful area  of Scotland, full of history and creative people.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to The Borders Textile Group, a lively and enthusiastic bunch who live in Northumberland and the Borders. I was talking to them about how much of my inspiration came from African culture. Have a look at their website and see some of the textiles that were on show.

www.bordertextilegroup.wordpress.com

I then tutored a 2 day workshop with some very hard working and enthusiastic students at Burnbrae Studio near Kelso. This is my 6th visit as a tutor and once again it was a very stimulating place to be, amongst some familiar faces and new ones too. We had a busy time making some book structures that would be useful for presenting samples or finished textile ideas. Here is some work still to be completed, so there’s still some work to be done!

Book structures in progress at Burnbrae Studio

Once again Yvette kept us supplied with  coffee, tea, home made cakes and lunch served with delicious new home made bread rolls.

Have a look at this website if you’re interested in how other makers/artists work.

www.conversations.jigsy.com

Well, it’s all over for this year so make sure you find out about next year’s event.

Saturday was the great day  of makers from all over the country showing what they made and giving everyone a chance to have a go. I loved the atmosphere – a buzz of excitement and people exchanging  information.

The seagull was there again and I saw it go off with someone that evening but not sure with whom or where!

I loved the robotic knitting machine and the Imperia sock knitting machine made over a hundred years earlier and working perfectly with the help of a human hand! Here’s  Tom working with the old knitting  machine.

Go to his website which is full of wonderful images and info about an exhibition – The Visible Mending Programme: making and re-making. www.tomofholland.com

If you enjoy knitting you’ d love to meet Sue Craig, a real enthusiast and organiser of Knitting the Map project. They are using natural dyes to colour the wool. The subtle colours are  perfect for knitting the strip fields from the old map.

Samples of natural dyes

There’s information about this project here:: www.knittingthemap.org

All sorts of  workshops took place on the Sunday and I had a great time learning how to make a plaited container using tetrapaks: Native Hands – Foraged from the Urban Jungle.  Have a look at my post about stitched bark containers.

This year I’m going to the Faire  on Saturday 7th and have booked in for a workshop on Sunday. It’s another chance to work with Ruby Taylor and develop some more ideas. It’s called Native Hands – Foraged from the Urban Jungle.

Don’t miss the Maker Faire and you can book tickets and find out more on their website

www.makerfairebrighton.com