Orchard Square Residency: Mounting Textiles Work

I have been very busy the last couple of weeks, getting ready for my new Urban Sketches into Textiles residency at Orchard Square, commissioned by Making Ways in Sheffield. It's very exciting, as it's going to be a completely different experience for me.

One of the things I've been doing, is getting different fabrics ordered. This is partly so I have something to sew onto, as I try to turn my sketches into new textiles pieces, but it's also needed for mounting my existing work. I have space in my Orchard Square studio for a small exhibition and I want to use this opportunity to get my work properly presented, not least, so I can see it as a body of work, rather than just bits and pieces in a drawer.

As textiles is all entirely new territory, I've had to work out how to do it. I didn't want glass frames, because it felt counter to the textures of the work, but also because some bits, like the church, are a bit big. So, I have pressed John into service making wooden stretchers. Then I've covered these in loomstate cotton. This provides a gorgeous, taught surface to which I can attach the artwork, which allows me to keep the raw, uneven edges. These mounts are light too, which is good, because I have to hang the work without screwing into the walls of the studio.

I've mounted 10 pieces, of very different shapes and sizes. The church is the biggest: about metre square once mounted. I might not have room to exhibit them all, but I've decided to mount them anyway and work it out when I get there.

Please come and see me if you are local. I am putting up the exhibition this Friday, September 1st, so I think I'll need to be left alone that day, but I am open for visitors from Saturday September 2nd until I finish on Friday 29th. As a rule of thumb, you're probably best popping in after lunch, as I might be sketching around the shop in the mornings. It's also a good idea to check my availability calendar too, because there are a few days in the half of the month when I won't be there, because of prior bookings.

I'm not sure how much time I'll have for fully-blown blog posts during the residency, but I will certainly post photos of work here as I go along and will be sharing my progress on Facebook and Instagram too. You can look me up under the hashtag #artistupstairs.

Wish me luck!