Hilary Bower Lecture

I went to a talk by Hilary Bower as part of the Stroud Textile Week,she talked about her recent work and that it is inspired by other craftsmen work how they make it and what is left over at the end.She is now using metal in her work and some pieces are nearly all aluminium.Her pieces represent item in everyday use objects not considered works of art,so the fact that I thought one of her pieces looked like Hoover bags wasn't so far off the mark.She said that the piece below was very difficult to stitch it is aluminum on organdie.

She even brought her sketchbooks for us to see she does a lot of writing and always makes a lot of maquettes. She came across as a very warm person and I would love to have a tutorial with her.

At Ruskin Mill at Nailsworth their was a felting exhibition Margaret Docherty and Sarah Brooker, who was there she had made a pink bag for Gregson Perry ,and had a great photo of him in a frilly dress with the bag.Her work was superb and she is doing a workshop at Urchfont , which I hope to go to.The piece below is by Margaret who is resident at Ruskin Mill.

The felt shown below is by Sarah from an exhibition called Tutti Fruiti.

You have to park at Horsley and walk back along by the trout streams, what a joy,ducks and wild flowers every where and the gardens all planted with every type of vegetable.

A seat carved in memory of one of the students the mill is used by people with learning difficulties

Beautiful isn't it.