I write this with the current war in Ukraine dominating the news. My thoughts are with Ukranians, their relatives and friends, wherever they may be. Watching women and children fleeing on trains echoes and resonates with my family history. My father was nine when he and his brother were put on a train to London, fleeing the Nazi regime in Germany. The picture above is a folding book about my grandmother Sophie, and was made using a copy of her passport.
‘Europeans’, which was shown at my solo exhibition ‘Well Travelled’ at Ruthin Craft Centre last summer, is a composite piece repurposing the dresses I made to commemorate the lost women of my father’s family, originally exhibited at the Knitting and Stitching Shows in 2018. I made a new map of Europe and combined portraits of my family and words connecting us with travel, migration and belonging.
I am donating 10% of all sales from my online shop this month to the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal.
I gave another workshop at Loop London last weekend on folk art, a very talented and hard working group. I also dropped off some new work (Lace Flower Houses) for sale in store and on their website.
I was pleased to see my course ‘House and Home’ at Curious House Courses in May in the current edition of Embroidery Magazine – places are available.
You can see a current list of all of my courses, residential and one day, with spaces, on my dedicated workshops page on this website.
I have also been giving talks in person and online – it is great to connect with groups new and old again – you can contact me directly if you are interested in booking a talk or workshop.
I was fortunate to see the wonderful Louise Bourgeois exhibition ‘The Woven Child’ at the Hayward Gallery in London recently. I thought I had seen much of her textile work in person or in books, but there were new surprises…
Whilst I was at the exhibition, I was pleased to see copies of ‘Unravelling Womens Art’ at the Hayward Gallery shop, as well as titles by Batsford authors too.
I’m delighted to be included in another book and exhibition organised by the wonderful Timeless Textiles, in Newcastle, Australia. ‘Finding Your Thread’ is a collection of contributors to the gallery over its past ten years. You can preorder it and attend a book launch, details here.
I am also exhibiting there again in the summer, a portion of my ‘Well Travelled’ show in an exhibition called ‘Travelled and Wednesday Makers Group’ – very exciting.
Anne Kelly 