Cas Holmes Zoom

 We had a lovely afternoon last week when Cas Holmes visited us via Zoom. It would have been lovely to see her in person with her work but we had the next best thing.

She chatted to us about her 40 Yards Ongoing project.

Cas sketches are made on old books, new book and made books and are based on what she sees around her on her walks and bike rides in the locality or places she visits.

thoughts inevitably turned to the lockdown and how it has affected us all. During the first lockdown Cas hadn't realised the extent of panic buying that had started in supermarkets and was unable to lay her hands on flour - this lead to a piece of work called 'Where has all the flour gone'. It brought to light the greed and poor behaviour of some people which contrasted with the kindness and help she received form neighbours in her flourless period.

Pathways and routeways are a haven for wildlife and can be found alongside new builds. Cas depicts these habitats in her work, but look carefully and you can see a discarded coffee cup or wrapper lurking among the dandelions.

What will we have to say about recent times when we look back and reflect on what has happened and consider how the landscape on our doorstep has become more meaningful and immediate in our confinement. What have we noticed we hadn't before and how might we use this in our work.

There's an interesting article on Cas you can read here.

Museum of London

Here's an interesting read from the Museum of London's Anna Laviniere, a trainee collections manager. Her work involves researching, cataloguing and preserving objects in the collection. She has been remaking some of the embroidery pieces to understand more about them in particular a 1577 embroidered Bible cover said to have been to be crafted by Queen Elizabeth I. If you click on the link above there's a free little project to make a Tudor rose similar to the one a t the centre of the cover.

The materials used are thought to be silver -gilt thread, silver purl and small amounts of silk inlaid and couched work. The free pattern (and instructions) uses cotton and stitches to make an updates version, but no doubt you could try the techniques in the original if you have some goldwork supplies to hand. It looks like a nice project for a lockdown afternoon.

A Little Fabric Book

We have some very talented people in our Branch! Jackie has been busy this January and keeping herself occupied during lockdown by making this fabulous little book; it's full of inspirational quotes by a diverse group of people including Sir Captain Tom who sadly died this week. Spend a little time looking at her lovely work and take inspiration from the thoughtful quotes which are particularly appropriate in the current circumstances. 

There's more photos of what we've been up to with various challenges on out Instagram page - our 4" square challenge, #52tagshannemade and a couple of us are doing Cathy Reavy's Stitch Wheel too.

Stay safe everyone.