Collect 2020 - Somerset House.
There is something quite magical about the leap year day of February 29th which only occurs every four years. I always see it as a bonus day. A day for fun, mischief and mayhem……….
So on this leap year day which serendipitously fell on a Saturday I went to London with my son Elliott. First we went to Collect 2020 which is being held at Somerset House and is organised by The Craft Council to show the very best in contemporary Crafts such as ceramics, jewellery, glass, wood work and metal work.
The first person we saw was the potter Linda Bloomfield whose glazing books I have, well used, on my bookcase. It was so lovely to meet Linda in person and to see her beautiful work inspired by lichen. Linda has a new book coming out in June which looks amazing too. I was so excited and a little star struck to meet Linda ( especially when she said she likes my Instagram and my stories!) that I forgot to take any photos!
Linda very kindly sent me these beautiful images of her and her work this morning, Thank you Linda!
Beautiful Lichen pots by Linda Bloomfield.
We then went through into a beautiful room of ceramics- for me the stand out pieces here were by Rupert Spira represented by Oxford Ceramics Gallery.
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WORK OF RUPERT SPIRA AT COLLECT 2020 - OXFORD CERAMICS GALLERY.
We enjoyed meandering the many rooms and corridors packed full of beautiful crafts. There are some photos below of some of our favourite pieces. Unfortunately a few I forgot to write down the names of.
Above: Paula Reason
Above - Alice Kettle - Candida Stevens gallery. This was definitely in my top three galleries displaying work at Collect.
We then went to find Jacky Oliver who is an old college friend of my friend Michelle Thompsons. Jackys work is really stunning and she is such a lovely person to chat to. I love her use of shadows and enamelling work.
The final gallery that we searched out especially was Alveston Gallery which was showing work by Vicky Lindo who I met once through my friend Donna Flower and whose work is absolutely exquisite even to me who is not a fan of cats!
Above and below work by Vicky Lindo.
We then left Collect and beautiful Somerset House and headed to Store Projects in Kings Cross for our main event of the day which was a darning workshop with the lovely Celia Pym. This is the fourth time I have met Celia as I took part in a mending project where she mended mine and 19 other jumpers as part of a collaboration with Toast last year. I have also attended one of her stitching workshops at Loop.
Celia Pyms darning examples.
There were ten of us around the table including my son Elliott who is studying Fashion and is keen to learn more about textiles and darning. He had bought a sock to repair.
Elliott beginning his darning journey….
My friend Niki and her beautiful darning sampler.
My sock with a massive hole…..
We were all absorbed for two hours solidly darning and occasionally chatting. Celia talked to us about” finding your Flow.” And how this is the moment when everything just comes together perfectly and the stitches and warps and wefts just flow……
At the end as is customary in Celias workshops we all laid our work on the table for a “show and tell” and took photos and discussed colours and stitches and thoughts on the work created.
We finished the workshop feeling very mellow and satisfied with our creations….. Venturing outside into the gale force winds was a bit of a jolt after the cocoon of Store projects and the Buena Vista Social Club sound track which seems to work well with darning.
I am already hooked on darning as I do it on my houses and any clothes that look like they may have potential for holes but it was lovely to see Elliott fall in love with it too. I am finishing writing this blog post on Sunday 1st March now and am thrilled to report Elliott got up this morning and has already darned another sock!! I think he and yarn and holes will be having a good relationship moving forward. Thank you Celia Pym!