Mari and I met on Saturday morn at Birmingham New St. station - she had an early start from Bath, especially for a weekend, and I was shaking off a hangover from staying with my lovely ex-flatmate... but there was plenty to wake us up and keep us entertained at the show!
We did giggle at the other shows being hosted at the NEC though (like those on the right)... but then, they probably giggled at ours! ;0)
We thought it might have been a little bit more appropriate for ours to have called the 'Stitching and Knitting Show': there seemed to be lots and lots of embroidery stands and not quite as much for the knitters...and there were lots of general crafty stands (lots of paper and glitter for sale (left); looked like Indian spices!)
But what they did have knit-wise was great! Mari and I went a bit mad in this stand and spent most of our pocket money in the first 10 minutes on the most gorgeous Alpaca wool and lots of bits'n'bobs to satiate our new felting obsessions.
I hadn't anticipated that many exhibitors wouldn't welcome photography - in case we steal their ideas I suppose - but I had imagined that I would be able to find them online. So, I'm pretty surprised to see that a large number of the artists don't have an online presence - most peculiar! But I have done my best at tracking people down - if you have better luck please let me know and I'll update these links!
We loved the work by Hélène Soubeyran! She doesn't seem to have a website up and running properly yet - but I'll keep an eye on Google...luckily there was a big arrangement of her work in the foyer and no-one seemed to mine me taking snaps (upper right and left)! She arranges the wools in resin and then takes the block to a marble mason, who saws them into slices. They are wonderful! Some look really like geological strata and fossils (upper right) but in other column the colours are really bright and unorganic (left). I was smitten - wools, a fossily-look and art combined - but, sadly, her prices quickly made me creep quietly away...a small 10x7cm block was £100 and the columns were £3K. Eeeek. But, I suppose the cost of the sectioning of the blocks would cause their price to soar immediately.
Other wonders were Julie Arkell's amazing papier-mache figurines (right): just like being in a fairy-tale book! It reminded me of Ullabenulla's beautiful blog. Many of the little people have knitted accessories... I love this kind of thing - my favourite cafe of all time has to be Hansel und Gretel in Bath, which also has lots of angel, fairy pretty things of this ilk, and it makes me long for Christmas to come..!
Hillu Liebelt makes some lovely tapestries and weaved pieces (left).
I was pleased to see the Lace Guild there too - I've struggled to get the information I've needed from the web...so they were there to answer my random questions.
The Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers were there too - and a nice lady showed us how to make a drop spindle out of a stick, modelling clay and some CDs. Blue Peter would be proud!
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