Sunday 15 March 2015

Contemporary Textile Fair 2015

Contemporary Textile Fair stall


The last couple of months have been leading up to this event which took place at the Landmark Arts Centre in Teddington last week.

It's an important event for textile artists to show off their work, gain new admirers and hopefully sell some work!

There were over 70 makers of all textile disciplines from felt makers, hand knitters, textile print designers and fine artists. 

I had a small corner in this lovely former church to display the work I have being making since December. As well as my best selling lavender bags, there were textile pictures, dipped dyed shopper bags and sun printed purses.

My new digital printed silk scarves also made their debut. Made from a lovely soft silk cotton blend, the design is based on a Milky Way illustration by a Victorian astronomer Edwin Dunkin. A nice stylish accessory for the starry eyed!

On show were my sun printed pictures (cyanotypes) which gained much attention of the making process. "The moon printed by the sun?" The zip purses were also made by the same method. The other textile pictures I made were inspired by some Japanese dyeing and stitching techniques (mentioned in the last blog post).

It's was my first time showing at this textile fair so was opened minded as what to expect.  There were as expected, lots of textile enthusiasts who were interested in the technical aspects and were happy to pick my brain on how I did things! I would happily show at this event again as though not as busy as Christmas events, it was a great event to build up a following, sell some products and chat to nice friendly people.

Milky Way printed silk scarves.

Indigo dipped dyed Constellation bags
Dipped dyed shopper bags
'Through hardships..' textile picture
'Backbone of the night' textile picture
Stitched pictures in vintage frames
Stitched pictures in vintage frames



Constellation bags with stitched stars
Constellation bags with stitched stars

Sun printed pictures
Cyanotype (sun printed) pictures

Textile fair stall
Stall view

Textile pictures
Textile pictures

Sun printed star purses
Sun printed zip purses

Brooches and scented lavender bags
Lavender bags and brooches