JANUARY colour raffle

SILVER

JANUARY MEETING–Talk by Ann Christy on Sketchbooks

Ann’s talk is about her collection of sketchbooks and her experience as a distance learner taking a City & Guilds level 2 course in Creative Sketchbooks.  

She starts with her early interest in drawing and painting, going back 20 - 30 years or more, showing some of those earlier pieces and demonstrating how she has developed her style to the sort of sketchbook work that she does now.

The pictures below show some of her sketchbook pages.

CHRISTMAS SNOW ?

To our amazement here on the coast we had a fall of about 10” (25cm) of snow on Friday night and now on Sunday afternoon it is still here much to our amazement – never known this to happen  before, certainly not in the last 10 years we have lived here.

Thought you might like to see what our garden looks like – if you would like to mail me any pics you might have, I will get them onto the blog as soon as I can.

A rather damp sit down here!!!

Love the patterns made by the frozen snow on the branches.

 
Our holly tree devoid of berries – eaten by the blackbirds.

 
This looks a bit of a ‘cool’ hotel!

Our pots look a bit swamped here – it just shows how deep the snow is.
Hope it all disappears by next Friday – going to our daughter’s for Christmas.

Have a good holiday – Happy Christmas and a healthy New Year.

KIMONO – an entertainment

A very different extended meeting  for December was well received by all members who attended. A fascinating talk, demonstration and hands-on session with Katie Chaplin on all things Japanese.

First of all Katie demonstrated ‘dressing a Kimono’ on a mannequin called Dolly!  The layers of silk wrapped and tied onto the body was quite amazing – I think I counted 15 in all and some are shown in the photographs below.  Most of these are used to ‘fill out’ the body to give a straight look and Katie started off with a white cotton base garment; padding around the waist to thicken (not many Westerners would need this I think!).      
The next layer in pink, had long falling sleeves to signify that the wearer is looking for a husband.  Yet more layers to fill out the waist area, then came the Kimono itself – mostly green and orange.

     
The Kimono Katie used was 45 years old – hand painted with some couched gold on the flowers of the front panel.
Mostly worn by girls at their coming of age at 20 and at New Year.  They must be worn with the front crossed left over right as the Western way of women’s dress – right over left – in Japan, is only worn that way on a corpse!!!

   The OBI that Katie used was gold thread woven into a heavy silk.
This gets wrapped around the middle, tied at the back and folded to form a bird (Little Sparrow) at the back.

  
Finally a fan is tucked into the front of the Obi and wooden shoes are worn with split toe white cotton socks.

Katie then performed the traditional Japanese tea ceremony – very calming and carried out in complete silence.

After a lunch break we then re-gathered for a ‘hands-on’ go at Furoshiki gift wrapping using fabric squares, which can be used to wrap almost anything.  Some pictures are shown below.

 
Some of our members with a collection of the work.  I think some people might be wrapping their presents a bit differently this Christmas!! 
A big thank you to Katie for a fascinating and very different meeting.

 
Katie, who has studied both in UK and Japan, uses vintage Japanese fabrics to create a variety of textile pieces, as well as doing talks and workshops – more information from her website www.japancrafts.co.uk

December meeting – Saturday 11th

A talk, demonstration and hands-on session with Katie Chaplin entitled ‘Kimono Dressing, Tea Ceremony and Furoshiki- Gift Wrapping’.
Information on Katie’s Kimonos can be seen on TextileArts.net and I have taken the following passage from that site – sounds interesting.

Few images of Japanese culture are as evocative as an elegant lady in a beautiful silk kimono. Although rarely worn nowadays, a symbol of refinement, sophistication and taste.
Yet 'kimono' translates simply as 'clothing', and was the everyday attire of all Japanese people for centuries.
In modern Japan you will still see the occasional old lady who has never worn anything except kimono, but most people only wear their national costume on special occasions e.g. Weddings, New Year celebrations etc., their clothing revealing much about their social status, lifestyles and tastes.
There are many types of kimono and many ways of wearing each type. Each nuance has meaning which can be 'read' by others. Young, unmarried women wear bright, gaudy furisode with sleeves reaching to their ankles. This shows they are old enough to marry, but are still eligible and looking for a suitable bachelor.

This will be a special extended meeting starting at 11a.m for 11.30 and you will need to bring your packed lunch.  Visitors welcome but the charge for this special event will be £5.50.  Branch members normal entrance fee.

Let’s hope the weather is kind to us so we can all get along to enjoy both the talk and demonstration and make it a special festive occasion.  Hope to see you there.