Throwing a pot

Saltaire Arts Trail 2019 - It's always interesting to watch artists demonstrating their skills. In the Maker's Fair, ceramicist Sylvia Glover was showing how to throw a pot on a potter's wheel. She made it look so easy, not a wobbly line in sight! From a lump of clay to a beautiful, even-sided little bowl, ready to be dried, took her less than ten minutes. 

Mawdsley Williams furniture design

Saltaire Arts Trail 2019 - David Mawdsley, of Addingham-based Mawdsley Williams Ltd, designs and crafts the most beautiful, unique furniture from a variety of different woods, chosen for their natural characteristics and grain patterns. His pieces, both the larger items of furniture and the exquisitely crafted smaller boxes and chopping boards, make decorative use of the grain pattern and the effects achieved by inlaying different types of wood.

I've seen his work exhibited at various events like the Arts Trail and Skipton's Art in the Pen. If I had money to spare and somewhere to display it, I'd treat myself to one of his console tables or maybe a bar stool. There's something wonderfully tactile about good wood, as well as the joy of the craftsmanship that goes into each piece.

Here, he was shaping a leg for a stool. I'd love to try working with wood, though since I have difficulty even filing my nails, I'm not sure I'd be much good at it! See David's website HERE for more examples of his lovely work.

Eye-catching moments

Saltaire Arts Trail 2019 - Here are some more exhibits that caught my eye this year, as I browsed the Arts Trail Maker's Fair and Open Houses:

Rather superior hand-made peg dolls by Peggie Belle - superior, that is, to the various attempts I've made at peg dolls during my career as mother and grandmother! They each had a lot of personality. 

Gorgeous, tactile, vibrant leather bags and accessories by Gosia Weber.

Colourful baskets and mats, made from recycled T-shirts by Saltaire resident Lola Moreno of Aupalola Crafts.

A frog water feature by Martin Norman, made of bronze and iron resin. Quite a cheeky looking chap, don't you think? I'd quite fancy installing this in my little back garden, though I expect it would soon hop off into some passing shyster's white van, so I won't! 

Made by Today

Saltaire Arts Trail 2019 - The Open Houses showcase work by local people, as well as celebrated artists from further afield. Séarlait McCrea is a Northern Irish girl living in Saltaire, making understated jewellery in her home and, when on the move, in her trusty campervan. With a love of simplicity and a loathing for excess, she creates minimalist, timeless pieces produced as ethically as possible. Her vision is set out in her 'Made by Today' website HERE, where you can see (and buy) some of her subtle and classy designs. She also runs jewellery making workshops in Saltaire and Leeds.

In my photo, she was carefully shaping tiny crescents from the thin sheet of metal, using a very fine hacksaw blade. She made it seem easy but I'm sure it's harder than it looked. One slip and your finger would be cut or the piece ruined!

Mandy Long - Ceramic Sculpture

Saltaire Arts Trail 2019 - It's interesting to notice what catches your eye as you wander round the Arts Trail... For me, it's not always the most obvious things, and often it is just one piece that stops me in my tracks.

The ceramic sculpture above was in the window of a house on Titus Street. It's called 'Landladies' and is the work of Leeds-based artist Mandy Long, pictured right. I loved the way she has caught the pose of these women. Even without faces, they are still hugely expressive and the piece really tells a story, I think.

Other exhibits displayed were also powerfully expressive, like the one below - the Hurdler. Seemingly suspended mid-leap, the athlete's muscles are straining to clear the hurdle. Much of Mandy's work depicts the physicality of sport in its various forms, allowing her to fuse grace and power very eloquently in her sculptures. The pieces are raku-fired, causing random crackling and blackening of the glaze.

I loved it - and I loved that I dared ask Mandy if I could take her photo and she said 'yes'! I'm getting braver. Look at her website for the full range of her beautiful work - HERE.

Saltaire Arts Trail 2019

There's always something happening in Saltaire... The film company left and the shops and cafés have all been returned to their usual look, with little remaining of their exciting BAFTA-seeking performance (see here), save traces of dusty gravel on the road.

Then it was the annual Saltaire Arts Trail over the bank holiday weekend. Residents in the village houses open their homes as mini art galleries, there's a huge Maker's Fair in the Victoria Hall and the art cognoscenti, both local and from wider afield, descend on Saltaire to enjoy some of the best art and craft imaginable, in one of the most interesting settings you could find.

The café in my top picture has had a number of re-imaginings in the recent past (not least as a pub during the recent filming). It is now Nordish, a café dedicated to good Scandi fika and smorrebrod. It operated as a 'pop-up' initially, with limited opening times. Recently it's been closed for an extensive refurbishment and now plans to build up to a more regular opening schedule and a wider menu. It was open for the Arts Trail, with artwork on show by Liz Tolan and Salma Patel.

'J Chadwick and Sons, Fruit and Potato Sales' has been turned back into Massarella's Café Bar and Gallery, where (even on an ordinary weekend) you can enjoy a coffee and a light snack whilst browsing their range of pictures and photographic prints.

Up in the residential zone of the village, various houses and some gardens were colourfully marked out with bunting, with a wide range of attractive and sometimes quirky artwork on display. This house had a selection of 'Sac pots' for sale, knitted plant pots that I featured on my blog last year - see here.

When the sun came out, so did the children, busily engaged in sculpting a willow lion with the guidance of Todmorden-based willow sculptor Joevanka Gregory. 

Shadows of the past

Saltaire Arts Trail 2018

Leeds Photographic Society once again held their annual exhibition on the top floor of Salts Mill. It's always interesting to see work from other camera clubs and they have a high standard, though I thought there was little that was really innovative. One of the issues I have with camera clubs is that we all tend to churn out similar work, driven to some extent by what we think will score highly with competition judges: gritty mono portraits, wildlife shots, sports action, a few landscapes. Leeds PS do have one lady who produces very attractive still life images; they're a bit different. 

I was really more thrilled (as always) with the feeling of being in the raw, un-refurbished and vast space of a former spinning shed in the mill.  When I'm up there I can almost hear the clatter of ghostly machines. The sun was streaming in through the skylights, making such interesting plays of light and shade. That always appeals to me. 

Postcard art

Saltaire Arts Trail 2018
Once again, an invitation went out to local people to submit art on a postcard, to be exhibited as part of the Arts Trail and then sold to raise funds for The Cellar Trust, a local charity that supports people with mental health issues. I didn't think there was quite such a wide variety or high standard this year, though I still enjoyed looking at them. Many of the images I most liked turned out to be by the same lady artist. But it is always interesting to see what people can do with a postcard, and there were some inventive entries. I think my favourite was the one above, but below are some more that caught my eye.

 And finally, one done by a child, I guess, but enjoyable for its simplicity and sheer character. 

Sacpots

Saltaire Arts Trail 2018
Sacpots are elastic, plastic plant pots, with flexible liners, designed to be filled with soil and moulded by the user to create an individual display. Versatile and environmentally friendly, they come in various sizes and a multitude of vibrant colours. They are designed and knitted by Marcela Livingston and were on sale in a garden on the Arts Trail.

Rather fun, I thought. 

The act of creation

Saltaire Arts Trail 2018
There were several opportunities this year to watch artists demonstrating their craft and to explore your own creativity too, with a variety of workshops on offer.

Jake Attree, a renowned Yorkshire figurative artist was offering 'Draw Saltaire' workshops, using pen and ink, graphite or oil pastels. I believe he lives in Saltaire although his studio is in Halifax.

You could also drop in to The Craft House to try weaving or making pom-poms and felt marbles.

It was lovely seeing people sitting around the village sketching.

Don't those colourful oil pastels look inviting...?

Marianne Springham

Saltaire Arts Trail 2018

Some of the art on display is easy to embrace, whereas some needs a bit more work to relate to... Marianne Springham's work fell into the latter category for me but it was certainly educative. She was exhibiting in the Methodist Church, which seemed an unlikely setting for a giant felt heart and paintings of kittens. Perhaps I should have been alerted by the row of tiny red shoes and boots on the way in! This was a bit different...

Marianne is interested in the work of 'Outsider artists' (see HERE) and this installation was inspired by Walter Potter, a Victorian taxidermist who created whimsical dioramas, using stuffed animals mimicking human life. One of his pieces was called 'The Kittens' Wedding' and that apparently inspired Marianne's painting on show here. 

Mim Robson

Saltaire Arts Trail 2018
The artist Mim Robson was busy creating pretty patterns outside the church. She was using natural materials: flower petals, leaves, seeds, stems - in a manner that reminded me of the well dressings that are common to the Derbyshire Peak District where I grew up. Well dressings are pressed into clay, whereas Mim's works were simply arranged on the ground. (Luckily, it wasn't windy.) Many of her artworks are ephemeral, inspired by land artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, and sympathetic to the surroundings, perhaps created in the woods or on a beach. They blow away, get washed away by tides or simply change and disintegrate over time, which is all part of the process. Mim also creates mandalas out of flower petals and uses henna to make patterns.

Art 2018

Saltaire Arts Trail 2018
It's that time of year again, when Saltaire is awash with bunting and artists. Although 'that time of year' was in fact, a little earlier this year... Saltaire Arts Trail usually takes place on the late May Bank Holiday weekend but this year, for some reason, it was the early May Bank Holiday. No-one was complaining since the weather was unusually glorious, a mini-heatwave in fact. It was so lovely to see the village thronged with crowds enjoying both the sunshine and the exhibitions. It is part of the tradition that some residents open their houses as mini art galleries, and there are exhibitions in the churches and Salts Mill, as well as a Makers' Fair in the Victoria Hall.

The colourful garden in the top photo belongs to the artist David Starley, a long-time resident of Saltaire, who produces wonderfully vibrant and heavily textured oil paintings of local scenes and natural subjects.

The oil painting below is by Ian Burdall, another Saltaire resident, who started out as a photographer before branching out into expressive oil paintings inspired by the North Yorkshire coast.

Lasting Impressions: Cloth Taxonomies

Saltaire Arts Trail 2017
For the origins of the 'performative and participative artwork' that took place in the spinning room on the top floor of Salts Mill during the Arts Trail, you have to go back a year. Last year, the artists Hannah Lamb and Claire Wellesley-Smith invited people to let them emboss a small piece of their clothing - a button, a seam, a zip, some lace - on a porcelain tile and asked them to write a label giving some facts and feelings about the item of clothing thus immortalised. (See here). This year, they were asking people to weave the labels into new work, using a variety of different types of warp threads.

It is a way of connecting the heritage of the textile mill with our everyday experience and the clothes we wear from day to day. Perhaps it sounds a bit daft, but it was quite moving for me to see thread and weaving in the breathtaking space that is the relatively untouched top floor of Salts Mill, a space that somehow echoes with the history it holds. Interesting too, to be able to touch, feel and experience the differences, in both their raw and spun states, between the various natural and synthetic threads we use.

The Society of Peculiar Knitwearers

Saltaire Arts Trail 2017
My very talented friend, the artist Ann Davies, has for many years been honing her skills in producing stunning and detailed drawings, washed with watercolour, of the iconic buildings of Saltaire (see here) and other local places.

Not content with a prolific output of wonderful painting, she has more recently also been turning her hand to working with fabric, embroidery and collage, creating quirky dolls (members of The Society of Peculiar Knitwearers), books, panels and storyboxes.

She had an open studio in The Butterfly Rooms and a colourful display in Art Parade on Victoria Road, which usually has some of her dolls for sale.

More postcards from Saltaire

Saltaire Arts Trail 2017
The popular postcard display in the church was back for the second year running. People are invited to create postcard size artworks, which are then sold off to raise money for a local charity: The Cellar Trust, which supports people recovering from mental health problems.

Many of the small art works are exquisite.  There were photos and embroidery, paintings and collages. These were some that caught my eye. The one top left was a collage of strips of paper. The attractive cat was a watercolour, as was the rainbow skyline. I particularly enjoyed a series made by young children (only 5 and 6 years old) at the local primary school showing their reflections on Saltaire. I thought the one shown (bottom right) was a very mature and pleasing piece.

Quilts and cushions

Saltaire Arts Trail 2017
Chris English makes colourful and modern quilted patchwork pieces: throws and cushions, made mostly from old shirts. He studied textile design at university and now finds a creative outlet in these colourful pieces. He appeared on TV on Channel 4's 'Kirstie's Handmade Christmas' in 2016.

Studio still life

Saltaire Arts Trail 2017
Whilst the majority of the artwork displayed during the Arts Trail is in the Victoria Hall and in Saltaire village's 'open houses', The Butterfly Rooms gift shop rents out artists' studios on its upper floors and these too are open to view. I find the general artistic clutter of the studios is as photogenic as the art itself.

The photo above shows some of the work of textile artist Hannah Lamb, who uses embroidery, cyanotype and mixed media to create pictures and sculptures.

Below are some shelves in the studio used by Alice Fox, whose work is mostly inspired by nature and the coast. She was showing some exquisite little brooches made from limpet shells (see here), with a tightly woven and stitched membrane of cotton/silk thread inside, most unusual.

As always, I am blown away by the imagination and creativity of all the exhibitors.