Handmade Things Gallery – The Imagination Acts

WE CAN WRAP OUR DAILY LIVES, IN BEAUTY

A picture celebration of family and friends’ imaginings: skilful play, with all forms of Creativity

SPIRITUALITY: acting through non-acting

THE GALLERY offers a series of selected contemplations, of poetry, thought, scientific research, and image. It offers examples of how stirring a quiet seed might be. What thoughts might spring from what you read, what you see, how it touches you? How might the quiet seed grow? For grow it will, and this is the beauty of how we open ourselves up to nourishing freshness, through taking time to focus on spiritual offerings of creative minds.

HANDMADE THINGS

I love handmade; honour craftswomen & men. I wear handmade dresses from Rajasthan, India. Handblocked prints, Ikat weave produced by families which Denny Andrews has known for over 30 years. www.dennyandrews.co.uk.

There’s a few pots in the kitchen, bought at roadside stalls, in Malaysia. Rugs from the Subcontinent and some cloths woven in Indonesia and Mali. Woven baskets and turned wood bowls are particularly cherished because you can imagine the crafter sitting, painstakingly forming the object… a Philippine woman crouching down, weaving a flat brown & black dish from banana leaves…in Mali, mud relief patterning. Recall watching a 15 year old boy sitting before a log loom in Srinagar, Kashmir, weaving the golden silk rug which arrived here by post months later.

At the time, I knew little of the arguments for & against child labour.

I do know now that ancient craft skills are being lost, world- wide, as city technology gives hope of money .

Two current exhibitions in London, take our imaginations into the imaginations of present day and ancient Craft women and men :-

– Tate Britain until 21 January 2018 – Rachel Whiteread celebrates over 25 years of her internationally celebrated sculptures http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/rachel-whiteread

– British Museum 14 September to 14 January 2018 – Scythians warriors of ancient Siberia http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/scythians.aspx

Anne Yarwood

: Painting & box by friend Suzanna. Chair embroidery by my Father, Arthur, following his disabling car crash.

: Metal oil lamp. Wick in cow’s mouth. Bought in Srinagar, Kashmir

: The two LHS baskets Native American bought in Seattle

: Bought from wayside stalls in Malaysia. ‘Kelapa’ coconut shell spoon. Chinese soup kettle.

: Pottery bought in Rajasthan , North India

: 100 year Oak table from parents. Malaysian triangular Rice Winnowing basket.

: Glass hanging from British Museum. Gift from Mildred Mashader

: Long dish bought in the Philippines

: Garden Cabin – Gift from Teresa after her death

: Carpenter Ray Bishton remaking old playhouse into Bus Stop

: Indonesian weaving

: Chair often used in Play reading meets

: Gardener Andrew Day’s pond

: Friend Paul’s brickwork

: Crafted symbols made at end of a Jenny Joyce’s Myths workshop

: Jenny’s Nursing chair & rebuilt antique farmer’s desk by Japanese student at High Wycombe College

: 60 year Oak with rebuilt circular seat by Ray Bishton

: Hand turned Beech bowl by Steve Radford

: Family Trifle maker, David

: Poole pottery bowl left to us by Belle, David’s mother.

: Driftwood mirror from Cornwall

: Stumpery of logs from our 100 year old Cedar ….sadly truncated because diseased.

: David’s beloved meths-fired train set

: Pine dresser holding our mothers’ prized china

: Slivers of our Cedar tree

: Sculptures carved Steve Radford . Chiselled log “Helmand” created on day of British evacuation in Afghanistan

: Hanging by Tadek Beutlich innovative weaver. Ditchling school

: Mum’s cuddle cushion

: Handmade dresses from Rajasthan, India – Dennys Andrews

: Mother Lilian’s Singer Sewing machine

: Cloth collage sewn by a friend

: Screws for knobs in storage chest of drawers

: Central European Window Hanging bought from our local Emporium

: Scythians – A woman’s leather shoe decorated with tin, pyrite crystals, gold foil and glass beads, late fourth to early third century BC. Photograph: © State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg