I've finally finished my 6th Degree module and have visited my tutor Mary Cozens Walker at her studio located in a charming cottage in a lane lined with cow parsley and Hawthorne. I think she was pleased with my work and now there is just the final assessment hurdle in London on Saturday (2 years down, 4 to go). A Marquette of my final textile solution to the module which addressed the ambiguity of GM crops - are they saints or sinners? - is pictured above. The final pods/seeds would be at least 3 times the size as would the accompanying 'webs' . I have constructed them both from very fine needlefelt I made using a mix of wool, silk and Angelina fibres.
The other pictures are of my work combining the embellisher machine with stitch and again using a mix of fibres but predominantly silk. They are abstracts taken from own photographs of rock pools - one still and floaty and one swirling and containing anemones. This is a technique I am continuing to explore as I find it extremely satisfying and a break from the degree stuff.

This week saw the first of the Material Girls displays for 2008 at the Thames Chase Forest Centre. Somewhat disappointing I felt as the facilities were mediocre to say the least resulting in what I thought was a lacklustre display far below our usual standards. Still it was mounted as a PR measure as the Forest Centre is trying to promote local arts and crafts and I felt we needed to support anyone with this aim. However, it further highlights the lack of decent display/gallery space to be found in the suburbs of London.

On a brighter note our local 'dogwalking woods' are looking particularly beautiful this year and the scent of the bluebells this weekend was amazing. I took loads of photos and am feeling inspired to produce a piece of work to try and capture the wood's essence.