Fabric, Fibre & Thread - Joint Exhibition of Saori Style Hand Weaving by Louise Cook and Embroidered works by members of The New Plymouth Embroiderers' Guild.

Fabric, Fibre & Thread Exhibition.
Joint collection of works by Saori style weaver Louise Cook and by members of The New Plymouth Embroiderers’ Guild.
Open until September 26th

This wide-ranging curated collection explores enduring and time honoured textile arts and putting a modern day spin on their use. The embroiderers’ use many traditional materials and stitch types that have been passed down through generations of stitchers e.g. traditional bargello stitched on a modern tulle substrate as in Sarah Millington’s “A Hole Where My Heart Should Be”.

Saori Style weaving has been around since 1969 when it was established in Japan as a way of ‘empowering all individuals to create and express themselves freely through hand-weaving’.
( Saori global.com). Louise’s woven works celebrate her joy in the natural world and her sense of creative play as she works on her looms. Louise is artist in residence for several weeks while her exhibition is up. She has her loom in the gallery for people to come and see her working or try it yourself. 

For the two weeks 1st September through to 12th September the gallery is being attended by members of the New Plymouth Embroiderers' Guild. If you have ever wanted to meet stitchers who have decades of experience in creating stitched fibre art this is a fantastic opportunity to come and chat and learn about their practice and make friends. The stitchers community around the world is becoming an increasingly important part of the object art revival and the honouring of timeless knowledge .