Studies after Linnaeus

 

As you may remember from my last post I have been working rather frantically to make my new set of work for Rural Idyll 2, the exhibition at Little Dodnash Farm, Bentley, Suffolk, open during the weekends of Suffolk Open Studios. My new ideas are based around the work of Carl Linnaeus the Swedish botanist who created the system of binomial nomenclature (two Latin names, genus and species). He also put plants into family groups depending on the number of stamens(male sexual part) to pistil(female sexual part) in the flower of each plant. He described each family as a marriage, for instance a flower with three stamen he described as "Three husbands in the same marriage."

The compositions are made up of hand embroidery, buttons, knitted flowers and selections of fabrics.

I am still working on the piece below and I am intending to do one more flower study and an embroidery of the original drawing by Georg Ehret in Linnaeus' Systema Naturae when he published it in 1735 - a bit like a key to the rest of the work.

Rural Collusions opens at Lackford Lakes!!!

The private view of Rural Collusions at Lackford Lakes was another wonderful occasion. Again we were lucky enough to have fine weather for the evening and many of our dear friends came to join us. Special thanks must go to SWT but particularly Emma Kerridge, education officer at Lackford whose fantastic organisational skills made for a fabulous spread of drinks and nibbles that never seemed to run out.

As for the work, I am really pleased, it looks great placed around the reserve. Three trees are adorned with my bracket fungi, a sand bank has become home to my reed heads, and a leafy canopy holds out a branch for the puffballs to cling to.

Don't take my word for it though go and take a look if you can!

We were really pleased to get so much press coverage for the exhibitions. On Sunday 8th May we ran workshops at Lackford as part of Lackford Lakes' Spring Fair- many people came and made their own reed head with me that they could take home and Ruth helped them make their own little feather islands like her beautiful full sized one on the lake by the visitors centre.

This project is not finished, however, as I will be returning to both venues on a fairly regular basis to record how the work changes as nature colludes with us by reclaiming the pieces and I'll let you see the developments.

I am now on full throttle making work for Rural Idyll 2, I'll tell you more about that in my next blog- but for now Thank you to all of you who have supported me in either the production or in coming along to Rural Collusions, at both venues.