Exhibiting the collection

The Crafts Study Centre has a wondrous collection which it shows under different themes.  The current exhibition is related to books: Brought to Book.  I always love seeing these displays of the collection because the quality is so rewarding to observe - inspiring.
Most closely related to books of course is calligraphy, and the display which caught my interest most was that of Thomas Ingmire.  The perennial problem with display of artists' books of course is that behind glass only one double page spread is displayed.  In this case fortunately the work on show consists of a box of nine booklets, so multiple double page spreads are available.   This was the first time I had encountered this artist, and look forward to exploring more. Unfortunately I have not been able to track down illustrations for the work on display: Calligraphy ... some thoughts, but there are many examples of his work on his website, and better photographs on the Vamp & Tramp website.

Lucie Rie: vase (image from here)
A long favourite in the ceramics department is Edmund de Waal.  Today's visit reminded me that I have not yet read his book The White Road.  Perhaps I was put off by the final paragraph of Kathleen Jamie's review in the Guardian newspaper as although I understand the first, I count myself in her second kind of people:
There are two kinds of people in the world. One lot are hoarders, those frightened to let anything go, who imbue objects with memories, who feel aghast, naked, stripped of their identity without their accumulations, collections, crowded cabinets and vitrines. They will love this book. The other kind, those who value silence and space, may feel they are asphyxiating, that time and a thorough edit would have revealed the book’s true shape, its “beautiful resonance”. There’s no doubting that The White Road is a mighty achievement, but De Waal is himself relieved when it’s over, and he is back at his wheel in his studio, throwing white pots, “making again”.
By his book in the vitrine was a selection of white pots from the collection, including the exquisite Lucie Rie vase above.

Several lengths of Barron and Larcher design printed cloth from the Christopher Farr company revival hang beautifully next to a film of poet Jane Weir reading from her book of poems Walking the Block.  There is a very short YouTube film (not the same one) of Weir here.  Walking the Block, is a poetic biography based on the lives of the Modernist handblock printers and textile artists, Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher, who created a unique range of hand block printed naturally dyed textiles between the two World wars.  (from here)

(image above from here)
The book has many full page illustrations of the textile designs.

(image from here)
I was delighted to find puppets in the exhibition - I had not expected them, and had not heard of their maker William Simmonds.  He and his wife Eve together created them, as described here.  I am grateful that a book about him is about to be published, and so the lovely pieces were put on display.  There is a blog post about Simmonds here, with pictures of other puppets.

All in all an enriching exhibition of timeless quality work.