Last week, from wednesday 25 March until sunday 28 March, Leiden was in the grip of textile mania! The Textile Festival was in full flow, with an endless stream of (mainly female, but not exclusively) visitors from far and wide who had come to admire, participate in workshops and seminars, buy, and generally be inspired by everything that was on offer.
One of the activities was a textile route incorporating 39 galleries, museums, and other places, all with textile related things on show. As mentioned on an earlier blog, Gallery Zone  was part of this route (number 11 on the map!). We were busy, busy, busy.... but it was great fun. The photo was taken at one of the few quiter moments!

This is one of Frans Beelen's unique and exotic necklaces. She uses textile in combination with minerals, fossils, feathers, glass, beads to make her wonderful creations.

Dorothy Wedderburn makes what she calls 'ragments'  - these are vintage jackets which she takes apart then dyes, prints and appliques, before re-constructing them as new and unique jackets.

Thats it for now about textiles. Next time.... furniture!!

Last Sunday was the opening of "Kleine Berichten - Grote verhalen" in Gallery Zone. Every month we have a new guest artist to exhibit his/her work on our walls, and every time the work manages to be displayed in such a way that it complements the permanent, members, work while at the same time providing a change of ambience and breath of fresh air.

This time we have three artists showing together. They work with textiles, but prefer the term 'artist' to that of  'textile artist'.

Hélène De Ridder draws her inspiration from writing and symbols. In her black and white batiks she brings these different elements together using a variety of techniques. Feathers, cut up car tyres, kitchenpaper, clay, paper, Chinese newspaper clippings....  just some of the things she uses for her assemblages. http://www.helenebatik.be/

Jette Clover started out as a journalist, and nearly always uses fragments of text in her collages and quilts. She is inspired by city walls covered in bleached out symbols, torn posters and unreadable graffiti, which she transfer to cloth through a process of painting, rusting, discharging, and printing.
http://www.jetteclover.com/

Rita Trefois uses ancient resist techniques to create her wax compositions on canvas.

Travels through the wide open landscapes of America and China have strengthened her relationship to nature.This is reflected in her recent work, which is also influenced by Eastern calligraphy, poetry and meditation.

http://users.telenet.be/ritatrefois-batikart.be