Ashes Vessel

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, I was recently commissioned to design and make a celebratory vessel to commemorate the Ashes coming to Cardiff for the first time. On Thursday 9th July the vessel was presented by the Welsh Assembly Minister for Sport, Alun Ffred Jones to Dr John Bannon, director of Cricket Australia, at a media reception at Cardiff Castle.

The Ashes Vessel, was commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government in partnership with the Arts Council of Wales and Safle - public art Wales. The vessel takes its inspiration from the spin of a cricket ball and will not only be a commemoration of the first test match to take place in Wales, but also a symbol of friendship between Wales and Australia. The vessel will then be displayed in the prestigious Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

This commission is the first piece of work that I have made that moves away from my previous geometric forms into a more fluid aesthetic. The vessel which measures 55x18cm, contains 33 taut, twisted hand woven ribbons in gold Lurex and black cotton. As the ribbons cast their shadows on the surface below, the layered twists and turns have dramatic visual impact that changes as you move your vantage point around the piece.

Alun Ffred Jones said:
"The presentation of this artwork means that Australia are guaranteed a trophy whatever happens in the rest of the Ashes series! The form of the piece seems suggestive to me of the flow of a closely-fought test match, with high points at the beginning and end and with twists and turns throughout its course. In that way, I hope that it reflects this first test match in Wales and brings back fond memories of the event for our Australian visitors."

David Alston, Arts Director for Arts Council of Wales, said:
"Arts Council of Wales is delighted to be a part of The Ashes Vessel Artist's Commission. Laura Thomas, an exceptional young artist, who recently received a Creative Wales Ambassadors Award, has created a stunning piece of work which is a fitting reminder of this momentous occasion for Wales."

Below are some stunning photographs taken by Kutchibok Design showing the piece from various angles:







And here we have some photo's from the Media Reception at Cardiff Castle. These photographs are courtesy of Steve Pope of Sporting Wales and must not be reproduced without his express permission. Please contact him directly if you want to use these images: steve@sportingwales.com

Good news x 3......

Well, maybe good things really do happen in three's....

Firstly I'm really delighted to announce that on the 29th April 2009, I was one of four recipients of a Creative Wales Ambassador Award from the Arts Council of Wales. 'This new award scheme is part of the Arts Council of Wales's Beacon scheme for individual artists and organisations. Funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, the aim of the Creative Wales Ambassadors Awards is to recognise significant individual achievement in the arts, to raise the profile of Welsh culture outside of Wales and to provide financial support to enable the artist to develop a new programme of work.'

Exciting creative projects lie ahead of me now, that I may not have been able to readily explore if it were not for the opportunity afforded to me by this Award. I am looking forward with enthusiasm to getting started with a new body of work which will see me creating more ambitious, larger scale works for exhibition in my host organisations, Ruthin Craft Centre and Brown Grotta Arts in the USA. Amongst the other threads of my work, I will also be forging closer links with architectural design research partners and working with Welsh mills on a design-art collection, which will all be complimented by my ongoing curatorial and education activity in Wales.

Secondly, I have just been awarded a commission to produce a 'vessel' to be presented to the Australian Cricket delegation when the first Ashes match is played in Cardiff this summer.

And lastly, I am delighted that I have once again been accepted to exhibit at Origin, the Crafts Council Show at Somerset House in October later this year.

Aside from all that excitement, this last month really has been a flurry of activity. Alongside my usual teaching on the BA Contemporary Textiles course in the West Wales School of the Arts, I have being running a series of 'Architextiles' workshops in the Welsh School of Architecture with Dr Wayne Forster. This has been an immensely enjoyable challenge encouraging first and second year architecture students to explore and draw upon the textile fundamentals of colour, pattern, texture and structure, to generate conceptual architectural proposals for a 'wonder wall'.

After appealing for help with my Architextiles research on the Weave-tech forum, I had a huge number of emails from interested weavers around the world into this activity, so I'm intending to record this series of workshops in a forthcoming blog once the project is completed.

I am also continuing to work on my first curation project 'The Warp and the Weft', which will be a group exhibition at the Oriel Myrddin Gallery in Carmarthen in 2010. I will be co-curating this with Meg Anthony, the Oriel Myrddin curator. The concept of the exhibition is to highlight 'unexpected' woven textiles. Exhibitors may use 'unexpected' aesthetics or perhaps integrate 'unexpected' technology into their textiles. At the end of this month Meg and I will be visiting the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham is select a piece by Peter Collingwood from the recently acquired archive of his work.

As for this weekend, after giving a talk on my work to the Bristol Embroidery Guild, I am looking forward to squeezing in a visit to COLLECT and the Stroud International Textiles Festival......

Until next time..... L x