Urban Baskets in Shetland

There was a good attendance at the opening of “Urban Baskets; tradition recycled” at the Bonhoga Gallery on Friday night.  My thanks go to all who helped with the installation and the opening but especially Jane Mathews, Kristi Cumming and Barbara Ridland. Hazel Hughson also deserves  thanks as she has been my main contact at Shetland Arts over the last six years and was instrumental in obtaining funding for the exhibition package and previous workshops. Alas, she was not at the opening because she had escaped for a much needed holiday in Portugal!

The work sits well in the spaces at the old mill, both in the gallery and the cafe, and people were smiling as they left, which is always a good sign.

Today, Tuesday 29^th March from 18.30 – 20.30 I will be doing gallery tours for visitors and then at the weekend 2^nd and 3^rd April I will be teaching a two day coiling and looping workshop at Quarff Hall. Bookings for both of these events can be made through the Shetland Arts Box Office.

http://www.shetlandboxoffice.org/ The tours are free but it's necessary to book anyway.

As always, when I am here, my time is running out very fast and I have not had time to make any new work which is frustrating when there is so much material just waiting for me. The 'Voar Redd Upp' (spring clean up) of the beaches happens in a few weeks when volunteers armed with bin bags collect flotsam and jetsam that has been washed and blown ashore over the winter, the quantity and quality of the material that awaits them is astonishing, most of it a by product of the fishing industry. Here is a typical example, already coralled by locals, at the beautiful West Sandwick beach on Yell. I want it all!....