 I'm doing a series of blogs with a little bit of background information about some of the Harris Tweed "paintings" in my exhibition. at the Bakehouse Gallery in Alnwick this summer. We are lucky enough to live four miles away from the gorgeous beach at Embleton Bay in Northumberland and this is the view of Dunstanburgh Castle at the far south end of the bay. When I was little my Dad used to take me and my brother to visit Dunstanburgh Castle via a rather torturous journey on public transport. Incredibly we used to walk 15 minutes to the station, catch a train to Newcastle and another to Alnwick, catch a bus to Craster and then walk to the castle. The castle wasn't enclosed then and we never saw another soul while we were there. I have always loved it here and that's why this is my fourth picture of the castle. The reason this is titled "Dunstanburgh Castle III" is because the second picture is called "Dunstanburgh Castle Gatehouse".  My line drawing for the picture coloured in with my ancient childhood Derwent pencils. This drawing was then cut up and used as pattern to cut out all of the pieces of Harris Tweed for the picture.
Needle felting the details in wool yarn. Two of the tweeds I used (sea - left & sky right) The two tweeds pictured were bought specially for this piece and they were woven by Annie Mackay of Crotal Harris Tweed. Annie is one of a growing number of women weaving Harris Tweed, which was traditionally woven by men.
Crotal is the name for lichen when it is used to dye tweed. Once when I was demonstrating how I made my pictures at an art gallery a gentleman came up to me and asked me in all seriousness if they still used "scrotal" dyes in Harris Tweed. I somehow managed to keep a straight face and replied "I don't think they that do anymore". "Dunstanburgh Castle III" has now sold but the image is still available as a greetings card or a giclee print in 2 sizes (£25 & £75) from the Bakehouse Gallery or our online shop.
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 I'm doing a series of blogs with a little bit of background information about some of the Harris Tweed "paintings" currently in an exhibition. of my work at the Bakehouse Gallery in Alnwick.
I have to confess that although I live in the countryside, I don't keep chickens and I know very little about them. "Chickens" was one of the first pictures I did for the exhibition and it was inspired by a trip to York Art Gallery back in 2017. One of the rooms in the gallery was completely transformed to reflect one artist’s vision of a Lumber Room – a room of miscellaneous stored objects and artefacts, inspired by a short story by Saki. York-based artist Mark Hearld spent 2 years researching the objects and artworks to include in the exhibition, which were taken from the store rooms of the Yorkshire Museum, York Castle Museum and York Art Gallery. The slightly gloomily lit room was full of an amazing mix of textiles, ceramics, costumes, oil paintings, works on paper, furniture, and taxidermy, along with a selection of Mark's own work made specially for the exhibition. It was so good we went to see it twice and we were gutted when we returned a third time later in the year to find it had gone. We had mistakenly thought it was a permanent feature of the gallery! Anyway .....chickens and birds feature quite a lot in Marks' work and I was inspired by him to create a picture of chickens. The picture itself is an imagined composition based on various photos and the white coloured chickens are Suffolk Lights. "Chickens" has been professionally framed in a plain wooden frame with an opaque white finish. It measures 15 inches square (inc. frame) and costs £400. It is also available as a greetings card or a giclee print in 2 sizes (£25 & £75) from the Bakehouse Gallery or our online shop.  "St Mary's Lighthouse II" I grew up in West Monkseaton and I spent a lot of time on the beach at Whitley Bay. St Mary's Lighthouse and the Spanish City are the town's most significant landmarks and both hold a special place in the heart of any "ex-pat" such as myself. As such I was delighted when I was commissioned by For the Love of the North to do a picture of St Mary's Lighthouse. I am really pleased with the way this picture has come out. I am especially pleased with the sea, as it's quite hard to capture the movement of the waves and I think this is my best attempt yet. I am also quite chuffed at finding just the right two shades of Harris Tweed to represent both the wet and dry sand of the beach. Greetings cards of this image will be available in a few weeks, but prints of the image are available now from our online shop and from For the Love of the North.  For the Love of the North is a gift shop/gallery in Whitley Bay run by local residents Paul and Lucy Hull. The shop features artwork, cards, prints, crafts and gifts sourced directly from independent artists and suppliers who live and work in the North East. Paul and Lucy say that they carefully select the artists and artisans they work with in order to represent, in their opinion, the very best of what the North East has to offer. They are also passionate about promoting the North East as a great place to live and visit, and all items purchased from their online shop come with a tourism tip containing personally recommended things to do and places to visit in the area. Based on the success of their Whitley Bay shop which opened in early 2017, the pair will be opening an additional outlet on August 6th 2018 in an exciting new development in the centre of Newcastle called Stack. For the Love of the North is located at 266 Whitley Road, Whitley Bay and is open from 10 am – 4pm Monday to Friday and from 9.30am – 5pm on Saturdays. The pictures below show something of how the picture progressed with the usual help from Audrey.  The background pieces of Harris Tweed pinned and ready to be needle felted into place.  All Harris Tweed pieces now needle felted into place.  Audrey "helping" as usual.  Needle felting the details into place using wool yarns, in this case a beautifully soft hand dyed and hand spun alpaca yarn from Lucy Locket Land
 Eilean Donan is THE iconic Scottish castle and it's rightly famous worldwide. Situated on a tiny tidal island (eilean is Scottish gaelic for island) where 3 lochs meet Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh, it is the ultimate romantic, beautiful highland setting. As such it's a scene that I've been meaning to create a picture of for a long time. In the winter (I'd like to say last winter, but as it's snowing outside as I type this, I fear it isn't over yet!) anyway ..., a few months ago the castle contacted me and asked if they could stock my greetings cards and prints in their gift shop. They also asked if I could do a picture of the castle and so here it is. I wanted to get a real sense of the dramatic brooding beauty of the location and I also just had to have purple heather clad hills. As a result I picked a rather unusual coloured tweed for the sky. As ever with a Harris Tweed that's made from a blended yarn with lots of different colours in it, it's really hard to describe the colour. But overall it's a sort of pale purpley, bluey, brown colour, which is the best I can do! I've included a close up photo to give you some idea, but unfortunately technology also has a a hard job of accurately representing blended Harris Tweeds, so the photo also only gives a rough idea of how it really looks.  As you might expect Eilean Donan Castle has a long and interesting history dating back to the 13th century. The present version of the castle was opened to the public in 1932 after 20 long years of restoration by Lt Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap, who bought the island in 1911., and it has remained in the hands of the same family ever since. Eilean Donan Castle has also featured in many films, including:-
The castle is open to the public throughout most of the year and has its own visitor centre which includes a coffee shop and gift shop. If you can't make it up to Scotland to visit Eilean Donan Castle you can buy this new image from my online shop as a greetings card and a giclee print in two sizes.
 Sorry I haven't blogged for absolutely ages. I do have a good excuse though, apart from Christmas, as I've been really getting my head down and concentrating on producing new work for my forthcoming exhibition at The Bakehouse Gallery in Alnwick this summer. And I will be posting about my new work soon, I promise!
Anyway I am really excited that there's a little blog article about me and my work on a new craft website caled Cosy Project https://www.cosyproject.com/blog/selvedge-jane-jackson/.The article is based on a feature Homespun magazine did on me and my work last year (see my blog for May 2017). Hope you enjoy it. Cosy Project is a new crafting website from the people who produce the Australian craft magazines Homespun and Quilters Companion. It has has lots of online classes and crafty projects, and is a great source for the latest knitting, sewing, crocheting, embroidery and quilting digital patterns. www.cosyproject.com www.homespun.net.au  I am really excited as an article about my work and the story of how I became a full time textile artist is being published in Issue 165 of a magazine called Be Creative with Workbox. Be Creative with Workbox is one of the longest running sewing magazines, which has been providing textile and needlecraft creations, inspirations and innovations for the last 30 years. The magazine contains inspirational stories and project ideas for a variety of crafts such as patchwork, quilting, embroidery, felting, lace making. It also has an extensive ‘What’s On’ section, providing a great crafters diary, along with. news about textile groups and guilds around the world. Issue 165 comes out on the 1st of December. To find out more about the magazine visit www.creativewithworkbox.com .    
Although I have never had the pleasure of meeting "Chomsky", from his photographs I would say that he has shed loads of personality and I absolutely loved the photo that his owner and I decided should be the one I worked from. Apparently he is a cross between a Siamese and Tabby cat and he's also slightly cross-eyed. His owner requested a background of purple and green Harris Tweeds similar to the one I'd used in a previous picture of "Blossom" the angora goat. I also decided to use a grey/black herringbone Harris Tweed as the background for his fur and a pale yellowish green Harris Tweed for his eyes.
Although I loved the photo I was working from and ultimately I would say that I enjoyed doing this picture, I think it will be my last animal portrait as they are just so very challenging. I'd say that overall this picture took me twice as long as a picture of this size (12" x 12") usually does (35-40 hours) and it was easily the hardest thing I have ever done because it was just SO difficult to get his face right. I am really pleased with the end result, as is Chomsky's owner. But my husband Keith will tell you there was much bad language and talk of giving up half way through, when I just couldn't get the nose and eyes right. Anyway he's done now and so onto more pictures for my Bakehouse Gallery exhibition next summer.
  Yarndale 2017Thank you to everyone who came to see us at Yarndale last weekend. We had a fantastic time and it was great to see so many people, old friends and new. The dates have been announced for next year's Yarndale, so make a note in your diary -
Saturday 29th September 2018 : 10am - 5.30pm Sunday 30th September 2018 : 10am - 4.30pm. Yarndale - Skipton Auction Mart, Gargrave Road, Skipton, North Yorkshire. BD23 1 UD The above new pictures are all destined for an exhibition to be held at the Bakehouse Gallery, Alnwick in late summer/early autumn 2018.
It would be fair to say that I wouldn't be where I am today without the help and support of Fiona Stanley, the owner of The Bakehouse Gallery. Fiona had faith in me in the very early days, when I was too shy to show gallery owners my work and I made Keith go on my behalf. Fiona was also the first person to exhibit my Harris Tweed rag rugs and she encouraged me to have my first exhibition of my needle felted Harris Tweed work in her gallery back in 2011. Fiona has continually exhibited my work since those early days, and it will be great to have a full exhibition in her gallery again. So now I need to really knuckle down and produce at least another 8 pieces of work for the exhibition. This will be a bit of a challenge as I have to be careful not to work too long at any one time since I injured my right arm through overworking. So what with this physical limitation and being busy with the business side of things, it can often take 6 - 8 weeks to finish a picture. I will show these pictures and any other new work destined for the exhibition on my Tweed Originals page, but they will not actually be for sale until they go on display as part of the exhibition. I'm really excited as issue 163 of Be Creative with Workbox magazine is going to feature one of my pictures ("Left Bank Kirkcudbright") in the magazine's gallery pages. The magazine goes on sale on August 11th so I shall be rushing out to get my copy! I've also been told that the magazine will be publishing an article about me and my work in issue 165. I'm a very happy and very lucky girl!   |
Jane JacksonI am a Northumberland based textile artist and I create needle felted paintings with Harris Tweed and wool yarns. Archives
January 2019
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