This exhibition, by five talented local feltmakers, shows the diversity of their creativeness when working with their favourite medium – wool fibres. The fleeces they work with come from Dorset, British and international sheep. Some of the fleeces are dyed beautiful colours. Silk, threads and other fibres are often incorporated with the fleece to create texture and intrigue in garments, pictures, wall hangings, sculptures and jewellery. They use traditional wet felting methods as well as nuno and needlefelting techniques.
Janine Rees works with wool fibres, often incorporating silk, threads and other materials to create felt garments, wall hangings, sculptures and accessories, using both wet and nuno felting techniques.
Carla Taylor creates contemporary sustainable needle felted sculptures inspired by the conservation of the animals and landscape of the British countryside and coastline.
Clare Hadley creates beautiful but practical bags and hats, hand felted using a variety of wools and other fibres.
Clare Hughes is experienced in both wet felting and needle felting techniques, this forms the basis of a variety of work including nuno felted garments, pictorial work and 3D objects.
Di Pattinson: inspired by nature, Di creates colourful and textural 2D and 3D pieces from various types of fleece and other natural fibres using the traditional wet felting method as well as nuno and needle felting techniques.
Wareham Camera Club has a membership that covers all ages and abilities, from the novice photographer through to the professional.
Founded in 1965, the club has kept pace with new technology and is now firmly in the digital age. What has not changed, however, is the enthusiasm of its members for photography, and the friendly club atmosphere.
The next season starts in September, and will include demonstrations, talks about natural history and landscape photography, and competitions – both internal and against other clubs.
Anyone interested in joining should visit the club website at www.warehamcameraclub.co.uk or contact the Secretary, Roger Starling, on 01929 553822.
The Dorset Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers was the first Guild in the country. It was established in 1947 and 2022 is our 75th Anniversary.
The first meeting was on 8th October 1947 with the first speaker from The Worshipful Guild of Weavers in London, who spoke to 31 people. Membership cost 5/- per annum (25p). Dorset Guild was set up to further the skills and excellence of our crafts and this is still our aim today. Since 1952 other Guilds have been set up across the country and there are now 108 Guilds.
Today we run demonstrations and workshops, take part in exhibitions and have expert speakers at our meetings.
Our Exhibition from Fleece to Shoulder demonstrates how we use our skills of weaving, spinning and dyeing to celebrate our 75 years and how we continue to develop these skills further to keep them alive for the future.
In around 1622 Abraham Case a professional soldier returned to England, married and settled in Shaftesbury where he set up a business making the very first Dorset Buttons. The story of Dorset Buttons has reflected changes to society, legislation, and ways of life.
400 years on, the craft continues with both traditional and contemporary designs and we are pleased to feature an exhibition of Dorset buttons at Showcase 2022.
The images above show contemporary work by Jen Best of Beaker Buttons.