Somerset Rural Life Museum - another excellent exhibition ‘Spinning A Yarn’

‘Spinning A Yarn’ is a celebration of British wool and since we are already members of this excellent museum in Glastonbury, we decided to head over on Saturday morning.

The Mapstone Gallery had a few displays about the history of wool through artefacts and oral histories. 

Both Mr S and myself greatly admired these samples of hand weaving by Gladys Dickinson and Norah Biddulph. Having first met int he 1930s Gladys and Norah begun their small spinning and weaving business.  They used locally sourced wool and natural dyes to manufacture woven textiles.  Having been commissioned in 1956 by Mrs Harry Fox to weave a curtain based on the colours of a piece of serpentine rock, they then went on to use coloured stones as an inspiration for their designs.

There was a variety of contemporary artworks of which these caught my eye:

By Jane Ogden, Form  Four Weld

Gladys Paulus

After a short rest with coffee in the sunny barn courtyard, we went into the barn to watch the film by Trevor Pitts.  We sat on benches topped in lovely soft warm wool mats and had wool blankets to keep us warm had we needed them. It was interesting to learn a little more about Fernhill Farm, up on the Mendips. Just now I have found a shop selling yarn from sheep reared there: Lace Knittery.

On the other side of the barn a large installation by Nicola Turner took full advantage of both the height and size of the barn, but was too dark to photograph. (activate to see a picture of it)

I recognised the style as their had been a piece last year when we visited the Wells Art  Contemporary last year.