brunel broderers

Like my discovery of Russian textiles this years Textile Festival also lead me to discover a collaboration of textile artists called the Brunel Broderers. They had an intriguing exhibition called Curious Drawers and both myself and the children were captivated. I love it when interaction is encouraged and here gloves were provided, enticing the visitor to touch the exhibits, open the drawers and to discover what lay inside.

One artist (sorry, I'm scant on detail as I had children with me) had made a collection of these incredibly delicate draws out of tissue paper stitched together and filled with Victorian-esque (made up word) paraphernalia, they were absolutely beautiful,

and look at the gorgeous labels. I'm wanting to dig the tissue paper and sewing machine out as I write!

My little girl's favourite was this tiny cabinet with lots of draws and doors to open, and she was especially pleased to be given the magnifying glass with which to examine the contents. Butterflies, beetles and bugs lived within and all were subjected to much scrutiny.


I really liked this simple seaside piece. I love the way the textiles have been created to suggest all manner of beach findings. The foam of a wave, or shingle, the shapes made in the sand by tiny sea creatures. But what I also liked about this was that it could very easily become the basis for a child's project. When we're at the sea we love to collect all sorts of things that we find lying around and I think to make it into some kind of memorabilia is a great idea.

Then finally there were these Jars of Joy. They weren't actually part of the exhibition, just for sale. But again I love the idea of collections with memories and I thought (if I knew where to get hold of such jars) it would be lovely to catalogue trips or holidays with one's own jars created and collected over time. Again, potentially, another great project for the kids.