Back in March Mark announced that he fancied taking up a new hobby and was thinking of having a go at making automata or possibly creating “gravity art”. He’d been looking at examples online of incredible, complex rolling ball creations by a guy who goes by the name of Copper Gravity. I love anything like this so did a bit of my own googling and discovered there’s a place in Stratford on Avon called The MAD (Mechanical Art & Design) Museum that showcases this type of art. If you look at their website you might get the impression that it’s geared for children, and maybe it is, but on the day I visited there wasn’t a kiddie in sight…..it was all adults having a great time marvelling at the exhibits!
Stratford isn’t exactly on the doorstep but I knew I would be down that way mid March to run a workshop so decided to plan my visit around that. On arriving in the town the first hurdle was to find the entrance which is very discreet. Even with Google maps telling me I was in the right place I walked past the museums narrow open door a couple of times before spotting it! On the positive side, having walked in the wrong direction to begin with, I did get to see Shakespeare’s birthplace.

The museum exhibits range from very simple to incredibly complex with everything in between and in front of each exhibit is a button which you wave your hand over to start the automata working. If I tell you the vibe is a mix of Wallis and Gromit, Heath Robinson and Scrapheap Challenge you’ll get the idea.
Some of the pieces are behind glass, which made it difficult to video them, but hopefully you can get the gist of this one. Keep your eyes on the tank and the rabbit!

There were several clocks on display but I thought this one, Gold Clock by Gordon Bradt, was particularly beautiful…..

The majority of pieces were displayed on open shelving. This submarine and its wonderfully weird operatives has to be my favourite! There is so much going on here and it’s quite hypnotic the way those little characters move. I would love Mark to make something like this, but I’m not holding my breath!

The “Platform Lift” by Keith Newstead was amusing and this was very “Wallace and Gromit”…..

Some of the exhibits are wall hanging and I loved this one by Chris & Angela Margett. It has three cheeky gremlins defacing a portrait of Shakespeare, Stratford on Avons most recognised figure!

Although the museum is small it’s jam packed with exhibits as well as having a small cinematic area playing a fascinating video and there’s a small shop selling automata kits and souvenirs. I must have spent over two hours in there and absolutely loved it!

The following day I was at Stitching Kitchen in Brackley to teach my Wet Felted Chickens. This was my second visit to this venue run by a lovely lady called Hannah Thompson. I had six students which meant plenty of one to one time and they all worked really hard to get their birds finished in the time allowed. What was all the more impressive was that two of the ladies had never wet felted before!

I’ve done very little felting since my last post but I have been collecting images of shells and thinking about how I can interpret those as “Structures” for Waltham Textile Groups next exhibition. This image inspired my first wet felted Conch shell.

The Conch is a medium to large sea snail which inhabits the Indo-West Pacific. This is my wet felted version of the Conch made from Corriedale, Merino, sari silk and paint. It’s approximately 25cm x 12cm. 

Hopefully I will have a few more shells to share next time…..or maybe I’ll have gone off at a tangent and be doing something completely different, who knows!