My upcoming exhibition opens at Salford Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday 16th December and everything is coming together! The lovely people at the museum have created a poster for me which I think looks rather lovely. And they have extended the exhibition - it now ends on Sunday 5th May 2024.

There will be a preview from 1pm to 3pm on Saturday 16th which you are all invited to! More details to follow but it would be lovely if you could join me. The Museum has other exhibitions including one from the residents of Islington Mill on its 200th anniversary, a rather lovely cafe and a shop.

I’m also going to do a ‘Meet The Artist’ session on Saturday 27th January 2024 and a Childrens Print Workshop on Sunday 25th February 2024. Again more details to follow.

In the perfect world I’d have all the art ready …. if only! The studio is a creative mess and I’m somewhat stressed. The exhibition is a combination of new and existing pieces. I’ve aimed to create four completely new pieces as well as substantially reworking one of the older pieces. Which doesn’t sound a lot. And it wouldn’t be a lot if I created small pieces …. the new pieces range in size from 120 x 120 cm to 400cm x 135cm so not small. And my process is quite time consuming. Which is a long winded way of saying that I’m working long, but very happy, hours! So if I’m a bit slow responding to emails please bear with me …

Leah x

First of all, a very big thank you to everyone who got in touch after my last post - your support means the world to me.

I have spent the last three weeks or so focussed 100% (well maybe 98%) on making art for my upcoming exhibition. And it has been wonderful! An unexpected heat wave has slowed me down a bit over the last couple of days but I’m one day ahead of schedule and, much more importantly, I’m really happy with the work I’m creating.

I will be making 3, possibly 4 new pieces and reworking an older piece. Doesn’t sound much but this includes two new, large pieces from my Ruins series. The last piece I made in this series was in 2019. Although I had some fabrics left over from then, there was nowhere near enough for the art I plan to create. So on Monday 21st August I started printing with the aim of printing 15 - 20 metres of fabric, more than I need right now but Ruins is an ongoing series. Since then I have finished the construction of Ruins 12 and have started quilting it. All of which is best explained in photos ….

1. (Above) The fabrics I already had.

2. (Below) Starting printing - I used 3 colours, rust brown, petrol green and half strength black.

3. Fabric printed using a wonky barcode breakdown printing screen.

4. I’ve got a big studio so I might as well use it … printing multiple pieces so that I can let the fabric dry a bit before adding another layer of print.

5. The dreaded rinsing and washing stage - has to be done!

6. Five days worth of printing, ironed and pinned to my design wall. Too much ‘light’ and too much ‘rust’.

7. Dyeing some darker fabric - I included some pieces of light printed fabric which were a bit ‘underwhelming’.

8. Printing darker, grungier fabrics.

9. The final palette of printed and dyed fabrics.

10. Adding small details to some of the fabrics using stencils, thermofax screens and textile inks.

11. Everything cut into mostly 2.5 x 6.5 inch rectangles. Scraps cut into 2.5 x 3.5 inch pieces. No cherry picking, just cut everything.

12. Shuffle fabrics, close eyes and pick pieces at random. Lay them out just as they come.

13. Layout with specific areas in light, medium and dark values. Layout loose on my big bench then sew short ends together and pin to my design wall.

14. Create my quilt sandwich with hand dyed cotton backing fabric and acrylic felt wadding. Draw parallel lines on the felt and start attaching long strips using the stitch and flip method. First piece, face up.

15. Second piece, face down.

16. Sew one quarter inch from line drawn on the felt. Flip the fabric over so front face is now showing. Add next strip, face down. Stitch. Flip. Add next strip …..

17. Once all the pieces are attached I can start quilting.

Of course its a little more complicated than this but you get my drift. And it will all make sense when the quilt is finished!

I am absolutely delighted to let you know that my next solo exhibition will be at Salford Museum and Art Gallery from Saturday 16th December this year to Sunday 14th April 2024. It is called Beneath Our Feet and will feature a mixture of existing and new art from my Ruins, Traces (coal mining) and Artefacts series.

My art is most often inspired by the industrial heritage of the region I live in and by my personal connections with those industries. Living in Salford I am surrounded by the remnants of the textile industry and by the ghosts of our mining communities. More recently I have referenced the pottery of local company, Pilkington’s Tile and Pottery Company in my Artefact series. Salford Museum and Art Gallery is the perfect venue for my work. I will be exhibiting in the North Gallery which sits next to their Pilkington Gallery. The Museum houses the Pilkington Company archives and I’m hoping to include items from the archive in my work.

Museums and Galleries are inundated by submissions for exhibition space and I’m humbled (and still rather overwhelmed) to have been selected. The North Gallery is a beautiful open space with an arched glass ceiling and great lighting which will be perfect for my large pieces. The Museum has other galleries showing works from solo artists, from collectives and from their own collection as well as a cute shop and a seriously good cafe! If you live locally it is always worth a visit.

Nearer the time I will share details of a preview event and the artists talks I hope to give.

I have known about the exhibition since late last year but am only now able to work on it properly. Life and the need to earn a living have got in the way but I have a mostly clear path (minus some teaching, family stuff etc) and have spent some serious time planning the layout of the gallery and the production of the new pieces. My studio is a blank canvas. I’m aiming for 10.5 square metres of finished art by the 11th December. Wish me luck!

Festival of Quilts starts on Thursday and I am (nearly) ready! I’ve got a bigger stand this year, B50 in Hall 9 (if you stand with your back to the theatre entrance you should be able to see it). We had a great show last year but it was exhausting with just me and best buddy, Ruth, so this year we are going to be joined by my son Joe. Some of you will know him as he’s done shows with me in the past. I’m hoping this gives me a little more time to chat to old friends, meet new friends and possibly look at some of the wonderful galleries. If you don’t have a ticket yet please use the code LEAHHIGGINS23 to get a £2 discount. If you’re at the show please come and say hello!

As well as promoting next years workshops I’m hoping to get some sign-ups to my last 2023 workshop - Simply Screen Printing (the Full Monty) which runs from 2nd to 6th October. I will be offering the workshop at a 20% discount during the show and, because not everyone can make the show, I’m offering it at a 20% discount online from the 1st to 31st August - just use the discount code SSP5DAYDISCOUNT. The workshop normally costs £450 so you’ll save £90.

I will be taking lots of my hand printed and dyed fabric packs (112 Wonky Print + 35 Absolutely Hand Dyed). I’ll have lots of copies of my latest book, Simply Screen Printing along with my book on translating colour theory into colour practice, Colour Your Palette. I will also be taking all the remaining copies of my Breakdown Your Palette book to the show. I only have about 30 left. I’m not going to reprint the book as I’m planning to write a new version either next year or the year after, so once they’re gone they’re gone! (The digital version of the book will still be available). And I’ll be taking Procion dyes, soda etc, screen and squeegees. In fact, I will be taking as much stuff as I can physically get into mine and Joes cars!

And finally, both myself and Ruth will be demonstrating in The Creative Textile Studio which can be found to the left of the theatre. Ruth will be demonstrating different book binding techniques all day Friday, Saturday morning and Sunday morning. I’ll be demonstrating simple screen printing techniques on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. I’ll be demonstrating on my stand as well. Phew, I need a lie down and we’ve not even set off yet!

So that means 17 days for me to get through my lists. And right know it is all about Wonky Print Inspiration Print Packs and Absolutely Darling Hand Dyed Packs. Yes I am printing and dyeing fabric like a mad woman. I have 52 print packs completed and 45 packs where the fabrics have been printed and dyed but ‘just’ need rinsing, washing, drying, ironing, cutting, folding and labelling. My target is 120. Hmmm. I have 9 dyed fabric packs with a target of 50. Hmmmmmmmmmm ………… I may need to lower my expectations. Or stop sleeping. And it would really help if it could stop raining.

Still, I really love printing and dyeing fabric so I am in my element! The studio is full of colour and I’m as happy as a pig in a bath full of gin and chocolate! Not that there is time for gin. There is always time for chocolate.

Find me on stand B50 and if you haven’t already bought your ticket, use the code LEAHHIGGINS23 to a get a £2 discount.

Not that I’m panicking but there are only 25 days until Festival of Quilts opens at the NEC, Birmingham on Thursday 3rd August. You can find me on stand B50 near the theatre. Given that we set up on the Tuesday that means that I have 23 days to finish my preparations. OK so I am now panicking!

Being me, I have lists that ensure I pack everything needed to ‘build’ the stand and the display on the walls (note to self: must design and order leaflets!!!). I have lists that tell me how many pots of dye, bags of Urea etc that I need to prepare and how many screens and squeegees to order (more than slightly anxious that the screens might not arrive in time!). I have a checklist from the organisers for all the things that they require. I have arranged my workshops for next year (four great guest tutors that I’ll tell you about soon) but need to get the webpages set up. And I have a provisional target for the number of Wonky Print Inspiration Packs and Absolutely Darling Hand Dyed Packs I will need (a target is great but the reality is that it will be as many as I can get made between now and then).

And then there is The Creative Textile Studio which is to the left of the theatre at this years show. As part of the collective that organises and runs this wonderful space I have a long list of things to prepare and bring. Including dyeing 6 large pieces of fabric to wrap around the fronts of the demonstrator benches. Aiming for six different colours (including turquoise, officially the best colour in the world ever!).

Who needs sleep!

I hope to see lots of you during the show, if you haven’t already bought your ticket you can use the code LEAHHIGGINS23 to get £2 discount of the price of standard and concessionary tickets.

The Museum of Old and New Art just outside Hobart in Tasmania was amazing, crazily bonkers and stupidly overwhelming. A fitting way to end my trip to Australia.

Mona run catamarans from the harbour in Hobart to the museum and that short trip alone was full of wonder … we sailed past a zinc works, a massive sprawl of rusty buildings, gangways, conveyor belts and chimneys that I could have spent all day looking at! But that’s just me!

The museum is built into a hill. Yes into. There are 99 steps from the dock up to the grounds and the entrance. I’m a bit of a building geek and I spent more time looking at the structures and the art in the grounds than I did in the galleries.

On entering the museum itself the guide suggests going down to the third level then working your way upwards. The first 10 rooms featured an exhibition Oceans of Air by Tomas Saraceno, each room having a different level of darkness. Some rooms were so dark his artworks seemed to provide the only source of light. It was really disconcerting at times and the lack of sense of direction was weird. His artworks were very varied, utilising a wide range of materials, some were fragile, some were in your face. An amazing experience but one that induced sensory overload.

I wondered through tunnels and vast spaces, looking at, but not taking in more and more, pieces of art. Too much for one visit. Which means that I’m just going to have to go back one day!

Thank you again Glenys, Chris and Roz for inviting me to teach, I would have never got to visit Australia otherwise, to meet so many lovely people and to experience so many new things. I owe you big time!!

It was an honour to be invited to teach at the Fibre Art event in Ballarat last month and just a little intimidating. One of the other tutors was the brilliant Ester Bornemisza who’s work I have admired for over 20 years so I knew I needed to do a good job! Thankfully my students made that that job so easy. All 12 had previous experience with Procion dyes and 10 out the 12 had experience screen printing and they absolutely flew! Being honest I think I learnt just as much from them as they learnt from me.

We started by looking at colour and specifically colour when using Procion dyes before moving onto different screen printing techniques. Inevitably the group did a lot of breakdown printing but I was also delighted to see great results from loose paper resists. Along the way the whole group helped print a long strip of fabric that was raffled at the end of the event … it raised $70 for the India Project that the Fibre Arts team run.

On the final evening each of the tutors set up a display of their students work. I asked each of my students to pick their favourite two pieces and I think our ‘exhibition’ looked amazing.

Maybe because it was a residential workshop the students really ‘gelled’. So much so that we set up a public Facebook group called Breakdown Printing Australia so that we could keep in touch and, hopefully, grow the love of breakdown printing (which IMHO is pretty blinking amazing) in the region.

So much fabric was printed …… below is some yummy eye candy! I had a wonderful time.

…. that I am exhibiting at Sewing for Pleasure at the NEC, Birmingham from this Thursday 16th to Sunday 19th. I will have a joint stand (number J05) with Ruth Brown again and you can come along and see me demonstrating screen printing and Ruth demonstrating how printed fabrics can be used to create glorious covers for the books she binds.

Ruth will have some book making kits for sale and I will have my usual collection of kits, books, fabrics, screens and dyes etc. Although I don’t have as many Wonky Print Inspiration Packs or Absolutely Darling Hand Dyed Packs as I would like ……. I had a very good show in Glasgow last week!

So, a big, big thank you to everybody who stopped by my stand in Glasgow! And a big ‘look forward to seeing you’ to everybody who is planning a trip to Birmingham!

Leah x