A Way With Words

August 5th - September 17th 2006

Walford Mill Crafts is hosting a captivating exhibition of makers who have made a creative link between the written word and their work.

Ever since the dawn of language, people must have felt the need to record their thoughts, ideas and emotions in some permanent form, and have continued to look for ways of doing this right up to the present day. An old Latin saying proves the point:
'The spoken word is forgotten but the written word remains.'

'Word' is a meaningful sound or combination of sounds that is a unit of language or its representation in a text. The craftspeople in the 'A Way With Words' exhibition give these words even more meanings by using them within their work.

'A Way With Words' will be featuring contemporary craftwork by local and national makers. The fascinating exhibits will include calligraphy, leather jewellery, hand-built stoneware forms, silver jewellery, textiles, manuscript books, stone carving, glass engravings, woodcutts and paper cutts.

One of the exhibitors, Sarah Braun, a textile artist, created an amazing Alphabet book, using a different font for each letter. Page by page she explains the history of these fonts.

"F for Fette Gotilch - A modern version of the first printed type as used by Gutenberg in 1440, it is based on the handwritten Blackletter. Used in Germany for 500 years, banned by Hitler in 1940." Says one of the pages in Sarah's alphabet book.

Sarah's life long interest in typography inspired her to make this book and she explains the reason behind this creation.

"Nowadays, through using computers, people are more aware of fonts than ever before, but they know little about their rich history. I have made an alphabet book which I hope will inspire everyone who sees it to find out more."

'A Way With Words' will also be presenting work by local makers such as Liz Farquharson, Debbie Kirby, Victoria Martin, Jo Winzar and Rachelle Carswell in addition to national makers including Blandine Anderson, Sonja Andrew, Ama Bolton, Ann Bowen, Robin Golden-Hann, Sue Graham, Stan Greer, David Holgate, Anna Lewis, John Rowlands Pritchard, Edward Wates and Fiona Zobole.

This is a unique show that should not to be missed.
'A Way With Words' runs until September 17th 2006.
Walford Mill Crafts is open Monday to Saturday 10am - 5pm and Sundays 12noon - 5pm.