Vessel and Seed at Walford Mill
Cells, detail, 2008, bent willow, black linen thread.
Willow artist Caroline Sharp’s first solo show at Walford Mill Crafts until 7 June
Caroline Sharp is directly inspired by nature and works entirely in natural materials – willow, dogwood, leaves, chalk, clay and seed heads all feature in her work. And it’s this interest in nature that attracted Walford Mill curator Christine Lawry and persuaded her to give Sharp her first solo show. ‘We have a very special environment here with the mill stream running right under the centre. There are otters living in the river and willows and reeds growing on the island, so Caroline’s work seemed a perfect opportunity to explore this a bit more,’ says Lawry. ‘Her work is very eco-friendly – she doesn’t waste any of her materials and it’s all made with no carbon emission – so it really fits well with our emphasis on eco-crafts’, she adds.
On show will be work Sharp has made over the last two years – wall-based willow drawings, twiggy vessels and more abstract free-standing forms – as well as a new installation made specially for the exhibition out of wild mustard stems. It’s called Floating Seed and looks like a huge, suspended dandelion: ‘I loved the way the winter light shines through the mustard seed heads and I thought it would be wonderful to create one giant piece out of them,’ says Sharp.
www.walfordmillcrafts.co.uk
