Network Member Paul Strangroom produces stunning artwork celebrating the local scenery and industry and recently he went on a trip back to the Himalayas. We wanted to find out more... "I've been visiting people in this welcoming Himalayan community since living there in the 1980s and have now decided to sell blankets and shawls on their behalf from my Prudhoe gallery. I buy from one extended family in a small village, Noli, in the Dhualadhar region, who weave traditional designs from simple looms at home – not unlike clan tartans, I always think. Blankets and shawls are made from sheep the people have reared and wool they've spun, cleaned and woven themselves. Gaddi tribes were nomadic - now
Furniture designer and artist Tim Patterson begins his month-long residency at the Allendale Forge Gallery on Friday 1st September, with his first solo exhibition of timber-based objects. Tim Patterson, from Haltwhistle, is a member of the Brampton Woodworkers’ Club in Cumbria, where he handcrafts pieces of unusual beauty using modest materials. ‘Roots and Branches’ is the culmination of his fascination with everyday objects, and their powerful connection to memories, experiences, and our sense of personal identity. He explained: “My first real contact with the making process came when I was twelve. I went to school in Oxfordshire in the 1960s – just your standard secondary college, but
