Delving deep into county’s culture

The works in the Delving Deep exhibition are all inspired by Wiltshire’s landscape, culture and history, including the Great Western Railway and Swindon suffragette Edith New.

Eight students designed 40 textile-based artworks as part of a module in their High National Diploma course in Textiles at the college which they then exhibited at the bookshop. The project was organised by part-time mature student Michelle Smith.

She said: “The full name of the exhibition is ‘Delving Deep: Revealing Wiltshire Layer by Layer’ because we all made art for our course based around the theme of Wiltshire and we’re peeling back the different aspects of the county layer by layer, like layers of fabric.”

“I spoke to the owner of the bookshop’s gallery about what we were doing and he said it sounded fantastic. There were lots of really nice comments from people at the private viewing which was great, and we had support from people from all over the county. It’s a lovely gallery in a lovely space.”

Students used traditional and modern textile techniques for their showcase of textiles for fashion, fine art and interiors.

Miss Smith said: “Everybody’s work is so different, there was such a large range of ages and diverse backgrounds so the students had different influences and experiences which they used to make a very varied collection of pieces that reflected the history and people of the county.

“The gallery owner was so pleased, he’s booked us again for 2019.”

White Horse Bookshop manager Angus MacLennan praised the students’ artworks.

He said: “There has been a fabulous response, the shop was packed for the lauch and quite rightly too because the pieces are spectacular. People have come in specially to see them and it’s been great.”

The Delving Deep exhibition features textiles made by Michelle Smith, Rebecca Deane, Stacy Crasto, Nicole Soutar, Elyse Philpott, Robyn Drew, Ling Fang and Diane Hipkiss and can bee seen until March 31.