The Celebration of Colour 2000
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'Come and join us' we said and you did, scores and scores of you and we hope you all had a great weekend. Everyone was impressed by the array of wonderful exhibits. What a great amount of talent. On a dull, wet day what could be better than rooms of colour - blending, beckoning and inviting inspection. The range of work was great and showed to the full, the myriad colours in the wonderful dragons, the kimonos, paintings, embroideries, cushions, wall hangings, scarves and more. It was indeed a pleasure to look and admire such examples of members' art.
It was very noticeable how members from all over were happy to exchange ideas and impart their knowledge and expertise to fellow painters. We were delighted to welcome artists from America, Guernsey and Norway and one brave male exhibitor. Friends were made, addresses exchanged and there were smiles all round.
Well, that's what it's all about, isn't it? The Guild is only as good as its members and its members showed how good they were! The Bunting was a great success. It now remains to increase its length. Hopefully, all new members (and current members) will make a triangle to add to the colourful strip. Remember, this is for all Branches to use at their exhibitions and shows. Let's make this the Guild trademark.
Snags? Yes, there were a few but they were soon overcome, well, most of them were. We learn from experience, naturally, and we hope future shows will benefit and be improved by the knowledge we gained. We each had our tasks and this meant the weekend as a whole was made easier to organise with no overlapping of jobs and wasted energy. Of course it was time consuming - nothing can be arranged without a certain amount of hard work. But we all enjoyed every minute of the two days, felt it was well worthwhile and judging from the letters received afterwards so did most of you - for instance here is a letter amongst them, which summed up their feelings:
"Events such as this are crucial to the development of the National Guild of Silk Painters. No matter how good our magazines, it is no substitute for meeting people in the flesh and seeing members' works at first hand. Personally I would love it to be an annual event. It's rather like giving birth, agonising at the time but recovery is assured from the ensuing euphoria. The gorgeous meal at King's College was the icing on the cake"
The tutors were excellent, the range of their classes covering all the main aspects of silk painting. We, in Cambridge, can hardly wait to make use of what we learnt on the various workshops we attended and we have already worked out a schedule to demonstrate to each other at our monthly meetings.
The wet weather made little difference to us. Everyone was far too busy. Rainbow Silks and WS Touchbase with their Trade stands were well patronised - all our pockets were much lightened by Sunday afternoon, and the hot drinks and food supplied throughout the weekend by the cheerful young women were much appreciated. Well known silk painter and designer expert, Marina Yedigaroff, gave a detailed critique of many of the exhibits on Saturday afternoon and was very impressed by the work. Saturday was rounded off by a splendid dinner at Kings College, when 47 members were able to relax in delightful surroundings and keep up to date with latest trends and Guild news.
On Sunday there were demonstrations (thanks to Amanda Stevenson) and a lot of interest was shown by the public who came to watch and admire as well as to enjoy the colourful exhibits. So thanks to all the Cambridge Branch members for their patience, their hard work and their comradeship over many months. We do not single out specific names for extra praise since we worked as a team and hope to continue to do so for a long time to come. May 27 and 28 was indeed a Celebration of Colour. Thank you all for coming and for making our Millennium Experience so successful. Jocelyn Glegg