NEWBURY CRAFTERS IST BIRTHDAY

I was invited to attend the 1st birthday celebrations of the Newbury Crafters at Speen Parish hall on the afternoon of Saturday 16 February so I arrived at the Hall at 3 p.m. to be greeted by Albert Moss the Chairman of the Crafters. We had met a number of times from when the crafters had been located in a rather wet tent at the Fringe Festival and at other events locally. I also met his wife Linda who is also very active in the Crafters and at one time recalling when she was on a loom creating wool from a sheep’s fleece. This time they were celebrating their first birthday of the Crafters. They meet every other Saturday afternoon at the parish hall and have a range of crafting skills to practice. Today they were practicing silk painting and I have to admit I was very intrigued at how it was done. Under the watchful eye of a lady instructor (I think her name was Dee), they were all given a piece of Chinese silk, pots of silk paint of varying colour and a special type of brush which instead of bristles, they had small sponges attached. The idea was to either roll the folded silk around a glass or something similar and paint bands of colour vertically onto the silk. After each band has been painted, you continue the process along the silk with different colours until the silk is covered. You then unfold the silk which by then the colour will have permeated the entire length of silk and you have bands of colour top to bottom in rows. You then shake salt onto the silk which then allows the colours to ‘wander’ into the neighbouring colours. Once this is dry, you iron the silk and the painted silk is complete. There were some intersesting patterns created but you can have no control over what the pattern might be. I could not let this opportunity of creating my own painted silk.
The first thing I did was to put an apron on and I was given the silk, 3 pots of differing colours and some sponge brushes. I followed all the instructions and before long, I had made my first silk painting. I have to admit it was not anything like the others which I had made but at least I tried.
The tea and birthday cake arrived and I was asked to cut the cake which I did with a little more skill than with a paintbrush!
I did manage to get talking to some of the ladies there and they were all regular members with a keen interest in crating and had been there on many occasions doing a variety of crafts. It was an enjoyable afternoon and I would recommend it to anyone whether they had crafting skills or not. Before I left, I was told I could take the silk I had painted with me and they also presented me with a silk painted tie, which I was delighted with.
Following my visit, I gave the painted silk as a scarf to Edwina Cooper the Mayoress who said it was very nice. However, I have yet to see her wear it. I wonder why?