Gabriel translates as God Give me Strength.
A workshop exploring the wonderful work of Jacqui Parkinson ‘Threads through Creation’ a spectacular sequence of twelve huge textile panels.
Our purpose was to explore these textile panels and recreate them in our own way. For this I used the “Chapbook” model that I use for my nature journalling.
A full spread of the opened up concertina Chapbook that I created from the exhibition.
The textiles are a retelling of the creation story in the book of Genesis, and is a truly inspirational work that not only tells the story but is moving and poetic. There is a wonderful variety of colours, shapes, patterns and lots of creatures to draw your own inspiration from.
A detail of one of the textiles on display at Hexham Abbey.
The exhibition is one of the largest textile projects by a single artist, ever. It has taken Jacqui nearly three years. It follows on from ‘Threads through Revelation’, her first huge exhibition which visited 14 cathedrals from 2016 to 2018.
A detail of my Chapbook showing a quotation from Stephen hawking.
My own Chapbook was heavily influenced by my own love for both William Blake and nature. I have interwoven drawings from Jacqui’s work into the architectural fabric of our ancient Abbey - 1350 years old this year. I have followed the way the textiles has brought colour and movement into the Abbey and have connected rainbows and star patterns into the Creation story and allowed the pillars for the Abbey to support the movement of the story.
I have created rainbows of colour supported by ancient pillars that prop up our ancient Abbey.
I am particularly interested in connecting stories both to imagery and poetry. I have included some quotations from my own life experience as well as drawing upon William Blake and others.
As a group we sketched directly form the textile panels and the architecture of the Abbey.
