Word Craft craft@thegarage Pittenweem Arts Festival 2012

Introduction

Word Craft was an exhibition of craft by seven craft artists working in Scotland with poetry inspired by their work and written by nine Scottish poets from Words On Canvas.

Words On Canvas is a writers' group which is supported by the National Galleries of Scotland. Now in its fifth year, usually the members receive input from an artist who selects pictures or sculptures from current exhibitions or permanent works belonging to the Galleries. Two weeks later the writers gather to share and discuss the work which they created from the first meeting. This second session is led by a writing tutor. The group was given the opportunity to collaborate with a craft exhibition at Pittenweem Arts Festival 2012 and here they share their writing inspired by these fantastic craft objects. So for the ten days of the festival, Words On Canvas became Words On Craft. Exhibition curated by Tina Rose, director of Really Interesting Objects. Craft Artists Poets Iona Brown Helen Boden Mette Fruergaard-Jenson Susan Grant Nicola Reed Olga Wojtas Ruth Mae Susan Grant Graham Muir Norma Brown, Susan Owen, Moira Scott Carol Sinclair Jean Taylor Simon Ward Kirsteen Scott, Chester Simpson Published by Really Interesting Objects Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited without the written permission of the publishers. ©RIO Ltd 2012

Salt by Iona Brown

INVOCATION FOR A NOMAD You are called to don these saline-selkie snares that adorn your thumb neck finger ankle waist and spin a yarn of teal preserve the tale

for in these wraith-wreaths sibilants are stored and they are amulets of fluent sound

that entwine a consonant tangle in situ, out of the ordinary, stanzas form about you as

kelp-caught nuggets, weather incarnate, dry from the vowels of the sea. Carrying for safe-keeping these you will cluster encrusted entrusted.

The skeins become their wearers through the traipse. Helen Boden Inspired by Iona Brown, Salt

Boxes by Mette Fruergaard-Jenson

FISH BOXES Orange, stamped "FMA" flotsam from Peterhead or Pittenweem, their corners splintered, anchorage for goose-necked barnacles, stranded on high water marks with dried wrack bottle tops and plastic toothbrushes or round cornered rectangles of tin, their golden lining packed so very tightly with tasty little fish, flesh still round their tiny skeletons drenched with oil or thick red sauce ready to be unlocked with a long key. Such were the fish boxes of my ken. Now - no bones, no scales, no smell, just Nature re-created perfectly, so streamlined, so simple. Empty, waiting to hold and keep safe things that are secret or precious. Susan Grant Inspired by boxes by Mette Fruergaard-Jensen

Vintage Powderpuff Neckpiece by Nicola Reed

AMANDA AND EDWARD Amanda was a woman of keen intelligence. “Do you love me?” she asked. “I love you,” Edward said. “Why do you love me?” she asked further. “Because of your keen intelligence,” he said. But what he meant was because of your little retroussé nose. “How much do you love me?” she asked further still. “With all my heart,” he said. “Give me a love token,” she said, thinking that will prove how much you love me, for she was a woman of keen intelligence. He had divers scour the South Seas for iridescent pearls. He had miners extract gleaming silver from the depths of Lower Silesia. He had sharp-eyed Belgian spinsters create fine needle-lace. And then he added a pink plump powder puff. “A love token,” he said. “To celebrate your keen intelligence.” And he imagined kissing the tip of her little retroussé nose. Olga Wojtas Inspired by Nicola Reed’s Vintage Powderpuff Neckpiece

Bowl in holly by Ruth Mae

BOWL Who would have guessed a tree loved for its winter offerings of jagged green and glossy leaves and scarlet berries could be transformed to look like cream and fragile parchment, its gentle growth grains banding in fluent veins? Only one tear is shed for its days in the symphony of the wild wood. Susan Grant Inspired by bowl in holly by Ruth Mae

Solar Perfume Bottle by Graham Muir

L'HEURE BLEUE In that soft hour between Sunset and nightfall When the melting globe slips Through enveloping blueness Night seeps slowly round Unstoppering drifts of musk rose Carnation, jasmine Like perfume drawn from a bottle Or the scent of a lover's Warm skin. Norma Brown Inspired by Solar perfume bottle by Graham Muir Footnote: L'Heure Bleue, a perfume created in 1912, exactly 100 years ago in Paris by Jacques Guerlain.

ESSENCE OF WOMAN polar ice cap resolves wanton breath arcing ache ignites taste litmus core heat dab pulse release diffuses solar yield Susan Owen Inspired by Solar perfume bottle by Graham Muir

FUSION The blue circle cradles the red core. The pulsing heart holds the fragrance. The glass pierces both. Pull the stopper gently, release the perfume, breathe in sunlight. Moira Scott Inspired by Solar perfume bottle by Graham Muir

Circles within Circles by Carol Sinclair

NIGHT LIGHTS There was a party she remembers - hair spray and borrowed aftershave the slither of candles on green glass pink wine from Portugal. Boys hung about in the kitchen, ring-pulls triggered, canned beer cocked to their throats, sizing up the talent, bedroom-eyed. The wine was called Mateus Rosé - light flickered in smoky shadows soot clumped on candle stubs - there had been one boy who was special. There was a dim room for practising lovers. They were leaning against the sofa inhaling the stink of a fishmonger's slab heavy breathing, heavy petting. At least she thinks there might have been a party - something about candles and perfumes - a boy perhaps and a girl their skin soft and smooth. She would have been there she supposes. She would have met someone. They might have made babies. There was probably a party .... Jean Taylor Inspired by Circles within Circles by Carol Sinclair

White Ring Tree by Simon Ward

BLEACHING ANTLERS Echoes of July days with stags on the ridge of Corra Bheinn cast antlers bleaching in the wood the year they left salt licks for the deer rings rippling in the dark waters of Loch an-t-Siob the sound of green the wind white and clean in the middle way between dream and waking I search the mirror image for The White Stag. Kirsteen Scott Inspired by White Ring Tree by Simon Ward

BEYOND SW 19 Bleached trunks wave lifeless limbs. We shrivel in the wasteland scramble amidst white, broken bones under an eye-watering glare. Dreams, like doves, land and perish and turn to alabaster. Chester Simpson Inspired by White Ring Tree by Simon Ward

Really Interesting Objects would like to thank Words on Canvas for their imaginative and enthusiastic participation in this joint exhibition and publication. We would also like to thank the participating craft artists and Pittenweem Arts Festival. Really Interesting Objects is a Scottish publishing and creative company working cross-art form to create new ways to experience and enjoy craft. Visit our online magazine for news about craft in Scotland www.riomagazine.co.uk Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited without the written permission of the publishers. ©RIO Ltd 2012