Spinning a Yarn: telling the story of wool in Somerset

‘Spinning a Yarn’ is a new project to tell the story of wool in Somerset through an exhibition, artist commissions and community engagement.

Somerset Art Works and the South West Heritage Trust are working together in the run up to the opening of an exhibition, large scale installation and film at Somerset Rural Life Museum for Somerset Art Weeks in September. A programme of community and school workshops and talks will also take place. 

Image: Spinning a Yarn

As part of the project, communities can get involved by creating their own wool-artworks to raise awareness of some of Somerset’s endangered species. Artists Nina Gronw-Lewis and Lydia Needle have created templates using different techniques of working with wool (needlefelt, punch needle, wet felt, applique and stitch). They are available for people to take part at home by downloading them from the project website spinning-a-yarn.org. The finished pieces, depicting dormice, ferns, large blue butterflies and common blue damselflies, will feature in the exhibition. Somerset Art Works are also running workshops with different community groups.

The exhibition at Somerset Rural Life Museum will feature major new commissions by artist Nicola Turner and Trevor Pitt, to be displayed in the historic Abbey Barn.

Nicola Turner's large-scale installation will explore our innate human connection to wool, the stories that are interwoven in it and the emotions, as a material, that it provokes. Her work is on display at the Royal Academy’s prestigious Summer Exhibition from 18 June. 

Image: Spinning a Yarn

Trevor Pitt’s film ‘Somerset Yarning’ will capture the personal stories of sheep farmers and artists who work with their fleeces. Opening at daybreak in the Mendips and closing at dusk in the Quantocks, the film follows how the fleeces from Fernhill Farm are carded, spun, felted and woven by artists from across the county.

Somerset Art Works Creative Director Carol Carey said: “We’re delighted to be working with two exceptional artists to create original works reflecting the theme of this year’s Art Weeks which is ‘Landscape Flux and Flow’. A focus on wool allows us to explore the heritage of the landscape, considering how we can nurture our future relationship with the countryside.”

Exhibitions Manager for the South West Heritage Trust Sarah Cox said: “Over the centuries Somerset has been noted for the production of different cloths - wool, linen, and silk, benefiting from natural resources of water, soils and animals, combined with the skills needed to turn the raw materials into fabric. The exhibition will explore its history and reflect the diversity of uses of wool across the county today.”

Image: Spinning a Yarn

‘Spinning a Yarn’ opens at Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury from 14 September to 30 November. An exhibition in the Mapstone Gallery will feature historic collections alongside work by contemporary artists whose work uses wool. The Nicola Turner and Trevor Pitt commissions in the Abbey Barn will close on 2 November.