Insight into beauty II

This exhibition at the Japanese Embassy in London showed contemporary craft inspired by Japanese materials, techniques and design. As expected there were several ceramic exhibits but, more interesting for textile artists were the panels by Beverly Ayling-Smith, the basketry by Mary Butcher, and the kumihimo braiding by several artists.

Beverly Ayling-Smith’s panels of black textiles, part of her Nigredo series, formed an impressive introduction to the exhibition. She explores the emotional states of melancholia and mourning and references Japanese cloth. The braids by Jacqui Carey, Jenny Parry, Makiko Tada, Sandy Jessett and Edna Gibson provided an fascinating display of new developments in kumihimo, some of which were three dimensional and others quite lace like.