I ordered this DVD last Sunday afternoon from Odyssey Art Videos and it came on Tuesday which is excellent service. Odyssey produce some really good DVD’s and this one is no exception. I have watched it twice through already and know that I shall still watch it over again.

I have admired Clyde Ollivers work since seeing him exhibit at Ally Pally a few years back. What he does with stone, slate and stitch is amazing.
This DVD starts off by showing some of his previous works in exhibitions and private collections and then goes on to show you the man himself explaining his way of working which has certainly made me stop and think about the way I work and has also given me lots of inspiration.
I am not going to spoil it for you by giving you all the details, I will just say that it is definitely worth watching.
Clyde now has a blog at Sketches,Stitches & Stones.

I know some people don't actually read the words when looking at blogs so I am going to write the next bit in larger letters, just in case there is any confusion as to how old these pieces are :)

When sorting my boxes out the other day I came across some really old pieces - hidden away - which go back almost to C&G days where I was experimenting with machine knitted wire, something I keep meaning to try and rekindle.
The first photo shows two bags with close ups next to them. The flower and those long spidery things (??) on the first bag are made from machine knitted wire which has then been trapped between two layers of organza, free machined on, cut out and 'zapped' with the heat gun. The second bag has a lining of silk velvet. The wire has been machined down onto the velvet and beaded in places.

The next three bags are from where I was playing about with William Morris designs. The first two both have a base of a wire knitted bag and the tabs on the top are small copies of the design printed on paper then laminated. In the first one the laminated pieces have been added after completion with jump rings but in the second one they were woven onto the wire as I knitted it.
This bag here is not wire at all but I thought I would show it. I had seen bags similar to this design but made from laminated old advertisements in Covent Garden, London selling for mega money - so I decided to do my own version.
Once again, it's a William Morris design which has been printed onto Transfer Paper then ironed onto cotton. This has then been bonded on to synthetic velvet which was then laminated, cut into squares and joined together with split rings - hundreds of them!

There are four pieces like this in the next photo. They are made from hand dyed silk velvet which has been machine stitched then cut into squares. The bottom photo shows what the velvet looked like before encasing it in the wire.I used a machine knitted double bed quilting technique to create this piece, quite a tricky technique using wire.It was going to be a large vessel, about 12" wide by about 30" high - but like lots of things, I never actually got around to finishing it.The piece itself was based on a photograph of a lava flow.

This final piece is a little bit of nonsense that was attached to a bigger piece of nonsense. Its wire again but this time used as the base of a machine embroidered cord using a Madeira metallic thread then made into spirals with a bead attached at the ends.
I've got lots more pieces like these in boxes, goodness knows why I keep these either. Is this the same for everyone?