Press Releases

Bold and Beautiful: Kaffe Fassett Comes to West Wales

West Wales will welcome one of the world’s most renowned textile artists this year as not one, but two exhibitions of his extraordinary work are hosted here. Kaffe Fassett is an American born artist who has lived and worked in Britain for several decades. He is well-known for designing exquisite textiles that use colour in an explosive and dramatic fashion. He started with knitwear back in the 1960s, and by today he has worked with needlepoint, mosaics, rugmaking, quilts, and much more. For the first time, Kaffe Fassett will be exhibiting in Wales and it provides an unmissable opportunity to see not one, but two elements of his work. His quilts will take centre stage at The Welsh Quilt Centre in Lampeter from 9 March to 2 November whilst in the National Wool Museum in Drefach Felindre, his knitwear will be on display from 8 March until 2 November.

 

At the National Wool Museum the exhibition will focus on his knitwear – again, the emphasis will be on colour and pattern and the pieces will be sure to inspire visitors. Kaffe is best known perhaps as a knitter and it is his knitwear that first brought him to the world’s attention – his first ever design was displayed as a full page spread in Vogue Knitting magazine. Since then, he has designed many collections and has written several books on knitting, as well as on quilts and other subjects, many of which are available to the buy at the Museum and at the Welsh Quilt Centre.

Jen Jones of the Welsh Quilt Centre is extremely pleased to be hosting the exhibition, “This is a unique opportunity to see the work of this talented artist in Wales, one that shouldn’t be missed. Kaffe’s bold, colourful, contemporary quilts will hang alongside superbly crafted, solid colour antique Welsh Quilts. A real visual feast.”

In addition to the exhibitions, there will be a wonderful opportunity to hear from the man himself and to take direct advantage of his expertise as he holds an all day Workshop, ‘The S-Block Quilt’ with Brandon Mably. This will be held at the Welsh Quilt Centre on Saturday, March 30th and will cost £135. He will also return to Lampeter on April 1st to deliver a lecture, ‘Concentrate on Colour’ in the Old Hall at the University, with tickets being sold at £16 each. Tickets must be booked in advance for both events, for information and booking contact the Quilt Centre on (01570) 422088 or (01570) 480610. Further details are available on their website, www.welshquilts.com.

Furthermore at the National Wool Museum, Brandon Mably, who works alongside Kaffe, will be holding a special one-day Knit Workshop on April 2, entitled ‘Persian Poppy Design’. The course inspires knitters to sharpen their observation of colour and give them the confidence to use their own personal colour schemes in future designs. The course must be booked in advance on (029) 20 573070 with tickets at £40. Further details can be found on the Museum website, www.museumwales.ac.uk/wool.

It is a privilege for both locations to be welcoming Kaffe Fasset and his work to the Teifi Valley and we hope that people from both near and far will take advantage of this unique opportunity to see his work exhibited here.