Ramsey A-Z

Ramsey Library Exhibition

All are invited to a special exhibition at Ramsey Library, on Thursday 12 July. We will be displaying several of the beautiful "Ramsey A to Z project" textile banners and they will be available to view from 10am-5pm.

The exhibition at Ramsey Library will also showcase the excellent work carried out by the Ramsey and District Community Archive, which includes contributions of photographs, memories and other information from local residents and interested people from around the world in order that these memories will be preserved for future generations.

During 2006 / 2007, community artist Ricki Outis worked with local people in and around Ramsey over a seven month period, to find out what was important and unique about Ramsey and its heritage. The community contributed many photographs, stories and reminiscences and were then involved in copying them onto cotton, using cyanotype photographic printing. 20 banners were made from the images using colourful dyes, threads and beads. They are a stunning representation of Ramsey life, created for the community by the community.

The project was originally managed by Huntingdonshire District Council's Arts Development Department and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Project participants included Abbey College, Chaos Youth Centre, Mill House, HDC Health Walks Group, Ramsey Day Centre, Ramsey Junior School, Ramsey Storytellers, Wistow WI, and The Tuesday Club.

Fast forward to 2012 and, over recent months, various local organisations, including Cambridgeshire Libraries, have been working together to find a permanent home in Ramsey for all the banners. We are delighted that the Ramsey Rural Museum has offered to house them and the banners will be available to be loaned out to local groups.

The banners will remain on display in the library until Saturday 14th July.

Test print

I wanted to do a print to test some printing inks - so I cut this quick stencil and printed a small length - I'm definately growing out of the candy colours of my youth and yes the inks are fine!

Vintage lace print

I've been collecting some vintage textiles for a while -  lace doilies, tray cloths, tea towels etc with the thought of sewing them together to make a bigger cloth.  But somehow I just can't bring myself to committ to a design.  So I decided to photograph a couple of thema dn expose them onto a silk screen.  This one is printed onto a twice dyed piece of silk, with discharge paste. I'm planning to do more to it but I'm so inundated with community projects atthe moment that it will have to wait for some time before I add the next bit.........