Last weekend we visited Margate for a friend's 40th birthday party and delved in to the Turner Contemporary's recent exhibition Entangled: Threads & Making - a major exhibition of sculpture, installation, tapestry, textiles and jewellery from the mid-20th century to the present day. It features over 40 international female artists who challenge established categories of craft, design, and fine art.

Louise Bourgeois

The rooms were full of texture, pattern and techniques and filled our imaginations with methods of making. Louise Bourgeois, Geta Bratescu, Anni Albers and Eva Hesse were among the female artists displayed in this show. Techniques varied from weaving to hand stitching and sculpting. Much like the Howard Hodgkin exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, it was all about the curation and thought processes behind each piece. These shows told stories that inspired us and moved us...  

A memory was evoked during the exhibition. Back in 2010, founder Becky started Marwood in the corner of a small studio in Dalston, sharing with other artists, illustrators and makers. Across the hall from the concrete studio was a white painted room with no windows and various artists practicing their pieces. The most exceptional work that peaked through the crack of their door was a woven beauty of floral patterned cloth hanging from the wall. It was being steadily deconstructed with expert precision by a warm and charming Japanese woman, Aiko Tezuka. Becky and Aiko chatted about the Suffolk Silk Mill that Marwood's silk is created in, its historic expertise and their joint love of weave and construction. Ideas floated around collaborations but their paths didn't cross again. The next time that Aiko's deconstructed weave was viewed first hand was here... in Margate. It was so exciting to see this amazing work hanging in the Turner Contemporary. A 'graduate' of the Dalston studio, now fully established as an international artist. We are so proud of Aiko and her talents being viewed by so many.