Visitors are invited to contribute to the making of the West Coker Strop while the artists ‘spin a yarn’,  bringing to life the language and vocabulary of flax, linen and rope-making which still informs our everyday speech. The West Coker Strop will be a new community folk art object made from rope which is intertwined with people’s wishes, hopes, magic manifestations, and affirmations for the village and its community.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Vicky Putler is the Founder / Director of Flax Project CIC. Previously a textile designer/printer, frustration at not being able to source UK linen led her to want to grow her own flax. In 2021, under the name The Flax Project, she began growing flax in Cornwall and seeking ways to create the necessary green infrastructure. In 2022 Vicky set up an experimental textile workshop for processing and experimenting with flax, offering workshops in flax crafts, natural dyeing and printing.

Flax Project CIC has run several grant funded community projects in Plymouth and is currently commissioned for the two year HLF funded ‘Blockhouse Folk: Past, Present & Future’ project (Stoke Village, Plymouth, UK) led by Rachel Dobbs. Vicky recently exhibited linoleum experiments in ‘Pull My Thread’ at Brantwood House, (Coniston, UK) and flax straw work at ‘Green Making-Materials-Objects’ at the Levinsky Gallery, (Plymouth, UK).

Rachel Dobbs (IRL) is an artist based in Plymouth (UK) whose practice spans a range of collaborative artistic and community-focused projects, all with a strong emphasis on people, relationships, communication and systems of exchange. Rachel’s work as one half of LOW PROFILE has recently featured in Social Fabric (Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Penzance), and Faraway Festival Reims (Reims, FR), and their artwork is part of public collections at The Box (Plymouth, UK), Harris Museum, Library & Art Gallery (Preston, UK) and FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (Reims, FR).

ARTIST WEBSITE