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Frances Crowe, Fibre Artist at Grange Studio

Frances Crowe, is a fibre artist, specialising in hand woven tapestry. Large scale, wall hangings and small framed textured treasure pieces. Her inspiration comes from the landscape around her home in the idyllic setting of rural county Roscommon. Frances's studio is located in the heart of rural county Roscommon, approximately 10klms from the centre of Roscommon town. On display is a selection of large hand woven wall hangings made from all natural materials, wool weft and cotton warp, and small framed textured treasure pieces on display. This ancient traditional craft is practised by very few craft workers/ artists in the present day. Frances draws her inspiration from the landscape around her home. The colours, textures, sounds and smells of daily life, throughout the seasons forms the basis of her designs, which are first observed - haystacks, blackbirds, ploughed fields, sheep. The next step is to transform the image into a suitable design for tapestry. Then, put on the warp and begin to weave the piece. This is a very slow process, and requires many hours of isolated workmanship in her rural studio. Visitor can watch Frances work on a piece, and try to make a small sample. Frances runs kids camps and adult weaving classes and recently produced a selection of prints of her large wall hangings, and a selection of greeting cards, to give the visitor an opportunity to purchase a more affordable piece. Frances is a trained art teacher and finds every opportunity to teach, drawing, spinning, natural dyeing weaving, painting, designing. Frances runs classes and courses catered to the specific needs of the learner and will work with groups of up to 10 in the studio. As the studio is located in her home, it is very relaxed, and a cup of tea will always be on offer. The gallery is on the walls of the working studio.

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