Karst: an artistic response to limestone scenery

Over the last few, well several, maybe even many, months, I have been working on a collection of textile pieces for a collaborative exhibition based on Karst landscapes. I have been working with Kay Leech who is a well known textile artist and today we got to hang the exhibition at Shambellie House, just outside Dumfries. So, here are the videos and photos of our work .... Now the eagle eyed will notice there aren't any labels yet - there will be by the time the exhibition opens on September 18th. It runs until 4th October, open daily 10 - 4, entry is £5 and includes tea/coffee and cake/ scone. Our exhibition is part of a much bigger quilt exhibition, so there's plenty to see. 

Snakes and Adder's Tongues

Next, onto Streedagh Beach, but not for the beach...Streedagh is an important fossil site, with many 
coral species, brachiopods, crinoids and foraminifera. The most spectacular were the long solitary corals, Siphonophyllia samsonensis. Not unsurprisingly, they were likened to snakes - possibly the ones that St Patrick banished.....

Benbulben in the background.

Crossing some nice machair to get to the site.

Solitary corals.....

Colonial coral - probably Siphondendron sp.

An upturned coral head.

More spectacular views.

And on the way back ....Adder's Tongue fern.

Bundoran, County Donegal

A walk along the coast to an incredible site! 

Parking was at at Tullan Strand.

Bundoran, with the Benbulben plateau behind.

Sea arch.

Looking for fossils.

Slabs of rock that are mainly made up of Chrinoids (Sea Lilies).

Saltburn and Runswick Bay

A glorious day, so warm and sunny! A quick stop off at Saltburn for breakfast and then a walk along the beach at Runswick Bay ...

Saltburn on Sea....colourful beach huts...

 

The Pier...

..and furnicular.

Runswick Bay.

An outgoing tide.

Fulmar.

Ammonites...

It's always nice to find a sea urchin ...nice and clean inside, so I left it on by a rock for someone else to hopefully find.

Aughertree Fossils Textile

So, our local quarry yields some super little fossils which I have previously written about click here and here, I have used them as my inspiration source for this piece. Using a large gelli plate I printed basic shapes and textures onto plain white cotton. These were patched in rows, representing the layers of limestone, before having the fossil shapes appliqued on. Machine embroidery and hand embroidery added detail and texture.

Size - about 14 inches wide and 20 tall...detail below...

Saltwick Bay

Before setting off for home, we popped down to Saltwick Bay. It was really nice to be able to walk out so far on the wave-cut platform...there were very few rockpools as such and not a great variety of life, but then again it's such a harsh environment as the tide comes in, that I suppose it's not surprising. Returning along the beach, under the cliffs, there were quite a few fossil bits and some nodules - not a place to linger as there was sporadic tinkling, as bits of shale fell from the cliff onto the beach. 

Shale jammed into cracks in the platform.

Three ammonite nodules and odds and ends ...

...and a final quick trip into Whitby for  Fortune's Kippers....

Whitby jet

A sunny walk along the beach at Runswick Bay; plenty of jet on the beach. Jet is basically fossilised wood and was formed during the Jurassic period(180mya), when due to flash flooding, large amounts of the Araucaria tree were swept into the sea. Today the closest 'relative' of the Araucaria is  the Monkey Puzzle tree. The trees became waterlogged and sank into the muddy seabed, where  they were preserved in the anaerobic conditions, compressed and fossilised. Jet is washed up along the coast near Whitby and is found on the strand line- often together with bits of coal and peat. The jet though looks different - it has a sheen to it and striations which stand out in the light. It also makes a brown (orange, if it is jewellery grade jet) mark when scratched on carborundum paper. 

It was nice to see some ammonites and oystershells as well as plenty of  septarian nodules. 

Runswick Bay ...

Happy dog! 

Designs and colours ....

Septarian nodules.

Colourful cliffs ....

Ammonites.

Oysters.

Jet...

Big bits! 

I still haven't found out what these 'holes' in the wave cut platform are ....

Good surf....