Keep to date via the Bridging Arts blog

Keep up to date with news on the Bridging Arts blog which has more about  Bridging Arts, and all our other projects - the charity's website is www.bridging-arts.org.
There are a couple of other blogs linked with more of Bridging Arts' work

• I Packed This Myself - a log of our project with migrant workers in Cornwall
• Pilgrimage Diaries  - notes on journeys (sacred and profane) .

Zahra Ahmed's stunning tunic sari

I have just written a piece for the website and created a photo gallery there - but I think that the blog has a different readership. So am repeating here... Zahra Ahmed was a recent winner of the British Sari Story competition (seeking a radically different way of wearing the sari and a design to challenge traditional thinking

Her short-skirted sari impressed the judges, and the sari retailer RCKC which made up the design in India. Zahra, from Peterborough, is  - amazingly - still at school, in the final year of A levels.
"I based the shape and design of this sari on the edgier and more urban sytle of British girls today. This is why I shortened the length of hte sari. It could be worn like this, or with leggings or skinny jeans for the more modest wearer."

The sketch that inspired the pallau...

And the pallau design: "There are straight sharp lines all over the fabric... randomly placed. I drew the lines so that they ressemble disco laser lights, which adds an energetic and modern feel to the sari."

A tear sheet of 'British' images in Zahra's sketchbook...

Zahra adjusting her sari, made up by RCKC (sari retailer) in India, at the Knitting and Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace, October 2010.

Zahra with her mother, at the Show.

A Gormley statue modelling the Bridging Arts bag

Thank to Josie Harris for this lovely photo from an icy northern beach ....
Statue by Antony Gormley. Crosby Beach, Sefton.
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

The Bridging Arts bag

Designed by David Cross. Note the scissors on the logo...Perfect for presents, and for carrying around shopping. Available from me any time - and we'll be selling them at our stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show next month.

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A team for the new catwalk collection

A meeting in Wembly with Amit Rastogi of RCKC and Jessica Aldred of the RSN ... We're putting together a team of embroiderers to create the new catwalk collection (designed in India, embroidered here - complete reversal of the usual process...).

So - if you are interested - the first step is to submit a sample of your work for Amit to look at. He asks for anything that you think might be relevant. Please send it to Susan Roberts, c/o Bridging Arts by 21st June -

Bridging Arts

370-376 Uxbridge Road

London W12 7LL

Please enclose return postage to ensure it can be posted back to you - I am not sure how much more registered post is, but it is probably worth it.

All very exciting! Amit will look at all samples submitted in the following week and put together a team...

Top chef's embroidered landscapes

Glynn Christian (second left), Britain's first tv chef and now a historical novelist, is taking part in the classes and very kindly brought along his extraordinary collection of embroidered landscapes. They have been collected over the decades, bought in markets and junk shops.

"Though I'm a writer, I'm useless with my hands I can't do this kind of thing, but I so admire people who can," he said. "They were not only stitched by people but designed by them."

This embroidery is mostly on linen or canvas. There are so many beautiful pieces that I cannot display on the blog - so have created web gallery for them on the Bridging Arts site. Everyone was carried away by this embroidery. I am inspired to embroider a landscape myself this Christmas. Thank you, Glynn.

First steps -patterns and place

How did it start? In Willesden Green, during the British Sari Story exhibition. Had a coffee with Matt Stringer, Wandsworth Council's Senior Arts Officer. We'd been creating patterns for the sari in the British Sari Story - why not think about Islamic patterns on traditional clothing? Matt suggested. Particularly the hijab. Why? To work with Muslim and non-Muslim women to increase understanding of different traditions of Islam through a common interest - embroidery.
The next step - as always - was the quest for funding. But such had been the interest in the British Sari Story, that we were sure that the idea of looking further at pattern, place and heritage would strike chords somewhere.
Above - Rahiet Ashfaq of Fife with her Sari for Scotland, reflecting the traditional damask patterns of her native town, given a contemporary twist in her sari.