Upcycled handbags and odd sculptures on show

THE Nettlebed Art and Craft Show was held for the 69th time at the weekend.

Thirty artists from within a
20-mile radius of the village displayed works at the community school on Saturday and Sunday.

The charity show had 12 craft tables where artists presented their work as well as 82 hanging pictures.

Visitors voted for the best hanging work and best craft table.

The best hung painting was
Twilight by Sue Carter.

Mark Wood, from Wallingford, won best craft table for his watercolour and oil paintings.

He said: “I like to paint with vibrant colours and I have really turned up the volume.

“I have been seriously selling my work for the past 13 years and exhibit every Saturday at Wallingford’s local producer market.”

Mr Wood, who was making his debut at the show, said he was inspired by the relationship between large bodies of water and the sky.

“I am hankering to retire to the sea,” he said. “My other half is from Cape Cod in America so I have painted scenes from there.” Janet Roberts, from Henley, was showing handbags made from upcycled fabrics such as denim and old shirts.

She said: “I only buy in metal and the zips.”

She started making the bags during lockdown. “I get stuff from charity shops and car boot sales,” she said. “I do alterations as well, so I use excess material from that.”

Ms Roberts was also selling upcycled hairbands and colourful rings made from glass and alcohol-based ink.

She said: “I get bored very easily, so I like the variation. I have been crafting for as long as I can remember. I was taught to sew by my sisters at aged six.”

Painter Margaret Horton, from Abingdon, said: “I mostly do watercolour but also make collages with acrylic paint. I get bored if I do the same thing.

“I have probably been doing this for about 10 years. I was a history teacher at Wallingford School but I always liked art and when I went part-time, I did it much more.”

David Palmer-Stevens, from Wyfold, exhibited a variety of large sculptures of cartoon characters such as the Incredible Hulk as well as a large sculpture of Humpty Dumpty. He said: “I loved drawing as a child and my father would buy me a comic and tracing paper every week. I found if I traced a character about ten times I could draw it freehand.”

“In secondary school, I did proper lessons on things like cross-hatching and my art teacher objected to me using pencil and smudging so made me sit in the corner.”

“As a teenager, I would get a bar of soap that was rock hard and then carve it out with a nail. I once carved an old guy sitting on a stool holding a beer mug with a hole in it.

“I use Milliput, which is two-part resin which you mix together. It was invented to mend pipes underwater and feels like Plasticine.

“I make a metal frame and then add the Milliput using water, so everything is made from it apart from the eyes which are ceramic.”

Mr Palmer-Stevens said the main reason he sold his works was to buy more Milliput to make more.

Susan Byers, who is the treasurer of the Nettlebed Art Society, which organises the show, said: “The fair runs once a year and all proceeds go to different local charities and schools.”

The society is looking for new members. If you are interested, email nettlebedas@gmail.com