Today's talk was a bit out of the ordinary, we saw things we hadn't seen before in an interesting slide show. Jeni started her career as a photographer, and visited many places photographing artists and designers work, including lovely knitwear. From there her interest branched out into cyanotypes, which we hadn't seen before, and is a process of applying a chemical to paper or fabric, after placing items on it to make a resist, or shadow, and then the material is placed under light and left to magically make an image as the chemical turns blue, leaving a negative image. She had brought along items made up from the cloth. Due to long term illness she has made many cloth and knitted items.
She had done some research into the transatlantic slave trade and how it affected people in Angus in the past, probably without their knowledge. Some people who lived in Angus owned over 5,000 slaves, who knew? Jeni had made up a load of postcards with photos of Angus scenery, and on the back is written a name from the slave returns to commemorate the individuals, and leaving the postcards all around the county so people can learn about this history.
Jeni is also passionate about the awful plastic waste that blights our landscapes and beaches, and has turned some of this detritus into rather lovely jewellery, made from things like bottle tops and toothpaste tubes.
More of Jeni's work can be seen by searching for her on Instagram.
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