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Sunday, 24 March 2024

Archangel Uriel, in a nearby Village

 Another day of working in Owl Wood lies ahead, but I just wanted to take some time to tell you about an exhibition which I visited as a reward for yesterdays hard work.

This area has lots of tiny villages and tiny churches.  It is part of the reason I love it so much.  Each village has many stories to tell, so do the churches.


This particular church is where my two Lincolnshire grandchildren attended Sunday School for many years.   I had forgotten about the exhibition but luckily my daughter reminded me and offered to take me down there.


The centrepiece of this beautifully curated exhibition is a metal and fabric figure of Archangel Uriel.  He took three artists five months to create.  The metal parts look like silver coloured washers which have been carefully welded together, the fabric is mostly silk.   Countless Suffolk Puffs form the robe, each one handstitched.   The gold ones represent armour because the artists wanted to show the martial aspect of angels.


The sleeves are made from organza and are encrusted with seed pears, diamante, and metal beads. 
The mirror was placed behind so that it was easy to seed the detail on the back.


Archangel Uriel is the angel of wisdom who sometimes gives people sparks of inspiration and shines the light on truth.  He is referenced in many religions.

The exhibits ranged from ancient coins, tiles, scraps of fabric, stamps, puppets and many other items, all showing angels.  Unfortunately, the church is small and the space available tiny.  Naturally, people like to stop and chat - but in doing so, they often blocked access to the exhibits.  I couldn't get any decent photographs of the other works, which is a shame.  

Someone had worked hard to put it all together.  All credit to them.



12 comments:

  1. There is some considerable work in that..and a beautiful result

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    1. I imagine they won't want to be making any more Suffolk puffs for quite a while. Really beautiful result though.

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  2. Goodness what a lot of work went into making that Angel, an angel I'd never heard of - will have to investigate

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    1. They must have been delighted when they finally finished, that is a lot of Suffolk puffs, for sure.

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  3. A most unusual statue . One that makes everyone stop and look and wonder, i'm sure. We don't often here his name here. It's usually Michael, Gabriel or Raphael here. Very interesting

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    1. It was quite a surprise to walk into such a small church and find such a large angel, Linda. The rest of the displays were all small, fortunately!

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  4. I knew a young girl many years ago called Auriel (the alternative spelling of Uriel) and wondered where the name came from. As both GZ and Sue have said, a lot of work has gone into the making of the exhibit. I've got a feeling that to see the real thing one was more able to see a thing of beauty than the photo can do it credit for. A most unusual exhibition by the sound of things.

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    1. You are right, the photographs simply do not do it justice. The puffs were varied in size and tone, really quite lovely. The rest of the exhibition was also very interesting, ancient depictions of angels, scraps of centuries old fabric, modern interpretations along with the traditional. The items were brought in from around the world - and found their way into a tiny Lincolnshire church. Wonderful!

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  5. This is a lovely exhibit and your explanation of the angel is excellent.

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    1. It has delighted a lot of people over the weekend, today is the final day at the little church. I hope they show it somewhere else.

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  6. I am another one who had not heard of the Archangel Uriel. What a wonderful exhibit especially in a small country church.

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    1. Same here, Susan. I love working in the woodland, but it was good to take the time out to learn some new things and have some art to enjoy.

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Lovely to hear from you.
I will try to answer comments in the next post.