A GROUP of Gwent women have turned their textile work into an art exhibition.

The Newport Level V group first met at Brynglas House Community Learning Centre five years ago when they were completing an adult education textile course.

After finishing the course, they then decided to make their own group and create their own projects, including their latest which is currently at Newport Museum and Art Gallery.

Home Front, Newport During WW1, focuses on families in Newport during the First World War and looks at what they may have gone through.

Group member Abby Carpenter said the project has helped the women learn more about the war and hopes the exhibition will remind other people of what families in wartime went through.

She said: “We had just finished the course and got our qualification. We enjoyed what we had done and because we learnt so much we wanted to carry on.

“As it was the centenary, I think most people remember the beginning and the end. Four years is such a long time and we kind of wanted to bring home that it was ongoing.”

The exhibition is made up of more than 20 different pieces of work, each exploring subjects like interpreting marriage and loss before and after the war, to imagined letters from soldiers to families.

However, the group also put emphasis on women in the war, and how they coped with what was going on around them.

“We thought let’s look at it from the sense of the women, the women never get a look in, it’s always about, and unjustifiably so, the men who had lost their lives,” said Miss Carpenter.

“It’s tragic but we wanted to focus on the impact on the women at home, them having to hold a family together and deal with rationing and looking after their children.

“It appealed to us because they were ordinary Newport women, and that’s what we are.”

Virginia Hole, who used to teach the women at Brynglas House, said she’s very proud of the group’s effort and work, as the group began the project two years ago.

She said: “I don’t think people realise the time it takes to stitch things, and the research as well. It took us a lot of time and effort.

“We’re pleased with our first exhibition, I don’t know how we got here but we did.”

Home Front, Newport During WW1 is on until October 28 and can be seen from Tuesday to Friday, from 9.30am to 5pm and on Saturdays from 9.30am to 4pm.