17th October 2024

 

Rachel Davies with her presentation 'How textiles tell stories' 

 

Mini workshop - 13.00 - 15.30

'Pebbles' part 1

 19th September 2024

 

September social, AGM, coffee and cake 

The meeting featured a display of work completed at a variety of workshops held throughout the year (2023 - 24)

 

 

 18th July

Sarah's presentation about her 'Journey into quilts ' was very entertaining and supported by a range of her work.

Her interest in textiles and creativity comes from her family, father was a graphic designer and her mother knitted, however the family did not sew. Sarah saw pictures of quilts which led to her researching how to make them, she likes the simple lines and designs eg Bauhaus.

Sarah often works in linen, she tends to design and go her own way with things, making use of hand dyed fabrics and hand quilting. Her work features blocks of colour and she uses triangles, log cabin etc.

 

In 2016 she joined the quilters guild and now lectures, runs workshops, as well as providing help and advice. She also belongs to a modern quilters group in the USA, this changed her vision of quilts  she now attends and exhibits at the annual exhibition.

More recently Sarah has spent time making collages, she kept them separate from quilting. However she decided to take one of her collages as she thought it would make a quilt, cutting it up and using it as templates to make a quilt which she machine quilts in blocks, this was a sucessful experiment.  

 

 20th June 2024

' Curiously captivated'  a presentation by Rachael Singleton

 

Workshop 1.5 days - Unfolded Ferneries with Rachael Singleton

20th June 13.00 - 15.30

21st June 10.00 - 15.30

 

 ' Curiously captivated'  was an interesting presentation by Rachael describing her fascination and obsession and its influences on her work/making.

Rachael has always been a 'maker' and comes from a family of creative makers, this in earlier times probably developed as making things/clothes etc was a necessity. She has had a go at most things, embroidery, patchwork, painting and her work features paint/painting a lot hence Textile and mixed media artist.

To Rachael art has always been a joy and she has done what she has wanted to do rather than being bound by 'rules' she has always liked to 'play' and experiment. This has seen the creation of many sketch books including the concertina book below.

 

She has had a career in teaching and advising in the 'early years' age range where there is opportunity for more spontaneous /explorative learning. Rachael has also produced books, 'Thinking It Through' outlines the creative process encouraging people to think what gets them inspired and focus on this.  

Rachael has identified being captivated by stones/stone walls, line, markmaking and containing with her work featuring one or more of these themes.

Stones/ stone walls - she collects pebbles, draws/photographs pebbles in rivers/sea, experiments, block prints, she often paints onto fabric, stitches into it, applies pebbles etc to it. Two pieces of work are 'Sandstone tubes' (feature silk, chiffon, organza layered onto painted cotton, stitched and made into tubes) and 'Ocean motion' (made from  5 pieces,wipes used to remove paint from print blocks, featuring reverse applique, stitch etc)

   

 16th May 2024

'Sculptural textile art' a presentation by Priscilla Edwards

Priscilla has always been creative, painting, making structures with papier mache etc which led to an art course and a degree in Embroidery at MMU. During the course she worked with a variety of materials including clear/coloured plastics and bubble wrap, old/recycled textiles, found items etc and also researched costume,period items eg shoes, undergarments, haberdashery (fastenings, edge finishes, decorative features). Priscilla experimented with fabric decoration, painting, printing, using transfer printing to put her drawings directly onto material which she worked over in stitch (hand or machine) and added in buttons or found items. 

From this her work developed into 3D structures including shoes,flowers,milk jugs, teapots, cups, saucers, spoons cakestands and cakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The starting point for these is a wire skeleton/structure, Priscilla uses paper covered wire, white, which she can then paint, then wraps on the dyed fabrics - light weight silks which include some vintage silk scarves for added colour/pattern/texture, threads/wool, she then applies Batik wax using a brush and once dry works stitch and other items like buttons into this to complete the sculpture.

 

The materials she uses are increasingly important being found items, broken ceramics eg heads,legs of figures, old leather gloves/ shirt collars/hats/vintage fabrics all of which are repurposed into Priscilla's work eg the birds cages and birds.

Priscilla teaches in higher education, is involved in design work - featuring machine embroidery and free machine work, she creates 2D pieces, up to 100x70cm, using emulsion paint/varnish/glue on fabric which she then layers and stitches into to produce surface decoration. She exhibits these pieces together with the 3D sculptures.

 18th April 2024

'Gentle work'  emotions and stories in stitch a presentation by Christine Kelly.

Christine has always been creative and made items, initially using papier-mache decorated in bright colours, then moving on to introduce hand stitch and knitting in the making of rag dolls etc these were given to the family as presents.  

Christine did not have any textiles training until she took a City and Guilds course in machine embroidery. This led to her layering and stitching into paper using machine embroidery. She also collected vintage books,paper, lace, fabrics, traycloths etc all of which are pale colours - cream, ivory, beige, grey, which are calming. Her collection of fabrics and lace often provide starting points for pieces of work.

 

A move to the country allowed her to develop her work and creativity through the inclusion of nature, seasons, creatures, birds,feathers, acorn cups and then the incorporation of text/own words as part of the piece to tell a story. 

Christine finds the use of words powerful and people relate to them eg 'Words of Wisdom' favourite quotes (worked as a roll)and 'Working hard to make a life stitch by stitch' (book). She uses a water soluble pen to write the words onto the fabric and then hand stitches them with small running stitches and then whips the stitches following /emphasising the shape of the letters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christine finds stitching and her work comforting, they anchor her and express emotions.

She has made/used boxes putting words/objects inside to preserve memories, as keepsakes and as gifts.

 

 Projects undertaken have been the 'Collar Piece' where she was given a shirt collar to do anything creative with. She titled it 'White collar work' inspired by an extract from 'Toads' by Philip Larkin as inspiration applied papier- mache using old receipts, finishing with hand embroidery found objects and also made a bow tie to accompany it.

The next was 'Daphnes Glove' - they were given a vintage glove and a 'Cashes' name tape for Daphne Bryant' Christine created 'Souvenirs from the imaginary life of Daphne Bryant' by finding a photo to use as Daphne, using fingers of the glove to make a broach, the lace trim to make a bracelet, with additions of beads/jewels, an ear ring, a photo frame from rest of glove, for each piece she produced a back story and made a pocket to contain the items.

 

 21st March 2024

'My felted journey with botanical colours'  was unfortunately cancelled as Helen (our speaker) was ill.

'The unstitched coif' a presentation of work which was created to contribute to a PhD research project by Toni Buckby was delivered by Sue Jones one of the core group members.

In 2023 information went out to find 40 stitchers to stitch a piece of 'Blackwork' based on an archive from the V & A.

400 people from all over the world applied, there was funding for a core group of 40 although any of the others could join and stitch if they wanted too.

One workshop was held at the V&A, another at Sheffield Hallam as the PhD was in conjunction with Hallam. At the workshop they looked at historical Blackwork, fabrics, stitches, how it could be used in modern times etc.

The project was based on a panel (15" x9") from the 1600's which featured a coif - an Elizabethan headdress. This panel however had had the original stitching/embroidery removed leaving just the outlines.

Each of the members (150) started with a printed panel of the coif, the fabric for the core group was Italian and 75 threads to an inch - a strain to see when stitching!

Sue wanted to use colours rather than black, her first flower took some 30 hours of work, then via the social media chat (set up for the group to exchange ideas, problems etc) Sue learned that someone had identified the flowers/plants and the flower she had completed was not in a colour which she considered suitable so she unpicked it, and restarted using appropriate colours.

At the conclusion there were 77pieces of work these were created by people from all over the world with members ranging from the youngest at 13 to the oldest at 85. Some had used traditional blackwork for all of the coif, others used a mix of stitches including backstitch and beading, some had even tried to link it up with electronics to produce,for example a flashing of an eye in animals or birds or flower centre.

Members had decided on their own threads eg pure silk for the sheen, vintage sylko etc, some used applique and machining, others just outlined the shapes of flowers, leaves, animals and birds. 

 

 

As part of the project members had to record information about the choice of stitches, techniques, colours etc so at the end for each piece of work there was a record of the person, the stitches, time taken (for Sue 250 hours!)  and the work.

 Currently the V&A are having extensions but the hope is there will eventually be an exhibition of the work, the curator had looked at all the exhibits and emailed each contributor personally.

 

 

It was most interesting to not only hear about the project but to see so many different and varied outcomes from the same starting point of the original coif  design.