21st November 2024

 

Teresinha Roberts  -  'Wild colours, natural dyes'

Mini workshop 13.00 - 15.30

Pebbles part 2

 17th October 2024

 Rachel's presentation 'How textiles tell stories' was brought to life by the wide range of her work which she brought to illustrate her very informative and thought provoking talk.

Rachel came from a home with a sewing background where her mum made clothes and taught her stitches. She took a one year Art foundation covering photography, life drawing, painting, fashion textiles, this gave her a direction. Her degree was Fashion and Textiles, during the first year she was encouraged to draw - focused on roman frescos/ mosaics, the second year saw wedding dress design with pattern cutting etc. Following this Rachel spent a year at a trimmings design company - designing collars for dresses and jumpers, where she learnt about budgets,working with customers, using a limited colour range.Next she had a job designing socks which introduced her to using a computer and designing using CAD.

Rachel joined a City and Guilds pattern cutting course creating the 'Pebble dress', she researched on beaches, waves,pebbles etc recording in sketch books. From this she designed pattern blocks and cut out, created designs using gutta resist  hand painted on then applied silk paint in layers, which she then fixed, once the dress was made she used a soldering iron to burn out areas to produce the desired effect of the edge looking like pebbles in surf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She was approached by Remix group and here worked to a theme of collaboration, for this Rachel used a sketch book, containing sketches and silk painting, which belonged to her grandmother when she had lived in Shanghi, Australia and Hong Kong. She used the work, copying it onto transfer paper, then cutting out stems, twigs with flowers, having found a dress belonging to her grandmother she applied these using free machine embroidery round all the stems, flowers, and then cut round the shapes removing most of the back.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next for Rachel was Materials Matter - any material clay, fabric, thread etc, as she wears white shirts she decided to use old shirts, cutting them on the bias, machine zig zag to get a 'lettuce' edge. Fashion victim blouse - cut out labels from clothes to use to decorate collars. Rachel researched cotton which has a difficult history involving slavery, excessive water use etc. There is also a fashion transparency index - Who is Making My Clothes? - brought about following the devastating factory collapse in India, which revealed the conditions in which people worked, where many big name companies had outsourced their making to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lines of Thought - strands of denim, each free stitched with machine embroidery and cut out, the denim hand painted and embroidered. (at this point Rachel left teaching)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Refresh Project - use language of Chester as a starting point, Rachel selected black and white buildings, taking the four oldest (Leech house etc) and using patterns from these to embroider on white fabrics from charity shops. She included painting, embroidery based on Elizabeth 1st . Also the story of a Chester family is featured in the work. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rachel is now self employed delivering a variety of workshops and talks. 

 

 

 

 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.