21st July 2022  

 

 My Embroidery Journey - From then to Now by Emily Notman

 

At school Emily was interested in art, particularly paint, she progressed to college where she studied 'fine art'. An 'accident' whilst painting led  Emily into textiles, she mopped up a spillage with a piece of fabric, the pattern created by this inspired her to use the fabric in her work.  

Emily studied a Textiles and Fine Arts degree at university where she learned to stitch and experiment with embroidery. She also specialised in weaving, ceramics and embroidery using bright colours in her work. A visit to Portugal led Emily to work featuring the natural landscape, beach, sea, shells etc and the colours associated with this. Barnacles inspired her work in ceramics and she uses paper clay like fabric, making holes in it then firing it and finally embroidering.

 

 

Emily also used ink and dyes on fabric to create pieces featuring shells which she printed and machine stitched producing wall hangings.Mussel shells with darker layers and shiny mother of pearl led to use of Batik, applique and machine stitch to create layers of fabric.

 

 

 

 

After university Emily wanted to work with clay and fabric, however kilns are expensive so she instead focused on textiles and was mentored at Unit 12 by Jennifer Collier. Here she started to develop smaller saleable pieces for example flower broaches and greetings cards.

 

 

 

 

She now creates wall panels featuring bleached and dyed fabrics which are layered and embroidered by hand and machine. Emily has developed a 'looped stitch' and also embelishes with a lacy effect produced by using a soldering iron, fraying edges and including dried flowers.

 

 

Emily is a mixed media artist combining painting and textiles,hand and machine embroidery and produces 3D cylinders/bowls inspired by gardens, smaller landscape pieces as broaches etc. She is currently artist in residence at a school and encourages use of various textiles including, net applied to bondaweb, needlefelted and knitted pieces which are worked into and applied onto fabric.

Social media has also led to on line workshops world wide.

Emily talking with members. 

 16th June 2022 our speaker was Karen Rouine

Karen's life in Textiles was influenced by her grandmothers who knitted, patched, made aprons in gingham etc.

Karen knitted when here children were young and then got into cross stitchkits and creating pictures. Following on from a craft course she started City and Guilds but some of the aspects like dying etc did not appeal to her so she switched to a degree starting with a foundation course, This involved drawing however as Karen prefered the medium of stitch this is what she used throughout, even in the 'life drawing'.

For her major project she created 6 panels on dyed fabric taking her inspiration from her children and incorporating memories and work within pockets.

 

 

Following a teacher training course Karen has taught extensively 'on line' and has worked with a variety of base materials including paper. She works on small pieces making samples which she then combines into larger items.

 

 

Karen makes lace cloth taking scrim and machining over it to create the lace which she then embellishes by hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sample/ experimental pieces she creates are made into cloth books in which Karen embellishes the back of the work believing that both sides deserve to be seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She also buys books and embroiders into each page, while more recently she has used lace paper and bullion knots which she makes into loops to create work in white. 

 19th May 2022

'Textles - A Personal Journey' by Hayley Mills-Styles Textile Artist

Hayleys journey started aged 4 when her Grandmother taught her to knit, she moved on to embroidery teaching herself from the 'Anchor 100 stitches' book. Having always used hand embroidery she moved to digital embroidery for her Masters degree experimenting with the 12 needle machine to make a series of 'patches' from photos of the fabric on an old sofa.

 

 

 

 

Further exploration of the digital world led to the creation of a lacy cloth, she embroidered on Aquasol, which she then dissolved away to leave the final item.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hayley has also worked with ferrous metals, found items from beach combing like fishing nets, metal rings etc. She likes the colours and experiments with work on wool fabric,rings and use of fishing twine to create 3D pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For her 10 years exhibition Hayley was artist in residence at Pannett Park a Museum in Whitby where she was inspired by natural history, fossils, skeletons eg Narwall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hayley works with various groups eg homeless, dementia those with mental health concerns etc, some of the work has been inspired by dance and also 52 pieces of embroidery including lungs etc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She makes pincushions which are small, easy to make and portable, stitchscapes which are semi abstract landscapes using scraps of fabric and stitch and embroidered portraits. 

 

 Workshops

The next workshop will be 'Calico Gardens' delivered by Sue Morgan and will be on 16th and 17th June. 

16th June 1.00 - 3.30pm

17th June 10.00 - 3.30pm

 April 2022

 'Communication Through Textiles '  by Melanie Kay

This was an interesting and thought provoking presentation with a fascinating collection of examples of her work.

Melanie has a Textiles degree/masters and now teaches D and T in a school where she focuses on work with metal, electronics and stitch.

She has always been interested in words,lettering,bright colours and 'found' items which she patchworks together. At university she gravitated to working on metals like copper, peweter etc and decided for her degree project to focus on Gender, with the Metals traditionally being considered 'male' and the Textiles/stitch traditionally being regarded as 'female'.

Lettering,colour and images

Stitch on copper/metals

Metals, flowers and lace effect

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melanie used found metal in the form of beer cans stitching them together and decorating them with flowers created using free machine embroidery. She then produced holes in the metal to achieve a lacy look to match with the flowers and added a 3D butterfly to complete the piece.

 

Social issues, patchwork,lettering

Flowers,lace,butterfly on metal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ideas and experimentation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In her work she draws images which she copies and sticks onto the cans, then applies stitch and finally 'sands off' print from selected areas to achieve finished result. Many of these link to health and social issues for example drink.

Melanie patchworks pieces of cans together and makes large 3 D items like lampshades. She has also made a selection of boxes - matches, cigarettes, chocolates,soap powder, jigsaws etc.

Jigsaw picture

Chocolate box

 

 

Match box - front

Match box - back

 17th March 2022

 

Our speaker was Bella May Leonard with a presentation 'Sculptural Stitch'

Bella studied embroidery gaining her BA Hons and worked as a Textile Artist, experimenting with stitch on various materials like acetate, to be able to see the front and back of the work; acrylic which allowed holes or designs to be cut out allowing lacing with shoe laces, washing line, plastic straws, cable ties many of which have been 'found' materials. 

A Residency in Mexico enabled her to experience the culture, weaving and embroidery and allowed for collaboration with print makers to explore patterns, textures and symbols. 

Bella's work reflects the cultures and materials which have inspired her.

Embroidery stitches

Acrylic with lacing

Inspired by Mexico and a hot water bottle, lino cuts used to print design and then embroidered

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mexican inspiration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cable ties and plastic

 

 

 

 

Stitch detail from Mexican man

Stitch detail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mini workshop 1.00 - 3.30 pm  Folk Art Designs on felt with Carrie and Trisha