BS9

 Jane brought along her engines piece,it is almost done just a little more stitching before it's ready to mount.

 She also showed us what she had been doing with Marilyn's thread cast offs.She had bonded the cut ends and was wondering if they would need to be stitched to keep them attached to the backing.We offered various suggestions as to what might be appropriate as we thought it shouldn't detract from the overall effect.

It has the look of a glorious sunset.

Other pieces Jane brought will be on display for the Embroiderers Guild stand at the BS9 arts trail.This was one of her samples for her City and Guilds Diploma.Lots of interesting threads woven through a grid.

The other piece was done on a Mary Sleigh workshop and showcases some of the some of the traditional techniques that Mary has studied on her many trips to Africa.

Jane has put her own slant on them.The  fabric is a raw silk and some African strip cloth.

Finally a plug for this event,the Embroiderers Guild will be at St Monica's and Debby will be showing but I am not sure where.Look at her site on the front page of the blog for more info or go to the website mentioned on the flyer.

Surfaces.

What a lovely box ! These are  Deryll's flower stitcher  embellishments .

 

They are used in her new piece,here are a few 

little details

To whet your appetite.

Another few surface delights from Patricia

She brought along two beautiful wraps,inspired by marks in the sand.

These photographs don't do justice to the work that has gone into them.

They are silk ,stitched and beaded with 

layers of fabric and meant to be 

worn around the shoulders.

Advance notice.

LLiz has a solo exhibition coming up,details below.

 

If you are quick you can also catch some of her work in Hayloft Ashton Court Bristol until 27th April. She is showing as part of iD artists,a group of interdisciplinary artists.It has lots of interesting pieces,well worth a visit.

Caravanning and St.Ives !

Carol's first piece is a very well put together peg bag.We all want one.The reason ......her son is moving into a new place .This is a very personalised present it's  his camper van.

 

Next she showed the progress she has made on her piece for exhibition.There are four background pieces,each will be representative of living things.This is just the beginning,next she will embroider the double helix and then add insects ,birds etc.

It is a real labour of love and all hand stitched and hand- dyed !

Debbie brought along some purchases,some pre-printed panels from the  Kemshalls.She 

has started to work on the owl,attaching it to some tweed and free- machine embroidering.The  piece had a light border but Debby dyed it with tea to knock it back.

         

She also had these threads.Her work shows her trademark colours,this first one based on a weather report.

Below,a detail.

Some free machining on a batik of her beloved St.Ives

And a detail of the houses overlooking the beach.

Beach combing in St Ives

Have just spent a week in St Ives, beach combing, finding lots of lovely shells, sea glass, fragments of blue & white china, and beautifully rusted bottle tops, & pieces of rusty wire.

I even attempted rust dyeing pieces of strip cloth wrapped around some of my rusty finds in sea water.

First attempt resulted in me getting very wet, when caught by a wave as I rescued my piece of cloth. Second attempt more successful as made sure a very long piece of string attached to the cloth.

What informs our ideas?

Jenn had been away on Sian Martin's masterclass weekend.There is always a Friday night challenge activity .This one centred around examining the content of work and whether it is concerned with representation,materials ,emotion or abstract concepts and how to develop ideas outside of our 'comfort zone'.First a number of images were examined and discussion ensued as to what category. they belonged? Next each member worked with an image they had brought along they felt a connection with .Small palm size pieces of work were done to respond to each of the four areas before their responses were discussed.

It was interesting as most members found the representational the area they were most at ease with ,followed by materials and abstraction,the emotional was the area most difficult to deal with.There are more  photos on

www.stitchedtextileartists.co.uk of work by other members.

Jenn had also played with materials to begin to develop ideas from her sketchbook, seen last month.She used silk,bondaweb and some stitch.

Interestingly Sue had been sorting through some fabrics and artefacts to spark some ideas for 'Echoes'

The embroidered fabric had a connection to her grandmother who worked as a dressmaker .The letter and tide timetable below belong to her husband.Both may evoke memories and feelings which in turn may lend a personal connection to the eventual piece.Is this one instance of using emotion in our work? 

April and a catch-up with Ira.

We didn't see Ira last meeting as she has been away and catching up with her new grandchildren.Due to a misunderstanding her work had not arrived with her in the meeting previous,so we had a lot to look forward to.First were her take on ammonites,aren't they wonderful? Ira is an alchemist,she produces such magical results with such unpromising fabrics.

She only uses man-made fibres which are painted ,melted,layered and embroidered.

This picture shows the organza upper layer set aside to show the under one.

Here we have the beginnings of the embellishment which includes hand embroidery and metal leaf.

Next we saw some of her work in progress for her Slimbridge exhibition .This is inspired by looking at agates.

Lots of stitchery and 

fabric painting.

Inspiration and the task of choosing threads and ways to enrich the surface.She insisted she had nothing much to show!

 

If you want to see more 'in the  flesh' then go along to 

Ira will be exhibiting on the days highlighted in yellow.