Friday 15 March 2024

March workshop and talk

 In the morning we had a workshop led by Anne - another of her creative sessions combining mosaic and fabric and stitch, this time using Clarice Cliff as inspiration. As usual, Anne was well-prepared with lots of samples and colourful resources.


The session was only two hours long, so even with some preparatory thinking about design and concentrated effort, no-one completed their piece, but here are photos of all the works-in-progress.


Our afternoon speaker was mixed media artist Priscilla Edwards, whom many will know from her 'tea-time' pieces, one of which featured on the front cover of Stitch magazine for April/May 2012.  Priscilla took us on her textile journey from a BA at MMU in 1995 to the publication of her Search Press book Sculptural Textile Art  in 2022.

Priscilla's is an avid collector of ephemera, found materials and the 'lost and overlooked'. Her inspiration has ranged from the cotton industry, the war-time and post-war periods to pincushions from the Gawhorpe Hall collection. More recent work has been figurative with a (slightly scary!) dark, fairy-tale edge. As well as giving an inspiring talk, Priscilla also let us handle some of her work.



If you want to know more about Priscilla and her work, there's an excellent interview at https://www.textileartist.org . 







Monday 11 March 2024

More shadows!

At the March meeting, Linda brought in her pieces from the February workshop, together with some further developments she'd done.  Definitely an encouragement to look at how we can progress learning from from a simple session!


The top two are from the workshop and the lower two are from transfer printed rubbings and different organzas.

Wednesday 28 February 2024

Another shadow

 Here's another photo of a (nearly) completed piece from the February shadow applique workshop. In this instance, Russell has shown that you don't have to use only running or back stitch to outline the shapes - he's included beads, as well as whipped and laced running stitch. Couching would also be good for a well-defined outline.




Thursday 15 February 2024

February workshop - In Clarice's Shadow

2C + 2H = U ≠ 2C !

Not a real mathematical equation....... but it simply means that if you use Clarice Cliffe's work (2C) as inspiration and add in your hand and your head (2H) you end up with your own design (U) and not a copy of Clarice Cliff.

As the theme for the day was Shadow Applique we started the session with a small exercise using triangles of fabric, scraps of organza and threads to explore the interaction between different colours and stitches (running or backstitch).





After an hour or so of fabric, we then moved on to using some shape templates taken from Clarice Cliff's work to create our own designs. Using paper and card, we flipped, repeated, enlarged and distorted and cut.









We relaxed over lunch and returned to then look at transferring our designs into fabric and stitch.



Lots of brilliant, bold colour from a really hard-working and fun group.


Thursday 1 February 2024

Friday 26 January 2024

Something to see in Salford

Salford Art Gallery and Museum

Peel Park, The Crescent, Salford, M5 4WU

Tuesday - Friday 9.30am to 4.00pm

Saturday & Sunday  11.30am to 4.00pm

Beneath Our Feet  (until Sunday, 5 May 2024)

An exhibition by the wonderful, local textile artist, Leah Higgins, inspired by local mills and collieries, and pottery from the Pilkington Tile and Pottery Company.

The museum has an excellent cafe with lunches, coffee and cakes.....

     and who can resist a visit to Lark Hill Place, literally a trip down Memory Lane!

www.salfordmuseum.com




Thursday 11 January 2024

Zooming into January!

Our first 'meeting' of the year - and weren't we glad to be sitting in the warmth and comfort of our own homes without having to venture out into the South Manchester fog!

We started with an interesting talk from Helen Birmingham of The Stitchbook Collective/Untanged Threads. Helen's Sawdust Hearts project, based on WWI sawdust hearts, in 2018 involved an enormous number of participants with 1,568 hearts being completed and money donated to the charity, Combat Stress.

Helen stressed the importance of using stitch as a meditative practice; it's OK not to have an end in mind but to enjoy the calming effect of putting needle and thread to fabric. Just as important is the support that comes through working on projects with like-minded people and being kind to each other. 

Through her HMB Stitchbooks project, Helen has developed a way of binding calico pockets into books. The pockets can be decorated with stitch but will also store small samples. As an added bonus the pockets are ethically produced in Pondicherry, India. There is a membership fee to join The Stitchbook Collective, with a members' magazine being published each month and the ability to purchase kits for the books.

Thank you, Helen, for a thought-provoking and inspiring talk.

www.untangledthreads.co.uk

www.thestitchbookcollective.com

After Helen's talk, Jean started us off on the felt, folded sewing case for which instructions had been sent out before Christmas. It was also possible to use fabric other than felt. An opportunity for some simple, mindful stitching to start off the New Year .......unless you chose to focus too much on the past of not being able to stitch in parallel lines and insufficiently in the moment of making the next stitch correctly!

Photos are of Jean's non-felt sample and Sue's back and front. More to come in a future post.  Looking forward to the inside pages at a future meeting, Jean.