Suzette Smart

Suzette Smart came to talk to us about her textile journey

holding one of her books

a selection of her work

Her early work was mostly based on heavy machine stitching.  This is a beach scene with lots of tiny figures

She then moved into water soluble including making 3d elements

Suzette tells a story in every piece. This is a  piece of work based on memories from her childhood and using old fabrics

 The first version was a single dress based on one she had as a child

Her fascination with 3d forms evolved into bird boxes - some with cleverly hinged lids.

Maps - with a close up.  A birds eye view including lots of elements

Suzettes latest work includes transfers. She still likes emulsion transfer but has found a more reliable method now. Machine stitch is used to embellish the piece in various ways.

Just a small selection of her books. These often use painted bondaweb. We will be doing a workshop making these books with Suzette in January so watch out the for the Blog from that.

A lovely lecture with fascinating work that was amazing in close up. Thanks Suzette.

Chairs Challenge 2019

Sorry I didnt get a chance to take photos of all the entries  (if you email me a picture I will add them here as I get them)

Dont forget we need these back for Regional day on June 13 2020. You can have more than one piece up on Regional day, you can enter older pieces and you can carry on making new pieces. Lets make it our most amazing display yet! 

Here is the WINNING entry by Martha Connock - just beautiful and a worthy winner.








A very close second place was Joy Griffiths with her clever Dressed Crab. Very well thought out as well as beautifully executed.

This is me wearing mine - looks better on me than it did on a hanger

Here are the JETS lovely entries. Aren't they super? Every JET got a comment card for their entry and a voucher for Hobbycraft. Well done for these super pieces of work

Grand theatre Community project - work and display

Every year when The Grand put on their Panto they invite community groups in the area to contribute to the production of a display. This year we were invited to contribute to the display for Dick Whittington. We were one of 25 local community groups. A very small select group of us met at Heath House studios . It was great fun we were invited to make shoes for the Moroccan market we had access to lots of fabrics and embellishments. One of the group made a large black creepy crawly that was placed on the milestone and I will leave you all to decide who created it!!! The brilliant bus was also created by a member of the group. I'll leave you guess who.
Margaret and I attended the unveiling of the display on behalf of the guild. If you are not attending the panto you can pop in to see the display an hour before any of the performances.

Grand Theatre Panto project - 20th October 2019

Wolverhampton branch had been invited to take part in a community project to be displayed during the ‘Dick Whittington’ Panto at the Grand Theatre at the end of the year.
This took place at Heath House studios in Romsley near Kinver under the guidance of Pauline.
A small but select group of us turned up at the studios this morning. We were given various items that we could make. These would be part of a London scene or an opulent Moroccan scene.
Some of us chose to make elaborate slippers for the Moroccan market stall, while one made an insect to creep around London and one a London bus!!

First chose what to use

Now to make start

Progress being made

And finally the finished work,  although some have been brought home to finish and Pauline will be finishing off the slippers

I

Many thanks to Pauline for facilitating this project and to those who turned up to produce a piece. We had a brilliant day!