January 20th In the hoop - Stephanie Redfern

Stephanie taught a workshop yesterday, using an embroidery hoop as the 'frame' for our work .

She initially showed us examples of her work

 

She then showed us how she uses a simple image and develops it 

We then set to and created our own pieces. Some of us got further than others!

 

 January 6th Narrative Textiles - Vivienne Beaumont

The first lecture of 2024 was a fascinating talk by Vivienne Beaumont

After doing her City and Guilds at Westhope College she went on to teach art , textiles and ceramics.

Vivienne then started an MA before lockdown. She needed to find a narrative for her work by using 50 words, 50 images and studying 4 artists

Her backgrounds start with acrylic mono prints. ink on top and then machine stitching, Texture is acheived with using the tailor tacking foot on her machine. She also uses abaca fibre  to create texture

She has an old Irish sewing machine which she has permanently set up with gold thread. as she likes harvest colours the gold enhances it. She has also used twigs and thorns.

As you can see she doesn't always stick to the inside of a frame or to a regular rectangular shape

Vivienne won a competition with ACE arts and the prize was to hold a solo exhibition, which she held last year entitled Seeds, flower and flowing hair

Thank you for a fascinating talk Vivienne

 Member's Christmas workshop 2nd December

Almost 30 of our members gathered together on December 2nd to have our Annual Christmas workshop and party.

Each member made a decoration of their choice and then swapped their decoration with another member at the end of the day.

We also had a bring and share lunch - magnificent as usual!!

The day was lovely although the weather cut short the day

Here are the decorations before our members took them away

 Unveiling the Panto project 11 December 2023

Three of our members went to the Grand Theatre for the unveiling of the Panto Project. Ruth, Jean and Debbie had a lovely afternoon and here are some images of the completed project. Thank you to Ruth for the pjot

 November 4th - Wolverhampton Grand theatre Panto project

17 of the group participated in a workshop, to create panels for the Wicked Queen's cape, which is part of a community project creating a display during the annual panto, Snow White, at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre.

The project is coordinated by Pauline from Heath House Studios.

She brought everything we needed to create the small panels that would form part of the cloak. We really did embrace our inner bling!!!

Some of the members have taken away kits while the rest of us either completed one or two in the morning session .

Here are some of those who participated

   

       

and some of the work that has been completed since

and the wicked queen of course needs an apple 

Lizzie Wall - Feathers, Scales and Fur

We had an amazing talk from Lizzie on her art quilts based on the natural world and including animals - fur, birds - feathers and fish - scales.

Lizzie trained in Manchester in fashion and embroidery and then became a primary school teacher and now specialises in helping children with educational needs.

She uses a lot of the countryside around Oswestry, where she lives and even when starting with the same subject, each has a different outcome.

This peacock is on a kimono silk & Obi and was exhibited at Harrogate. Other birds include owls, chickens, blackbirds to name but a few.

Hares, rabbits and hedgehogs form her 'fur' quilts.

As well as sunflowers and a special Oak tree from Calderstones park, near where Lizzie lived at one time.

She also has taken on commissions, particularly for churches in the form of altar frontals and chasubles. This one was based on the Lady of Walsingham.

Lizzie loves using fish - scales in her work - her cushion won her first prize at a quilt exhibition.

Lizzie's talk was very inspiring, as well as entertaining, with a lot of background information for her inspiration and techniques.

We very much look forward to her workshop next year, which may be based on hares, fishes, sunflowers, etc....

 

October 21st  Hand embroidery Experiment, Expand and Explore Alison Parkes

Alison started the day by showing how we could use our source material to make a background on either cotton or felt and then using a felting tool or the machine we could start to build it up.

Here are some of Alison’s backgrounds

She then asked us to look at our threads and decide between different weights to create a colour palette

Once we had done that she showed how using a variety of stitches that we could build upon the felted background. Using just one stitch eg French knots

 

Or Blanket stitch

in different weights of threads can build up an interesting surface.

Here are some of us working during the day

And then what we had achieved by the end of the day

Thank you Alison for a lovely relaxing day