Data Visualisation in embroidery

 Jordan Cunliffe visited us today and gave a talk on data visualisation in embroidery. What on earth is that!? Fascinating is what it is! Jordan showed us her beautiful work, so simple in the tiny stitch but conveying detailed and complex ideas and information. The work records many aspects of her life that she has recorded such as marks for every day of her life and her husband's life and where they intersect represents their time together. She tracked her sleep over a week and each stitch represents a minute. Jordan made her own code to spell words in beads and similarly the words from a beloved childhood book were recreated in cross stitch - one stitch for each letter. Codifying information is another avenue she has explored; parts of teenage diaries represented in binary code using beads again. 

It was so interesting to see her work and think about different ways to convey time and meaning. Thanks Jordan!

Experimenting with Jennifer Collier

 Today we were joined by Jennifer Collier who brought us her workshop Experimental Textile techniques. We've had a lovely day playing!

There was lots to try out and all our samples are being made into beautiful books with laminated covers. We haven't quite finished them yet so there will be an update next month with the finished books and samples.

There was a lot of ironing involved - not the usual boring kind but with wax and plastics. We started with plastic bag samples, ironing bits together to create a new textile to stitch into. Next was trapping 3D items in a small waxed box and encasing them in paraffin wax. Third item of the morning was emptying teabags and trapping small bits of ephemeral in them then dripping melted wax on and ironing to seal them. We had plenty of time playing and making our samples.

Next up was ironing items in sandwich bags, turning them into lacy parcels followed by sellotape transfers and more teabags plus items with latex instead of wax.

The last three techniques were: making tissue paper and ephemera sandwiched and waxing them again producing lovely translucent goodies; trapping objects between two pieces of sheet fabric using bondaweb and finally paper roses.

So lots and lots to do and we all had a lovely pile of experiments to stick to pages of recycled papers which were turned into a book. We all found something we really loved and I'm sure some of our favourites will reappear in other pieces of work.

Our thanks to Jennifer who brought an enormous amount of stuff for us to use, it was a fabulous workshop.

Here's a flavour of what we got up to. I have to confess to forgetting to keep taking photos - too busy waxing stuff!

Merry Christmas!

🎄🎄🎄 🎄🎄🎄 🎄🎄🎄 🎄🎄🎄 🎄🎄🎄 🎄🎄🎄 🎄🎄🎄 🎄🎄🎄 🎄🎄🎄 

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Today we had our annual Jacob's Join lunch - lovely as usual; of particular note was Sue's fruit cake with no eggs, sugar or butter! It was delicious especially with some cheese. 

We had our Christmas card swap and a round up of things to come next year: our raffle will be monthly prompts based on famous paintings and we will also be launching a new round of Travelling Pages, the monthly prompt will be the raffle painting, so that should prove interesting. Also on the cards is a little series of posts on here and our other social media featuring members' favourite stitches or techniques. We have a packed programme for 2024, so if you fancy joining us, drop us an email.

We had a display of items made on workshops this last 12 months, all of which have featured on the blog and in addition there were sketch books of techniques from Gail's sessions introducing those fairly new to stitching to various stitches and traditions, and also a couple of mini quilted hangings from Anne Brooke's stitching hour. Lots of photos below in no particular order. I'm off to make Sue's cake!

    

                                                 

...and last but not least, Serena's hat!