Summer outing to Haworth

 

Haworth is just on our doorstep and yet so often overlooked as a place to visit, but as we discovered on our Summer outing this week, it is full of creative surprises.

First stop was The Classroom a new studio space set up by craft cafe Cobbles and Clay in the heart of Haworth Main Street.  Our tutor Hannah, guided us through the art of printing with beautiful hand-carved wood blocks.  This ancient method of decorating cloth dates back to 3500 - 1300BC and was first recorded in the Indus valley.  It took a little practice to perfect our technique but we were soon printing bags, cushions and tea towels with our own distinctive designs.

After a delightful lunch at the cafe we made our way down the cobbled street to Wyedean Weaving to see another bit of history.  Wyedean have been making uniform, braid and accoutrement for 60 years and their work played a pivotal role in the pageantry of the King's Coronation.  Their looms were responsible for the narrow braids and ribbons that turn simple suits into military uniforms.  We were able to see at close quarters the exquisite gold work embroidery that forms regimental badges and standards.  The company is rightly proud of the 4 embroiderers that received the King's Coronation Medal for their work on the new colours and standards for the Royal Navy, the Life Guards, the Royal Airforce and the Grenadier guards.

After a tour through all four floors of the mill and encountering a dazzling array of weaving and braiding machines, we finished in the show room where were were able to appreciate all the work and history that lies behind our military regalia.  Wyedean owners, Robin and Debra were generous with their time, answering our questions and giving us a fascinating insight into their work.

Seascapes with Laura Edgar

 A few of us had a wonderful day on Saturday creating seascapes with Laura Edgar. She made it down from lovely Whitley Bay and while her husband disappeared for a couple of alcohol free Guinnesses and the football we all got stuck in to creating textile seascapes.

Laura brought us some gorgeous samples of her work (click on the link above), a small sample shown here: 

We started with our reference image and then laid out some basic areas - sky, sea, sand etc and tacked the fabric down. Laura came and spoke to each of us individually to help with decisions. Then it was time to start adding details with scraps of fabric, sheers and chiffons. Laura had bag fulls of bits for us to use ranging from lace to dyed bits and experiments involving synthetics and the gas hob! We went over the hand embroidery stitches to use to help blend our fabrics together and ways to add depth and movement to our creations.

It was a fantastic workshop and our thanks go to Laura for making it such an enjoyable day. We didn't get finished so watch this space for further updates. in the meantime here are our efforts in various stages.

Skipton Castle update

 Here's an update on our Skipton Castle Conduit Court piece. Sebastian Fattorini of SKipton Castle has had our large embroidery framed and it's now on display in the castle shop. It looks great! We'd like to thank Sebastian for his enthusiasm about the project and we're really pleased that the embroidery has a permanent home. If you're ever visiting the castle (highly recommended) then do go and have a look.

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!