National Celebration of Stitch, 6th August

We are celebrating National Stitch Day on Saturday 6th August by inviting visitors to drop in and join us at Charlecote Park, near Stratford-upon-Avon.  

This coincides with our Landscapes of Capability Brown exhibition in The Orangery restaurant at Charlecote, and we would love visitors to come and add a few stitches to a panel which was started at our drop-in days during June/July.

Here are two ladies who happily got involved:

No embroidery skills are needed, just come and 'make your mark' by adding a few stitches, or have a rest and chat to our members who will be guiding the activity.

We will be in the little museum room above the main gatehouse (it will be signposted) from 11.00 am to 4.30 pm.

(Normal National Trust admission charges apply.)

Junior Embroiderers - Charlecote follow-up

Following on from their visit to Charlecote, the JETS created this beautiful scene; on a painted background they printed images using Thermofax screens and then added embroidered deer and flowers.

This beautiful cushion was made by Bethany:

Marion Plumb.

Friday Talk - "Colours to dye for" and Saturday Workshop.

July 1st. and 2nd.

Marion's talk was a "Cook's tour" of the use of colour both historically and in different cultures. She brought along many examples of dyed textiles from around the world including a wonderful selection of pieces from kimonos. She was very generous letting us touch and examine these pieces.

Saturday's workshop was making paper and it was a really enjoyable day.

We began by soaking cotton linters and card to create our base pulp. When it was sufficiently soggy we had to liquidise it.

Marion gave us a short talk about the process and we were off!

In preparation for the workshop we had made moulds from photo frames.

The vat was made ready. The pulp is added to extra water and then stirred vigorously in preparation for pulling the pulp.

The mould is taken through the water and the paper is on the surface.

We then layered all the paper we made in a post, each separated from the next by a cloth. By the end of the day the post was quite large.

During the morning we added extra ingredients to the pulp, changing colour and adding items to give texture to the paper. We also embossed it by adding hard items and also inserted materials between two layer of pulp.

In the afternoon, we made new vats of pulp, this time to make finer paper adding all kinds of extras.

Towards the end of the afternoon, we had to remove the water from our posts. Hopefully no neighbours were watching as we rocked away on the boards surrounding our posts. The amount of water that came out was amazing.

Making the press.

Pressing out the water.

It was a really good day, relaxed but hard work. Everyone became quite addicted to the process and on average made about 30 sheets of paper.

Below are some examples. Hopefully more will follow as their paper dries.