Wardrobe Wallflowers, a workshop with Rose Woodford

Saturday 8^th November 

There are a few places remaining for this workshop.*  

Why not come and join the fun!

This Saturday workshop sees a welcome return from ‘Recycling Rose’ – remember Rose Woodford’s workshop a couple of years ago, when we made the wonderful recycled ‘sweater bags’ that were a wow at our 2012 exhibition?

Rose is coming back with inspirational ideas for embellishing/recycling a garment.  Revitalise your neglected clothes into glorious garments that express your individuality and creativity. We all have ‘wardrobe wall-flowers’ in our cupboards that hardly ever come out. Why not transform them into ‘morning glories’ you can’t wait to put on, by using your own creative touches?

We will look at a range of techniques to add character and quirkiness where needed.

You will need a wardrobe wallflower, basic sewing skills and some imagination.

N.B. This is not a workshop in tailoring, major altering or repairing of clothes.

* If you would like a place on the workshop, please contact:

Jenny Archer on 01926 338987 (please leave a message) or jennyarcher401@gmail.com

Member fee: £22.50; Visitor fee: £25.00

Friday 7th November, "Bags for Shakespeare's Heroines"

  

A talk by Ann Rodgers

The idea behind making bags for the heroines in Shakespeare's plays came accidentally after Ann attended Diane Bates’ workshop using unwanted ‘rubbish’ to machine and convert into new fabrics. A sample using pansy petals developed into a bag for Olivia from ‘Twelth Night’. By making the bits and pieces relevant to Olivia, the bag became symbolic of her character.

A bag for a Shakespearian heroine

 A favourite saying of Welsh women on hearing of the treatment of their sisters by an offending male is “Why diden’ you ‘ittim with you’re ambarg then?” This led Ann to consider which Shakespearean heroines might have followed this course of action. Cleopatra might have done. Beatrice certainly did. Lady Macbeth did, but she lived to regret it. Kate did, then abandoned it, but after the ‘taming’ would probably have reverted to it. Ophelia didn’t, neither did Hero nor Desdemona.

Cleopatra's bag

Shakespeare’s plays are peppered with anachronisms, and so are Ann’s bags. She has not kept to the historical styles contemporary to the setting of the plays, but has skipped from ancient to modern times interpreting the characters through the bags as she sees fit.

Branch Successes (2) - Janet Rose

One of our branch members, Janet Rose, entered this machine-stitched piece of work for the West Midlands Regional Day at Stafford, in June. The competition was entitled ‘Pretty Deadly’ and Janet called her work ‘Totally Toxic’, having taken her inspiration from images of poisonous toadstools. It won her an additional prize from the Guild and a comment from Michael Brennan-Wood: "it was a very well executed and presented exhibit". A Guild book voucher duly arrived in the post which Janet was saving to spend at the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in October.

Janet also entered two pieces of stitched work into the first Ragley Gallery & Studios Open Exhibition at Ragley Hall. She won a 'highly commended' award for her work ‘Walled Garden’ - a machine- and hand-stitched piece, which used a background of oiled papers. Janet was very pleased to discover, on collecting her work that she had also sold this winning picture.

Well done, Janet!  

Great to know we have such talented members in our Branch :-)

Round-up of recent branch successes (1) TextilePlus

TextilePlus is a group of six members from Leamington & District Branch, who for the third year now, have exhibited their current work during Warwickshire Open Studios in July. 

These images give a flavour of the work displayed at one of the members' homes. 

The group were successful in selling a range of work, including hand crafted cards and they would like to thank all friends and embroidery colleagues who came and supported them. 

TextilePlus also raised the useful sum of £97 for Macmillan Cancer Support, the charity working in partnership with Warwickshire Open Studios.

'Yarndale 2014', Yorkshire

One of our members visited the recent Yarndale 2014 event at Skipton, North Yorkshire (27-28 September) and said she was amazed by the range of supplies (183 suppliers!), activities and workshops on offer.  As the name suggests, the focus is on wool and woolly-related things, but Skipton branch of Embroiderers' Guild also had a stand displaying their work.  As well as individual items, the map below was a project worked on by a number of members ...

Skipton EG branch at Yarndale

Find more information on the Skipton branch blog.

Could Yarndale become a rival to the Knitting & Stitching Show?!

Vicki Mansfield talk and workshop

On Friday, we had an interesting talk on the history of hardanger and were able to see lots of Vicki's amazing work. She has developed the work to make it three dimensional. Her Kenilworth Castle garden pieces were particularly beautiful. It was interesting to learn how she had developed her interest in the work and why she felt that she wanted to explore the potential of the technique further. It is always interesting to listen to artists explaining how they have reached where they are.

After the talk, those of us due to take the workshop were more than a little daunted as her work is so intricate and we felt that perhaps neither our eyes nor our hands or brains were up to it. However, we were wrong.

Vicki proved to be an excellent teacher and she took us through the processes slowly and we all began to gain a little confidence. It was the quietest workshop I had ever attended, indeed we all commented on it. The concentration was intense.
Around the table were an interesting selection of lights and vision aids as we struggled at times to see exactly what we were doing and to count the rows.
Lunch time came as a relief from the intensity and was very sociable and chatty, a distinct contrast to the rest of the morning.

Vicki and student



Counting stitches

Lights and concentration

 

 

Work continued. There was a lot of muttered 1,2,3,4 as we counted rows and a number of cries of despair when we recognised a mistake. I think everyone had to take something out during the course of the day.

Nonetheless, it was very satisfying to see the work grow and the delight when the stitched met at the end of a piece of work!!






By the end of the day, everyone had a feeling of success.
Our pieces pictured below are unfinished but demonstrate a lot of hard work and the learning of new skills. Hopefully many of us will go on to finish them.





A selection of our pieces at the end of the day.

If you want to see more of her work, her website is: www.indiagrace.co.uk