Workshop with Kirsty Whitlock, Saturday May 7th.

On Friday, 6^th. May, we had a fascinating talk from Kirsty about her journey with textiles. It seems she had little stimulus from home to work with textiles and at school found the sewing machine frightening, a feeling many of us may have had!

It was at university where her love of textiles and her relationship with her sewing machine developed. She described how she explored the medium and we were introduced to the gerbils that had eaten their way through books for the books to become textile pieces.

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Layering paper then tearing away.

Work in progress.

On Saturday, we had a workshop entitled: Stitching on unusual surfaces”. We had the opportunity to experiment with a number of techniques. First we layered papers, stitched them and then took parts away. Then we moved onto newspaper and stitched and then distressed it with water to wear it away and leave a fall of paper and stitching behind.

Hard at work.

Saturday was a hot day and so the smelly part of the day was left until after lunch. We then fused and stitched plastics, using carrier bags and all sorts of oddments of plastic. It was also possible to capture other found objects within the plastic.

Stitching into the fused plastic

Regular breaks were needed during the afternoon to get fresh air. It was only when we returned to the room that the extent of the fumes was obvious.

We finished the day with a “show and tell” where members explained what their pieces were about. It was a very interesting session.

Completed work

Fused plastic

Some of the stitched paper pieces

Layered papers torn back after stitching         

Fused plastics

A fused plastic landscape.

In all, an excellent day.