Birthday butterflies from JETS

Leamington's super active JETS group wanted to give their leader, Lucy, a special birthday gift.  Knowing her fondness for butterflies, they each, with some of the helpers, made a bright and colourful butterfly to add to a frame.  The result - a lovely kaleidoscope of butterflies that will hang on her wall.

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

March Talk and Workshop

In a change to our published programme, our talk on Friday 6 March will be by well-known textile artist, Linda Miller.

Linda's talk is titled 'In Stitches'.

The Birds Sing Out Your Name, Linda Miller

Linda makes one-off brightly-coloured machine embroideries, based on people, pets and birds doing their everyday things.  She promises an informative and delightful insight into her work - explaining how the pieces are made, the influences and stories behind them.

Catfish, Linda Miller

Visitors are always welcome to join us for talks.

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Saturday 7 March: 'Creative Embellishments'

We are delighted to welcome back Hanny Newton for this one-day workshop. 

Hanny is a hand embroiderer with a great love of stitch, and a belief that embroidery, as with all art, should be about following your passion, not just following the rules. 

The workshop will be a day of exploring, creating and playing with the endless possibilities of beads and sequins!

Hanny will show you how to unleash your creative potential and come up with your own sequins and bead inventions. By the end of the day, you will have created a 'dictionary' of techniques and small stitched pieces which will enable you to push your creative limits in your work.

Gold embroidery art installation at the British Museum, Hanny Newton

Requirements list

There is a £5pp kit associated with this workshop containing all materials and equipment needed, including needles, but do feel free to bring embroidery scissors, and if you have a particular hoop or other piece of equipment you prefer to use, you are welcome to bring this, as well as any beads, sequins or threads you may like to play with.

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There are a couple of places available on this workshop.  If you are inspired to have a go, please contact: leamingtondistrictdaysch@gmail.com for details.

Drawing to Stitch, with Helen Hallows

Probably the majority of those signed up for Saturday's workshop, titled "Draw to Stitch", had some feelings of trepidation as we gathered in the hall.  After all, many of us have misgivings about the dreaded drawing word!

However, Helen got us going in a very organized way, starting with some straightforward (though no-one said 'easy'!) exercises.  We set out various objects, mostly natural items, in a 'flat lay' arrangement on a board, which would form the basis of a number of exercises.

   

Firstly, we took the scary whiteness off our paper by creating quick backgrounds with ink pads and found papers, aimed at making the blank sheet less daunting.

 The first drawing exercise was to sketch what we could see on our boards - an exercise in looking at things.

As Helen said, "It is not about accurate drawing but about looking for shapes and symbols in nature so you can find your creative flow and create a design that you can then realise in whatever textiles or stitch project you choose."

The next step was to take a section of the layout and draw it in a continuous line without taking the pen off the paper; secondly, we drew it using our non-dominant hand; then we drew an item from the layout through a sheet of carbon paper - difficult to see what you are doing; and finally, we were asked to draw the negative spaces between objects - possibly the most challenging exercise.

 

 

This was followed by a collage session - adding shapes to the negative spaces, and developing a drawing by the addition of found papers.  The aim of the day: "to explore different ways of drawing until we capture a sense of design."

Sheets from Helen's sketchbook and sample collages made on the day.

It was an intense day, requiring a lot of concentration, but everyone arrived at the end of the day feeling they had learned a great deal, and surprised themselves with what they achieved. We had been helped to get over our fear of drawing, and the consensus was that we were beginning to gain confidence in creating designs that can be translated into textiles and stitch.