Design inspiration and Angie Hughes: The Trees Leaves

Jayne Emerson's talk on how she came by her unusual job took us on a whirlwind tour through her sources of inspiration and how she finds ideas literally everywhere.  Jayne designs and makes fabric swatches for use in the fashion and home furnishing industries - not many people knew such a job existed!  She brought along a case full of swatches for us to look through and drool over, together with some of her more recent framed work. Jayne uses an embellishing machine with a wide range of materials to create texture and effects, bringing home to us what a fantastically useful tool it can be!

Angie Hughes: "The Trees Leaves"

The following day, we were fortunate enough to enjoy Angie Hughes' new workshop.  Based on Alison Holt's technique* of stitching a tree shape "in space", i.e. across a hole cut in a piece of fabric (scary? definitely!), this was our first task of the day - challenging even to experienced machine stitchers.

We did all manage to make a tree successfully, which we then used to create a stamp by impressing it into a Heat 'n' Form block.  

  

Stamps can also be created simply with leaves, especially those with strong veins, which can look remarkably tree-like.

We had a lot of fun creating effects with different paints, foils and stencils 

... before going on to stitch into our printed shapes. Here's one of Angie's lovely samples to give the idea:

Angie stressed that she has been making adjustments to the workshop as new developments and ideas present themselves, and even had a little lightbulb moment when we were gathered round discussing the numerous techniques included in the workshop.

As always, Angie is extremely generous with her experience, guidance and materials.  We had a hugely enjoyable day, and we always learn so much from her.  

* Machine Embroidered Woodlands, Alison Holt

“Creative Icebreaking” - A talk by Angie Hughes, Friday 7th March 2014

We are delighted to be able to welcome back Angie Hughes for our March talk and workshop.

Angie’s artwork is inspired by many themes, but one of her favourites is poetry or text and the natural world, especially plant forms.

For people who find it hard to get started with ideas for making textile and embroidered pieces - and don't we all, at some time or another? - Angie will explain how she begins a project and works through solving problems, and her research experimenting with materials.

Workshop on Saturday 8th March with Angie Hughes, “Exploring Velvet”

The workshop which follows Angie's talk is based on the astonishing properties of velvet. This workshop will explore the effects that can be achieved with dyes, inks and bleaching back, in addition to transfoils, glitters and lumiere paint. 

At the end of the day you will leave with a shimmering piece of velvet to stitch at home.

About Angie......

Angie is a textile artist and tutor, who lives and works in Ledbury, Herefordshire. She has been interested in textiles since she left school although only discovered creative embroidery in 1994 when she began studying City & Guilds at Malvern Hills College. While a student she won the prestigious Charles Henry Foyle Trust Award for Stitched Textiles with her piece 'Unfolding Word' and had 'Shroud' accepted for Art of the Stitch. She carried on her studies at Gloscat with Liz Harding after which she discovered a talent for teaching.