Creative Embellishments with Hanny Newton

Our recent workshop with Hanny Newton was exactly as billed: a day of exploring, creating and playing with beads and sequins, with the aim of creating a 'dictionary' of techniques to help us to push the creative limits in our work.

First off, Hanny set us the challenge of sewing on beads in as many different ways as possible in 20 minutes.

Then we cut up small pieces of painted acetate to form 'sequins' and stitched them onto fabric.  This exercise clearly sparked people's imaginations:

 

Returning to slightly more traditional goldwork techniques, we cut and stitched gold and silver purl in patterns; and cut felt shapes, usually used for padding under silk or kid leather, and tried alternative ways of stitching them.

 

Hanny Newton - Ways of stitching goldwork padding

Hanny Newton - Goldwork padding

What an inspiring and productive day we had ....

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.

www.hannyembroidery.com - Like on Facebook 

follow on instagram: hannyembroidery

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.

'A Colourful Life' with Helen Hallows

Friday 7th February - 'A Colourful Life'

This month's talk is by Helen Hallows, a mixed media artist best known for her landscape and nature based artwork. Helen was a heat artist on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2017. Her colourful collaged pieces are naive and colourful, and tell stories of the journeys we have made and those we are yet to embark upon. 

Before becoming an artist and selling through galleries, Helen was a textile designer for embroidered fashion and homeware, although her training is in Woven Textiles (Loughborough College of Art and Design). Her designs were sold to international clients for a diverse range of products - stationery, greetings cards, bedding, children clothes and quilts. 

Helen now works mostly in paper, but she still uses stitch in her collaged pieces as well as enjoying the process of slow stitch, which she shares in some of her workshops. Her work is multi-layered and includes paint, collage and stitch. She creates papers in her studio with different paint and mark making techniques and combines these with found papers to create pieces that are rich in detail. 

Helen sells her work through galleries, at art fairs and events, and it has been licensed internationally. Limited edition prints, cards and her range of inspiring sketchbooks are available from Helen’s website:  https://www.helenhallows.com

There are two places available on Helen's workshop on Saturday 8th February: 'Draw to Stitch'.  For further details, please contact:  leamingtondistrictdaysch@gmail.com

Helen’s workshops aim to empower and enable learners to be able to tackle each stage of the design and make process from inspiration, to mark making, abstracting, designing and making. No more relying on photos on your phone! Helen’s style of teaching is very focused on the individual, and meeting them at whatever stage they are at on their creative journey.

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Coming in March ...

Friday 6^th March

Talk by Harriet Riddell – Street Stitching around the World

Saturday 7^thMarch

Workshop with Hanny Newton – Creative Embellishments

At the moment, there are places available on this workshop - if you are interested, do contact: leamingtondistrictdaysch@gmail.com as soon as possible.

    

     

JETS meet 8th January / Art in the Park follow-up

Our thriving group of Junior Embroiderers has had a break over Christmas and New Year, and will be getting back together again this Saturday, 8th January.

They will kick off the year by finishing their DeDenne pieces, workbook covers, badges and stitch sample books.  Phew! that's quite a bit to be getting on with, but if their past enthusiasm is anything to go by, they will be raring to go.

There will be more details about later sessions in due course.

--oOOo--

Meanwhile, here's a follow-up to the 'townscape' stitching activity launched at Art in the Park last year.  Branch 'volunteers' completed the pieces that were started by visitors to our stand, adding a few more details and extra stitches, and assembled them into an impressive collage:

The blue fabric that runs throughout represents the river, since "Water" was the theme for the 2019 festival.

Black and White

The theme for our January members' day was 'black and white'.  

As always, Gill, one of our programme secretaries, had done a fantastic job putting together a display of members' work, together with pictures and books to provide inspiration. 

 

Our Treasurer, Dorothy, gave a short demonstration of blackwork 

(that's also her lovely piece - top).

The day was well attended, including one or two new members along for their first meeting, and everyone spent a really enjoyable day on a wide variety of pieces.  It was a great opportunity to work out ideas and create starter pieces for future work ...

2021 Activities

January 

• Saturday 9th: Members' Day - co-create on Zoom

'Take a Book'

February

• Friday 5th, 7 pm: Zoom talk: Sue Hotchkis, 

'The Role of Photography in my Work'

• Saturday 6th: Zoom co-create - 'Take a Photograph'

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a happy and creative 2020!  

We are getting started this Saturday, 4th January, when our Members' Day will focus on black and white.  This will run from 10.00 till 4.00 at St Marys Church Hall.  Entrance: £5 

  

There will be lots of samples and inspiration available, and we have two short demonstrations on techniques to explore. You could also take inspiration from previous tutors such as Jayne Emerson, Rosie James and Deborah Collum. 

Please bring along anything you have already done in black and/or white 

The day will suit both hand and machine stitching, and is suitable for all levels – from beginners to the more experienced.
 If you prefer, you could bring along some ongoing work. 

Lunchtime will be another of our lovely bring and share lunches 

Recommended Requirements list

• Bring any pictures you may have collected as inspiration to use throughout the day. 
• General sewing kit, threads, scissors, needles. 
• Sewing machine, extension lead & selection of machine threads - if bringing machine 
• Hoop - optional.

• A selection of black/white fabric

• Bondaweb (if you think you may require it)

• Lunch
• A small spotlight if you have one (our lights are not very bright!) 
• Large scraps bag will be available, plus the embroidery threads for all to use. 

English Country House Textiles

And now for something a little different ... which may provide some interesting holiday reading. Our Branch Chairman, Liz Lowry, has just completed a master’s degree in The English Country House at Leicester University. She says:

Whilst I was on a field visit to Boughton House in Northampton being shown some magnificent tapestries and upholstery dating back to Charles II’s reign, it suddenly struck me that we’re never shown any of the household textiles in these stately homes. So, I decided to write my dissertation on them. 

As they’ve largely disappeared, I was following a paper trail of probate inventories, household accounts and sales catalogues for the sales of country houses like this one for a sale at Horton Hall in Northamptonshire in 1772 with numerous lots of tablecloths and napkins.

When there was any mention of sheets, tablecloths, towels and those necessary bits of cloth we still have today, and which Sarah Churchill, the first Duchess of Marlborough at Blenheim Palace, referred to as ‘Linnen for the Kitchen House Maid Butler & Housekeeper the particulars not worth putting down’ - how I wished she’d put them on the list too! 

There were some fascinating details amongst the archives. The accounts at Warwick Castle for 1665 showed large numbers of sheets being required. 

Item      183 ells ¼ of Flaxen cloath for Sheets    

Item      40 ells of Hempen cloath for Sheets          

A payment of £3.2s.4d was made to one Ann Newcombe by Ragley Hall ‘For Marking 36 pare of Sheets’ and 421 further items of household linen.  These marks were probably similar to these on a Victorian tablecloth from Chatsworth House. 

 

This inventory for Stoneleigh Abbey has a wonderful list of sheets stored in chests in 1738, as well as lots of material waiting to be sewn into more! 

Mrs. Hayes, the housekeeper at Charlecote Park in the mid-eighteenth century, kept a Household Book in which, amongst other things, she made lists of the linen. There were sheets for Mr. Lucy’s bed and large numbers of damask table cloths with sets of napkins. Mrs. Hayes even recorded buying ‘3 pieces for Dishcloaths’ at Warwick Fair in March 1754. 

One of the pleasant things about ferreting round in archives is that you sometimes find something wonderful, like this list of children’s linen from the Stoneleigh documents for 1637, incidentally showing how spelling and terminology has changed, as pillow boards are now pillow cases. 

So, although there aren’t many household textiles on view in country houses, it is possible to find out about them in other ways. And who knows, there may just be some out there hidden away in an attic that will come to light someday. 

Many thanks to Liz for sharing this glimpse into an aspect of domestic life that is now long-gone.