Our March Meeting
Spring was in the air for our March meeting. Members enjoyed continuing their own projects, sharing skills and ideas and catching up with friends. So many inspirational traditional and modern techniques!
Two morning stitch clubs ran, firstly stumpwork with Annie where participants satin stitched small flowers and learned to wire leaves. Josie demonstrated how to use a special tool to create a raised surface and make a needle-woven mushroom cap which was amazingly lifelike.
Diane making steady progress with a stumpwork pomegranate - getting ready to attach tiny beads to the fruit to recreate the look of seeds
The second stitch group was Wessex Stitchery where participants made progress with this colourful counted thread technique.
Dawn found Wessex stitchery (a new technique to her) pretty and addictive.
Having learned the stitches (practice piece above) Dawn was moving on to design a piece worked on a smaller scale.
There were many lovely projects being worked on in the room. Helen's stitching caught my eye this month. Helen had cut small pieces of Shibori fabric (approximately 6"x 4"), stitched a backing to it and was appliqueing coloured fabric pieces to enhance the shapes. On closer inspection she had also added metal fastenings and beads for texture. She didn't have a plan for the pieces (a fabric book maybe?) but was enjoying the creative process.
Helen's improvised embellished fabric pieces
Serena Partridge "Collaborate"
The afternoon speaker was Serena Partridge who gave us a slide show which showcased her many talents. She also displayed examples of her work and some of the projects she has worked on as an Artist in Residence. Serena studied Design Crafts at Hereford College of Arts and currently has studio space in the Art Happens Here Studio Collective in Malton. Her early work featured exquisite mixed media miniature gloves and shoes. She continues to create small-scale accessories and ornaments inspired by historical costume and story telling as well as larger scale installations.
Examples of Serena's miniature wonders!
However the focus of Serena's talk was the varied collaborative projects that she has been involved with over the years. She has been artist in residence in a number of places in England, Scotland and Newfoundland, responding to the local landscapes, working with children in schools, young people in youth groups and adults in an integrated way to produce thoughtful art.
Fabric pieces designed by children but stitched by adults
Serena showed images of a major project that she undertook as artist in residence at a National Trust property, Gawthorpe Hall in Lancashire This is home to a wonderful collection of intricate lace, embroidery and needlework amassed by the house's Victorian inhabitant, Miss Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth who was herself a collector, maker and teacher. In work titled 'Luminary' Serena created work on a larger scale, making a series of embroidered interventions in rooms around Gawthorpe Hall. These used vintage materials with embroidered and reflective threads. These can be seen in situ on the Arts & Heritage website www.artsandheritage.org.uk (search for Serena Partridge or Gawthorpe Textiles Collection)
Cyanotype print of lace from the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection - Serena Partridge
Embroidered 'place' mats - made for the Luminary commission - Dining room mixed media, hand stitched - Serena Partridge
Piano keys and textile tools - celebrating the life of Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth at Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire
More recently Serena had worked in Selby abbey as part of the Selby Stories cultural activities and events. She showed photographs of a number of her miniature embroidered pieces that had been placed in small nooks and crannies in the abbey. These celebrated animals and people relevant to the story of the abbey and are still there. I certainly felt inspired to go down and look for them.
Serena Partridge in Selby Abbey with one of her miniature embroidery pieces
