Indholdsfortegnelse for September - October 2022 i Embroidery

Welcome to my second issue as editor. I couldn’t produce a magazine such as this without touching on the fact that talent comes in a multitude of guises. Recently, I was lucky enough to drop in on the exhibition of Grayson Perry’s six huge tapestries at Salisbury Cathedral. I would recommend a trip to see them in person; they are incredible. Their pop art colours and detailed, intricate, almost tangled depictions provide something of an explosion in the mind but, as you will read in my review on page 55, these monumental tapestries, first aired 10 years ago, derive much in interpretation from their monumental surroundings. Contrast that with the ethereal work of Sarah J Harper relating the long shadow of Covid-19, the jaunty and endearing floral mice of Bryony…

1 FLORA WITH FLEUR In November, Fibre Arts Take Two will offer one of the most beautiful and insightful embroidery classes you’ll find online. Filmed in stunning Nelson, New Zealand, you will gain behind-the-scenes access to Fleur Wood’s professional practice and signature techniques, while learning the art of joyful embroidery. Register to find out more: WWW.FIBREARTSTAKETWO.COM/COURSES/FLEURWOODS/ 2 AN ETHEREAL LIGHT If you’re fascinated by transparent fabrics and light, join Vinny Stapley to learn how to bond fabrics to create ethereal webs and delicate organdie textured grounds, upon which you will stitch your favourite natural forms. Vinny’s workshop has developed from her body of work, The Mersea Florilegium, inspired by the flora of the intertidal zone. 13 November 10am-4pm £89 (including materials kit worth £15) OLDBANKSTUDIOS.CO.UK 3 MEET MRS BERTIMUS Join…

JONGBUM KIM NEW YORK I am an NYC-based multimedia artist and designer, specialising in textiles and fibre. My work varies from small, stitched wall pieces to large-scale installations that incorporate diverse approaches, methods and techniques, such as print, weave, tuft, knit, quilt, embroidery, paintings and drawings, as well as three-dimensional objects. I find inspiration everywhere, in the materials, along with nature, the spiritual world, and in the very experience of being alive and engaging with others. Made in two- and three-dimensions, my installations create the atmosphere of a sanctuary. I combine hand-craft techniques and modern industrial technology to reveal my interpretation of utopia. Utopia is a magical place where everyone and everything is special. All my illustrations draw upon vivid dreams and fragments of memories, placing them within the context…

‘I’M BEING SLIPPERY,’ says the doll-maker Johanna Flanagan aka The Pale Rook. And she is. Or maybe jumpy is a better word. Like a roe deer you’ve just caught sight of on the outer edges of a dense woodland, Flanagan threatens to skitter at any hint of an incursion into her private world. Generous, wise and fiercely grounded when sharing ideas about creative practice, there’s nevertheless a nebulousness to her that resists, and indeed defies, elucidation. As it is with her dolls. Like Flanagan, these muted dryadic figures – mostly female, sometimes androgynous, who shape-shift between bird, rabbit, faun or satyr – straddle the liminal and the real. Belying the tangibility of their hold-in-the-hand physicality, it’s the very unfinished-ness of the dolls that animates them. ‘I like to bring them…

IN MY FIRST BOOK Threads of Life, about the emotional, political and social significance of sewing, Mary, Queen of Scots is the central character in the chapter called Power. I chose her because not only did Mary live in the late Renaissance, when the display of embroidered textiles was a propagandist declaration of sovereign worth but because, like other elite women of her day, Mary used her own embroidery as a political tool: to assert her presence, exercise diplomacy and make emotional appeals to others. During her nineteen years of captivity in England, denied a public voice and with her correspondence vetted, the Scottish queen used her needlework to ensure that her own unedited testimony would prevail. There are few reports of Mary sewing before her captive years. As a…

HAND-STITCHING DOESN’T have to take time. A loose button might be re-attached hastily or a sagging hem stitched back into place in a few moments. The results might not endure for long, but life is busy, and a quick fix gets you on your way. But when we do give ourselves time for the larger projects in life, the result can develop into something more than just functional, even leading us on a cathartic journey towards our own restoration and potential recovery. The new exhibition Eternally Yours at Somerset House looks at ideas around repair, care and healing through the art of making and mending. Taking the notion of repair as a philosophy and a provocation, as we emerge from a pandemic that put life on pause for so many…

His Holiness the Dalai Lama paused before the thangka, offering a respectful greeting to the patchwork Buddha, then turned, fully present, to convene with us humans. (Excerpt from Threads of Awakening: An American Woman’s Journey into Tibet’s Sacred Textile Art by Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo, She Writes Press, August 2022) PRESENCE AND IMAGINATION. These two qualities are harnessed in Tibetan Buddhist practices to awaken us to our true potential as human beings. Figurative images are employed in the practice – internal images conjured in the mind’s eye and external images to guide the way. Thangkas are rollable artworks that feature these figurative embodiments of enlightenment. Most thangkas are painted on canvas then framed in fabric. But there is also a much rarer thangka form: the pieced silk or appliqué and embroidered thangka.…

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SABINE KANER GREW UP in London in the 1960s and 1970s in a mixed-race family; her mother German, her father Jamaican and of the Windrush generation. ‘Drawing, colouring, making stuff out of anything I could find’ was an essential element of her early life, and she went on to study at Saint Martin’s and the Central School of Art, London. Sabine is a mixed-media artist who provides insight into multi-cultural issues, drawing on her life experiences. Her current work explores social and political discourse through a form of abstract realism, using referential devices, symbols and visual vignettes to compose and frame hand-stitched stories. When the boat comes in, 2020, (pictured) synthesises these approaches, with recycled (repurposed) clothing, embroidery materials, stitch and paint. The Arts Council is supporting Sabine to develop…

PORTSMOUTH-BASED ARTIST Bryony Rose Jennings creates eclectic animal sculptures, stitching her pieces together using a thoughtfully considered selection of reclaimed textiles and found objects. ‘My process begins with the gathering and curation of materials. I seek potential in the smallest scraps, finding inspiration in the texture, detail and pattern of the fabrics. The majority of the textiles I use for my sculptures have been handed down, bought in thrift or donated. I hate to throw anything away and try to use every piece, down to the tiniest fraying snippet.’ Bryony’s work looks to capture a sense of narrative. The animals she creates are vehicles for expression, aiming to portray personality and character over realism. The fabrics she chooses are not only a paint palette of colour and texture, but carry…

The Sophie Hayes Foundation Freedom Quilt project is special in many ways. The Sophie Hayes Foundation has been supporting survivors of human trafficking for two decades. To recognise this achievement, the foundation is sharing the voices of women survivors through the making of three Freedom Quilts, together with partners Liberty, the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool and quilter Jenni Smith. The project is a year-long initiative where 100 survivors of human trafficking from across the country (all current participants or graduates of Sophie Hayes Foundation programmes) will each create a personalised square for one of three final quilts. These squares will be an artistic expression of each survivor’s past and future hopes and dreams. Human trafficking is something that can seem almost like an urban myth, but it is actually happening…

Can you tell us which projects you are working on at the moment? I’ve just done a collection for Peruvian Connection. They have the most brilliant hand-knitters in the industry, down in Peru. They get all these beautiful yarns dyed up and make the most gorgeous things. They are quite pricey but they’re worth it. Whatever complicated patterns I give them, they are able to cope. What exhibitions do you have coming up? We are working very hard on a big exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London called The Power of Pattern. That’s going to be amazing as it is celebrating all the motifs in our own range of patchwork fabrics. People who use our fabrics in their quilts are contributing from all over the world. Do…

Jennie Moncur’s tapestries have always been distinctive. They’re bold in their colour combinations and graphic in their visual narrative. You can see a rare coming-together of her work in the exhibition Interrupted Views at Ruthin Craft Centre in Wales. It was pandemic-postponed, as were so many good things. But finally, we can see the exhibition in all its woven glory. Moncur studied textiles at Goldsmith’s College and then specialised in tapestry at the Royal College of Art. After graduating she set up her own studio and made commissions for important spaces like the ICA and the Palace of Westminster in London. She has work in many private and public collections, including Manchester City Art Gallery, Huddersfield Art Gallery and the Parliamentary Art Collection. In recent years Moncur has split her…

Anne Kelly spoke to Cornelia Parker specifically about the piece Magna Carta (An Embroidery) and the embroidered pieces which followed on from it. Parker began by explaining she was asked by the Ruskin School of Art and the British Library to come up with an idea for a commission to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. She had some ideas which she admits weren’t wonderful and the night before she was due to submit them, visited Wikipedia to look at the Magna Carta page. This turned out to be a light-bulb moment as she realised ‘this is it’; everything that she was trying to convey was present on that page, and she decided to frame her proposal around it. You said in a conversation with Alan Rusbridger, former…

Batsford has just released four authoritative cloth-bound hardback books that go a long way to explaining and exploring current trends in textile art. We’re offering you the chance to win the set. All you need to do is ‘spot the fairy’ in a photo in this issue, remember the page number and head over to our Instagram site @embroidery_mag where you’ll find all the details you need to enter online and a link to Warners Group competition terms and conditions. We’ll even offer you a clue. Closing date: 27 October. The quartet includes Wild Textiles by Alice Fox, who is no stranger to these pages. The artist describes how she harvests flax and nettle for braiding and cordage, and forages for shells, pebbles and driftwood which can be wrapped, woven…