Indholdsfortegnelse for July -August 2024 i Embroidery

SUMMER IS HERE and all eyes (and TV screens) will be focused on France as it delivers the Paris 2024 Olympics, 26 July–11 August. Creating art and sprinting on the athletics track may seem to be poles apart, but did you know the Olympics once awarded medals in artistic disciplines? The Olympics started in Ancient Greece 3,000 years ago, but centuries elapsed before Frenchman Baron de Coubertin revived the modern games in 1896. He’d been a visitor to the ‘Cotswold Olimpicks’, a quirky historic event held near Chipping Campden, but sought to organise a more decorous contest – ‘Cotswold Olimpicks’ famously features the sport of shin-kicking. The Baron was after a more cultured slant. From 1912 to 1948, the Olympics awarded medals in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature and music –…

Farfield Mill in Cumbria has a packed programme of exhibitions with many of interest to textile artists. From 10 July to 15 September, Contemporary Quilt, a specialist group within the Quilters’ Guild, will show a series of journal quilts. A journal quilt has a maximum size of 30cm x 30cm and the aim is to create one a month for a year. In 2023 members of Contemporary Quilt were challenged to create journal quilts on the theme of words. The resulting work is diverse and includes printed, appliquéd, painted and embroidered text. Some works do not include text but were inspired by text – a favourite book or poem, perhaps, or a play on words. The group’s members are a diverse collection of quilters and textile artists, working at the…

What does the name of your Instagram account, @Konekono_Kitsune, mean? Konekono Kitsune means ‘kitten like a fox’. There was a kitten that looked just like a fox living in a nearby field. I admired her for how strong, sturdy and free-spirited she was. Like her, I want my embroidery to have a strong core but also to be carefree. What are your early memories of embroidery? My grandmother was an amazing embroiderer, so I was influenced by her work. There are many of her pieces hanging on the walls of my parents’ house. She had lots of craft supplies and embroidery threads and I was free to play around with them. I then inherited the fabric and threads my grandmother used for patchwork. What education have you completed in textile…

There are those of us who could spend a week trying to portray wonders of the natural world and get no closer than an abandoned pile of knotted threads; then there are those of us whose alchemy with needle and thread can create an exotic luna moth, or iris in full bloom, which seem to dance off their backing in a moment caught in time. US-based Megan Zaniewski is very much in the latter category. As a stumpwork artist and thread painter, she uses a variety of three-dimensional embroidery techniques to achieve extraordinary results. Influenced by her ‘mom’, who usually had an embroidery or needlework project on the go, and her paternal grandma who was a quilter, Megan recalls trying to stitch a stiff canvas herself, with a large needle,…

KEYSTONE ARTWORK Standing on the Shoulders of Giants by Christine Chester, who died in June 2023, will form the centrepiece of a retrospective at this year’s Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. This outstanding piece symbolises so much that Christine was passionate about in her too short life, which she expressed through her dedicated textile practice, saying: ‘Women have been making items for the home and expressing their creativity in very individual ways for hundreds of years…but they are generally unknown and unnamed. Yet, all the work that I make, I owe to these women. They show me the beauty of stitch, the pleasure in combining fabrics.’ The FoQ gallery is curated by Claire Benn and Karina Thompson, friends and long-standing colleagues of the artist. They have worked assiduously to ensure…

ON SHOW ALDEBURGH Textile Art Group Suffolk: Games We Play, 5–17 July, tags.org.uk. Plus, Chain Reaction: Contemporary Art Textiles, 6–11 Sep, 10am–5pm. Snape Maltings, Suffolk IP17 1SP. chainreact.org.uk ARUNDEL Stillness, mixed media show, until 6 July, followed by land marked, 20 July–28 Sep. Gallery 57, 57 Tarrant Street BN18 9DJ. gallery57.co.uk AYLESBURY Blooming Threads: 400 years of embroidery blooms – an exhibition delving into the Embroiderers’ Guild Collection. Ongoing. Discover Bucks Museum, Church Street HP20 2PQ. discoverbucksmuseum.org BIRMINGHAM Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, until 29 Sep. MAC, Cannon Hill Park, B12 9QH. macbirmingham.co.uk BOVEY TRACEY Maker Member Show 2024, 6 July-2 Nov. MAKE Southwest, Riverside Mill, Devon TQ13 9AF. crafts.org.uk BRISTOL Nengi Omuku, The Dance of the People and the Natural World, until 29 Sep. Arnolfini, 16 Narrow…

THE UNIVERSE WORKS IN mysterious ways. I really fell into embroidery quite randomly,’ says Kaylie Kaitschuck, a US artist based in Pontiac, Michigan, whose work is serious fun. While music, writing and drawing have all played key roles in her life, Kaitschuck feels she never quite had a grasp on any of these. ‘I went to school to study graphic design, which was the only avenue that I thought was possible at the time. Everything was over-analysis. I quickly realised that I was just not that person; I’m much more hands-on. I ended up on a BFA [and then an MFA] fibre course that was all about natural dyeing and was really tactile.’ ‘Everything started off with quilting. I got really into appliqué and embellishment. And then, I found myself…

MY BOOK, Stitch Your Brain, describes a project which invites participants to create needlework using the brain as the subject for inspiration. The brain is our centre of creativity – or is it? What role do our hands play in the creative process? Swiping, scrolling and tapping on screens have taken over many manual actions. This deprives us of dexterity, sensory experience and the joy of creating. What is the influence of this impoverishment on the crafts, on our sensitivity to materials, on our well-being and even health? How do we define creativity? Does age affect our creative output? Did our experience of creativity change during isolation in the Covid years? To answer these and subsequent questions, I started Stitch Your Brain as a research project. ‘It is such a…

Hearth and home are timeless sources of inspiration for textile artists. In Cloth Stories: Capturing domestic life in textile art, Ali Ferguson brings her popular Instagram ‘Purple Thread Shed’ to life across a beautifully illustrated title, full of her own work, alongside artists carefully selected for work informed by the familiar and humble. In these talented hands, simple methods turn materials found close at hand, such as old garments, brown paper and beeswax, into timeless artworks, full of held narrative. Refreshingly, plenty of space is allocated to Ali’s thought process in developing ideas, appealing to anyone who enjoys the privilege of leafing through an artist’s sketchbook, that most intimate repository of concepts and emotions. Full of handwritten notes and sketches, these ‘Scullery Threads of Thought’ pages alone warrant buying this…

Julie Cockburn’s great art-hero is Pablo Picasso, that ever-curious, ever-inventive, artistic polymath. Like Picasso, Cockburn’s creative practice – involving ceramics, collage, painting and embroidery – is an eclectic one. Directed by sensuality, memory and jouissance, it is inquisitive, responsive, experimental and intelligent. Ceramics came first. ‘It’s a new-old thing for me. I was taken to a clay class at The Chelsea Pottery in London when I was about six years old.’ For Cockburn, throwing ‘a few things on the wheel’ stimulated a love-affair that’s never abated. She now makes her ceramics at Bluebird Studios, a zen-like pottery studio in Suffolk, about 20 minutes from her home. The commute there, coupled with the fact that she doesn’t form clay in her own studio, creates a natural separation between this element of…

IN THE IMMENSETAPESTRY of human history, the narratives of women have often found themselves relegated to the sidelines, overshadowed by the dominant stories of men. Merely 0.5 per cent of recorded history is estimated to capture the experiences and contributions of women, leaving behind a wealth of untold stories and overlooked legacies, from medieval monarchs to everyday heroines. Within this intricate web of overlooked histories, textile artist Alison Baxter embarked on a transformative journey. Through her textile practice, she endeavoured to unravel the threads of the past, shedding light on the often-forgotten stories of women who have shaped our world. From the opulent ballrooms of bygone eras to the intimate spaces of domestic life, Baxter’s evocative installations of miniature vessels serve as portals, inviting viewers to traverse the landscapes of…

Money Talks at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, from 9 August, reveals how money and art come together in design and culture to promote or challenge our views. Featuring famous artists, from Da Vinci to Rembrandt and Warhol to Banksy, dramatic textile art comes courtesy of Sir Grayson Perry and Susan Stockwell. One not to miss, the show is on until 5 January 2025. ashmolean.org…

Sometimes, little spangles of light reach us when we least expect them. In 2023, sitting in a gloomy hotel room during a prolonged and unsuccessful house hunt in Dorset, my mobile phone pinged and one such spangle twinkled into my inbox. It was the Embroiderers’ Guild asking if my hand-embroidered portrait, The Gardener King, was available for sale. At the time, the piece was part of their members’ exhibition, Fit for a King at the Knitting and Stitching Show, London. It was only earlier in the year that I had joined the Embroiderers’ Guild and this was my first time exhibiting with them as a member. I thought: ’That’s nice, someone likes my work.’ I read on and to my surprise, the respected textile artist and collector Diana Springall was…

After 31 attempts to be selected for the Royal Academy Summer Show, Alison Aye (featured in Embroidery, May/June 2024) has finally cracked it. The 62 Group member’s work, Shifting to the Moon, has been accepted and will join the art of 1,153 other exhibitors. The piece shows members of the royal family drifting in a hot air balloon, inspired by Georges Méliès’s film Le Voyage Dans La Lune. The Royal Academy Summer Show has been held without interruption since 1769 and has an open submission policy, so emerging artists battle it out for a space on the wall with Royal Academicians. Asked if she was ‘over the moon’ at finally getting through, Alison said: ‘I don’t know how I feel. Happy, but also a bit sad. Like I’ve lost something…

Colourful Sashiko Sashikonami Sashikonami combines her love of piecework with sashiko, with her designs worked in a spectrum of coloured threads and fabrics as opposed to the traditional indigo. Comprising 49 projects and more than 60 geometric patterns, shapes and combinations, try your hand at floral motifs, basketweave, musical notes and more. The practical, pretty project items include dish cloths, purses and mini tote bags, coasters, pouches, face masks, sponge bags and glasses cases. Detailing both the basics and more intricate stitch patterns, the title spans experience levels. Search Press, paperback, £12.99 The Flowering Desert Nasreen and HasanAskari Focusing on a spectacular private collection, this book explores the history, craftsmanship, style and stitchwork of textiles from Sindh in Pakistan, which, according to some scholars, was the crucible in which the…

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SUE WEEKS is a lady who wears many hats. Sewing has been her passion since she was six years old, but she is equally enthusiastic about technology and training, the stuff of horror for many of us. With Sue’s gentle approach, many businesses, small and large, have been schooled in the world of online marketing and online training courses. She calls herself a ‘facilitator’, and less attractively the ‘glue that connects people’. It is clear that the old maxim ‘if you want something done, ask a busy person’ rings true. You may know Sue as the chatty, friendly voice behind the popular Stitchery Stories podcast, which is celebrating its seventh birthday by catching up with some of her interviewees over the years to find out how their lives have changed.…

NATURE IN HIGH-TECH DEFINITION Alyssa Robinson describes her approach as ‘low-tech’. Lent the Brother Innov-is NV2700, how did she get on? How would you describe your practice? I am a machine embroiderer with a very low-tech approach to my practice, usually starting a project with a photo, tracing paper, pencil and ruler. I might progress to a pen and coloured pencils if I’m feeling fancy. Designs sometimes get cut up and rear-ranged, too. Machinery only comes into it once I’ve transferred the design and started to colour it in with stitch. I’m way too impatient to use hand-sewing. I mostly use free-machining with a darning foot and the feed dog down. What did you think the Brother Innov-is NV2700 sewing machine could do for your practice? I honestly had no…

OLGA PRINKU INVENTED ‘flowers-on-tulle embroidery’ in 2016. She used nature to set the scene in photoshoots for her knitting business, and after foraging on walks and in her garden, created wreaths from stems and flowers. One day she used a garden sieve as a wreath base, weaving the stems into the grid, using nature as her thread. While shopping, she noticed some tulle, netting used to make tutus, and thought she could use it as a base for plant pictures. Stretching the tulle over an embroiderers’ hoop and weaving in stems and flowers, her new brand of art was born. Nature’s Tapestry: Botanical Embroidery at Hidcote features four series: Flora and Fauna, Graft, About Time and Hidcote. Taking the gardens of the National Trust’s Hidcote property as her inspiration, Olga…

Sally, can you tell us a little about your background? I’ve always been a passionate, crafts-orientated person. I was introduced to handcrafts by my mum, who encouraged me to be practical. At school I used to make soft toys and knit mohair jumpers to sell (it was the 1970s), so I could then buy fabric and yarn to make my own clothes. These skills helped to support me at art college. After college, I worked for Knitmaster, then moved back to the north-east to join Patons and Baldwins Ltd (Coats Crafts UK), as a hand-knitwear designer and pattern-writer. I transferred to the crafts and editorial department where I promoted branded products through education, editorial commissions and publications. At this time, I was involved with the Embroiderers’ Guild and was teaching…