Expressive Stitches by Dionne Swift

Dionne's talk has been much anticipated by our members, and we were joined by a number of visitors on a very rainy day.

Dionne told us about her background and journey in textiles.  She studied at Goldsmiths College and was fortunate to have some of the very best tutors: Alice Kettle, Michael Brennand-Wood, Audrey Walker.  She offers a wide range of workshops, some of which are held at Janome (only a few miles away from Glossop) and some are based online.  Leaflets were available at the meeting but if you wish to know more details then either contact Dionne or speak to a committee member at our next meeting.

She brought along some of her work, which beautifully illustrated her use of free-machine stitching:

and through her slideshow she showed how important her sketching is to the finished textile work.  She also stitches the most covetable brooches, its so easy to visualise them on your favourite dress or jacket.

Dionne told us about some of her other work for example 'Collective Stitches' which is a touring exhibition of work undertaken by her students around the world.  She also showed images of some of the work done in her community projects.  A very busy lady!  For more information take a look at her website: www.dionneswift.com.

Elsewhere during the meeting, many of the travelling books were brought along and have now started the next step of their journey.  And we were very pleased - and impressed - to see four of the completed rag rugging projects:

North West Regional Day

A group of members drove over to Leyland in Lancashire on Saturday, 21 April to attend the North West Regional Day, hosted this year by the North West committee of which our own Chair, Ann Cornes, is a hard-working member.

At last year's Regional AGM attendees were asked to stitch a paisley shape in blue and lilac threads.  These were sent away to be incorporated into the tail of a beautiful peacock, which delighted everyone and was much admired, with everyone identifying their own tail feather:

The Guild's Members' Challenge for 2017-18 was 'Underfoot'.  There were over 80 entries including submissions by several of our members, and Christine Bardsley received a Highly Recommended certificate, which was presented to her at Regional Day.

There was a small display of work by Glossop members:

Nikki Parmenter took along her beautiful work of a peacock, which made a great contrast to the stitched hanging, and was much praised (apologies for the chairs in the background, but they were unavoidable):

So - a great day for Glossop!

Other news is that this year's Summer School is fully booked.  At the meeting everyone voted on the theme for the Regional Rose Bowl in 2020 which is 'All you need is love'.  Lots of time to produce your own work!

A Coastal Perspective by Alice Fox

At our March meeting we welcomed a number of visitors when Alice Fox came to talk to us about the work she did in 2012 whilst she was Artist in Residence at Spurn Point, a nature reserve and a place which is very exposed to the weather.  Alice was based there for six months and found the old lighthouse to be very useful for sheltering from the weather and also for displaying the work she had produced during her residency.

Her work from this time shows a range of marks and stains made on fabric and paper by the collection of discarded objects she found at Spurn Point:

The objects were trapped or stitched into cloth and exposed to the outside elements over a period of time, which resulted in a beautiful range of marks on the cloth and stitch.  The members and visitors very much enjoyed Alice's talk and found her work to be both interesting and inspirational, which generated much discussion.

Workshop - rag rugging

Ruth Turner, who is a member of Chelford EG, came to Glossop to show us how to do rag rugging.  Here is some work completed by an earlier student:-

Firstly, members drew out the shapes they wanted to include in their work:-

Then they started to work with the strips of coloured tee shirt fabric, to make their own design:-

Now everyone can admire each others' work - some beautiful rag rugging to be completed at home!

DIS/rupt exhibition at Gallery Oldham

The DIS/rupt exhibition shows recent work by members of the Textile Study Group.  The Group encompasses well-known artists and teachers including Jean Draper, Sarah Burgess, Ruth Issett and Bobby Britnell, who work in a wide range of media. In this exhibition their work comments on some of the major disruptions of the twenty first century.  Alice Fox, who will be speaking to us at our meeting on 28 March, is also a member of the Textile Study Group and has one of her works in the exhibition.

Unfortunately the exhibition closes at Gallery Oldham this Saturday, 24 February.  However, three members of Glossop EG were very fortunate to attend a recent workshop run by Sarah Burgess and based on the same concepts as the exhibition.

Using various found objects, we focused on monoprinting (a form of printmaking) and stitch on paper and textiles, to tell the story of a particular found object.  Between us, we worked with a sock, buttons and a shell - items whose existence could be disrupted by being lost or moved from their original location.

To give us some inspiration Sarah showed us a piece she had worked, based on a lost glove:-

Here are some examples of monoprinting including, of course, the sock, the buttons and the shell.....

 

When we had completed the printing we could start to stitch the story of the lost item back together:-

Everyone who attended the workshop had a great time with wonderful tuition, and an opportunity to meet other textile artists.  Not forgetting the exhibition itself, which was both thought-provoking and inspirational.  You can take a virtual tour of the exhibition by clicking on the link on the right-hand side of our blog, under 'Textile Artists & Groups' there is an entry for the Textile Study Group.

Textile Workshop based on Harry Ousey's work

Glossop branch hosted a workshop at Stockport Memorial Art Gallery on Saturday, 3 February.  The Gallery is currently holding an exhibition of Harry Ousey's work and the paintings were the basis of the workshop.  

Remember the fantastic panel made by our branch members last year?

It was included in the exhibition and showed just what can be achieved by translating a painting into textiles.

About a dozen  people arrived to take part in the workshop and, with Liz Smith's expert guidance, they each selected a painting to translate into a stitched textile.  Here is some of their work:-

We took along our own stash of fabric space-dyed by Christine Bardsley and some of the participants chose a piece to use in their stitched work.

Everyone really enjoyed the day and lots of questions were asked about our branch, and what we get up to.  Fingers crossed that we may get a couple of new members!

100 Hearts War Stories Project

The Embroiderers' Guild is inviting members to commemorate the 100th anniversary since the end of WW1 by stitching a heart.  Exhibitions of the hearts will be held in conjunction with the armed forces charity: SSAFA.

The January meeting brought together lots of inspiration and ideas for making a heart which could have a great deal of personal significance, as so many families lost at least one young man during the conflict.

Here is some of the memorabilia which was available at the meeting:-

These were kindly lent to us by the Manchester Regiment Museum, based in Ashton-under-Lyne and comprised lots of thought-provoking items.  Have a closer look at the silk postcards:

The soldiers sent these home from France and sometimes, like in the second postcard, they formed an envelope containing a card on which the soldier could write a message to a loved one.

For those who have registered to take part in the project, you should receive your instructions and package of materials by the end of February.