TextileArts news and re:views

Fiona Wilson, a graduate from Bradford School of Arts and Media with a degree in Contemporary Surface Design and Textiles is the Over 30's Embroiderers' Guild Scholar for 2010. This award provides Fiona with £1000 towards setting up her studio in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, as well as a stand at the Knitting and Stitching Shows in London, Harrogate and Dublin.

Fiona's work is based on a study of aerial photography and a collection of antique maps. Drawn to patterns and colour found from photographs of rural and urban subject matters, such as scrap yards, industrial landscapes, ploughed fields and housing estates, she creates printed and embroidered panels.

"I always intended to concentrate on embroidery in my final year, but found a lack of suitable fabric colours gave me a passion for mixing my own dyes and printing my own designs to create some interesting materials as a base for my stitching. I like to experiment with layering techniques such as devoré, screen printing and paper laminating onto cottons and sheers, which I then embellish with hand and machine stitch. The edges of my fabrics are quite often deliberately frayed by hand or with an embellisher and then joined back together with stitches."

After graduating Fiona exhibited her work at New Designers where she was selected to be part of the Graduate Showcase at the Festival of Quilts last year and was also featured in Embroidery Magazine. Having now won the Embroiderers' Guild Scholarship she is busy creating new works for the Knitting and Stitching Shows and promoting her workshops that will be run from the studio in Huddersfield.

For more information about Fiona's work, visit her website on www.wix.com/fionawilson/fionawilson or follow her blog on www.fiona-wilson.blogspot.com

James Hare add to their collections of distinctive fabrics in preparation for the Decorex exhibition held in London this year. The leading silk specialists will be offering designers an innovative and moving colour palette along with new enticing textures and patterns.

Decorex International displays everything from floor coverings to high fashion fabrics, highlighting the latest collections from renowned suppliers from all around the world. The exhibition brings together a mix of professionals, including designers, retailers and architects all looking to absorb new creations and inspirational talent. The artistic prints and designer fabrics displayed at the exhibition are sure to impress and encourage creative thinking.

The show takes place at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, UK, and runs between the 26th and 29th of September 2010.

James Hare provide an array of designer and fashion silks that have been artistically created to express unique style and sophistication. Bright colours and unusual textures are amongst some of the most beautiful pieces of fabric, perfect for the most eye catching fashion creations. Embroidery and embellishment is prominent within the collection of fashion fabrics available from the range.

James Hare has developed ‘Savoy’, a heavyweight silk satin with a unique curl-free finish that has been created in 33 colours, from simple neutrals to energetic shades. Simila Silks are linen look matka silks in various neutral shades. This year’s range includes stripes and embroidery in nine different colour-ways.

James Hare is based in Leeds, UK. Visit the James Hare web site to see more and find stockists worldwide.

2010 residencies for artists, curators, scholars, designers and creatives of all kinds

Elsewhere Collaborative, a living museum and experimental production environment in downtown Greensboro, NC, is now accepting applications from artists, curators, writers, musicians, designers, gardeners, makers, builders, scholars, producers, and creatives across media for residencies in 2010.

Elsewhere is set within a three-storey former thrift store, boarding house, and warehouse containing one woman's enormous 58-year collection of American surplus, thrift, and antiques. Elsewhere residencies invites experimental creators to join our collaborating community in utilising this immense collection of objects, no longer for sale and instead circulating internally, as material or inspiration for site-specific projects that become part of an endlessly transforming environment of objects and works. Artists live and work within interactive installations that provide evolving frameworks for investigating collaborations, community structures, and creative processes.

Residency fellowship funding for travel, room and board, are now available in exchange for hosting an educational workshop during the residency. Deadlines are rolling every other month; the deadline for fellowships is 31 January 2010.

Read more and download a brochure at
www.elsewhereelsewhere.org/programs/residencies

Stitch in Time is a Heritage Lottery Funded Young Roots project focusing on creative art and fashion to engage young people in traditional heritage textiles and contemporary customised fashion.

The exhibition showcases the results of workshops, gallery visits and consideration of current fashion issues including body image, identity, eco fashion and photographic styling.

All of the work has been produced by disadvantaged young people from Coventry in conjunction with Groundwork West Midlands and fashion/textile artist Claire Harris.

The exhibition is showing at Community Gallery, Avenue Road, Leamington Spa CV31 3PP, and the opening times are:

Saturday 31 October 2009: 10 am - 4pm
Every Wednesday and Thursday in November: 1pm - 4pm
Saturday 28 November 10am - 4 pm

Textile Holiday Tours is an exciting new business – "the first company in the UK to offer fully escorted, small group textile breaks around the UK".

The tours aim to delight and inspire participants with the rich variety of textiles, both traditional and contemporary, in stately homes, churches, cathedrals, castles, cottages and studios. They include talks from local experts, creative (and fun) workshops, and a relaxing stay in a quality, independent hotel. Lorraine Traer-Clark, owner of Textile Holiday Tours, who escorts the tours personally, expertly chooses and arranges the varied itineraries. More information and booking details on the Textile Holiday Tours web site or call 01621 869089.

A new concept in textile kits has been launched by "Squidgy stuff" called ‘course in a box’.

They sell a series of beginners' kits in patchwork, embroidery and appliqué, which contain four separate projects and a whole wealth of techniques. The ‘course in a box’ is aimed at beginners from teenage to pensioners and each one comes in two different colourways. To complement the new range of kits, “Squidgy stuff” has also launched a range of ‘kits in a bag’ suitable for 8 years old and upwards so the aim is to inspire young and old to get started and learn a new skill.

To celebrate the launch of the new site during February and March 2009 there is a special buy 2 get 1 free offer - buy any 2 kits (adults' or children's) and they will despatch a 3rd children's kit to you for free. The free kit will be a lucky dip from the children's kits range.

Squidgy stuff also sell a range of country living inspired home accessories and gifts designed by textile artists and handcrafted along with a selection of vintage, shabby and chic gifts.

The International Fiber Collaborative project for 2008-2009 is Interdependence. Participants will create a full-sized tree for display in April 2009 at Big Springs International Park in Huntsville, Alabama. The idea is to symbolise the interdependence of of different elements of society - family units, communities, and countries, much as the leaves and roots of a tree are interdependent, and neither can survive without the other.

Participants from around the world are invited to create leaves using fibre or fibre techniques to contribute to the creation of the tree. Submissions may relate to interdependence in a social, economical, political, ecological, or geographical way. In total, up to 30,000 leaves may be used.

The application deadline is March 15, 2009.

For more information and to download an application form, visit the International Fiber Collaborative web site.

Job opportunities for textile artists - get involved with the River and Cloth project in the London Borough of Merton. Foir more information see the Embroiderers' Guild web site.

Deadline 12th January 2009

Embloggery is a fascinating project - seeking, in artist Nicole Wolfersberger's words

"to examine the implications of the fact that we now have the ability to disseminate widely something written very quickly, to a potentially very large audience"

Each entry in the blog is a digital image of a hand embroidered diary entry. The first post, what/why, raises questions about how and what we communicate in this age of instantaneous interaction. Forming a stitch, clicking 'publish' on a blog, the actions of the hand and the mind, the relationships and tensions between the physical and the digital, are some of the themes Nicole is exploring. She invites readers to journey with the blog and comment and critique, and to follow the images to her Flickr pages, where they include notes and links which contribute to the overall piece.

Found via Paula Hewitt of The Beauty of Life, with thanks.

The Manchester Craft Mafia are holding a Christmas Market at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, on 13th and 14th December 2008, where you can "peruse a delectable range of contemporary textile and paper based handmade gifts".

More info on their web site.