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

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.

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.

A new exhibition by Sleaford Embroiderers in the Roof Gallery at the

Hub
National Centre for Crafts and Design
Navigation Wharf
Sleaford
NG34 7TW

www.thehubcentre.info

4 - 7 September 2008
10am - 5pm

Sleaford Embroiderers, established in 1986, are a group of 25 creative embroiderers who enjoy working with both modern and traditional techniques, from precise and exacting pieces such as goldwork and silk shading to innovative designs of modern progressive textiles including paper and bookmaking, feltmaking, metalwork, etc.

In addition to the waterfront inspired pieces, the exhibition will also include other pieces of new work.

The British Sari Story 2008 competition is offering a £250 top prize for a design for a British Bridal Sari. Do you have a vision of a sari showing the hopes, dreams and experience of a British Asian bride? Traditionally bridal saris have fantastic beading and embroidery from south Asia.

Detail of a Gharcholu sari, worn by brides in Gujarat, India
Credit: Flexeflix/Bridging Arts

"But we're looking for something new – British beading, embroidery and embellishment, reflecting British Asian experience in the UK . We hope you will be as imaginative as possible with your entry. We could see a tweed sari with a heather embroidered motif – or a Welsh sari with leeks and daffodils! Entrants are free to use whatever they like in their embroidery - buttons instead of sequins... The possibilities are endless..."

Finalists' work will become part of the British Sari Story touring exhibition, celebrating British Asian life today. This exhibition is currently at the Harley Gallery, Worksop. Winners will be announced when the exhibition opens at the Charnwood Museum, Loughborough, in October 2008.

Entry is free and is open to all. Closing date 31 August 2008.

More information from the Bridging Arts web site, where an application form can be downloaded; or email , tel 020 8749 9010.

Nilesh Mistry, a Mumbai-born illustrator now based in north-west London, won the top prize in the 2007 competition with his Sari for Harrow. The five metres of silk show Harrow's coat of arms and the famous public school but also the "real" Harrow - an exquisite border of its citizens including a Somali woman in a Burka, a hoodie with a mobile phone, a Gujarati housewife, a Polish builder and Afro Caribbean woman and a mullah.

The latest issue of Fibre&Stitch (issue 3) is newly out, offering a feast of techniques, projects and information. Scanning down the table of contents, some headings immediately caught my eye - Terri Stegmiller with a series on techniques and methods for writing on fabric, and special guest articles by Linda Stokes on shibori with transfer dyes, and Helen Suzanne Alexander on achieving depth and distance in fibre landscapes.

There's also a fascinating article by guest author Virginia A. Spiegel in which she explains how she collects and records information in her studio journals, and shares the thought processes that led to a particular series of art quilts.

The talented artists who contribute to Fibre&Stitch have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of ideas for colourful and beautiful projects and this issue is no exception. I especially liked Terri Stegmiller's cheerful 'scrappy fabric coasters' and Debra Jo Hardman's 'thread-play scarf', to name but two - and there is much more here to stimulate creativity.

To see what's on offer, you can download the table of contents in PDF format from the Fibre&Stitch web site, or to get a practical taste of Fibre&Stitch, look at the generous range of projects and techniques on the free projects page.

Fibre&Stitch is a quarterly electronic publication in PDF format. You can subscribe online ($29.95 USD for a year's subscription), and a single issue is $8.95 USD.

This special exhibition will be on show from 8 November 2007 to 9 March 2008 in the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

Participating artists are from 12 countries and include Judy Chicago, Elaine Reichek, Tilleke Schwarz, Berend Strik, Andrea Deszo, Mattia Bonetti, Nava Lubelski, Clyde Olliver, Kate Kretz and Benji Whalen. A catalogue is planned.

Into the Woods (detail), Tilleke Schwarz

Sharon Boggon's popular blog, In A Minute Ago, has moved to a new home here, and Sharon's other blogs Mindtracks and Wisdom of the Ages have also moved (these links are to the new addresses). Sharon tells the story of the move in her first post at the new address. If you haven't visited In A Minute Ago before, it's a mine of inspiration and information you really shouldn't miss. Just one example is the Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge, which suggests ways to experiment with a different stitch each week throughout 2007; and there's much more - Sharon always manages to have her finger on the pulse of what's happening around the textile art community, and she updates her blog every day to share the latest news, a great site she's found, a snippet of information or a link to an interesting article. Sharon shares her thoughts and questions freely so there are some very interesting discussions in the comments, and on her new blog it's very easy to join in.

Sharon's Dictionary of Stitches for Hand Embroidery and Needlework is another excellent resource for embroiderers, and was one of the earliest textile resources on the web at a time when many people were hardly aware that the internet existed, let alone finding creative ways to use it.

In April and May 2007 there's a chance to study hand stitching with well known tutors Jenny Bullen and Kay Dennis, and gain a City & Guilds qualification.

Courses in Stitched Textiles (Hand Embroidery) with Jenny, and Stitched Textiles (Stumpwork) with Kay, are being offered by the Embroiderers' Guild at Hampton Court Palace. The five-day courses lead to the City & Guilds Level One Certificate in Design and Craft. Participants will also be able to enjoy seeing wonderful examples of hand embroidery and stumpwork from the Guild's extensive Museum Collection.

The Hand Embroidery course dates are 30 April - 4 May; Stumpwork runs from 21 - 25 May. The fee for a five-day course is £195. You can find out more on the Embroiderers' Guild website, or contact Lynn Szygenda on 020 8943 1229 (ext 30).