Another lovely social evening and a lovely new (young!) member. After admiring Val Turner's new "scaffolding" we got down to business. The Regional Committee had sent details of this year's Summer School at Bishop Burton - three great tutors and three days' peace and quiet for stitching, all for £200. Members were encouraged to complete their Challenge pieces in time for judging by our guest speaker Mary Conway at the next meeting, when we have prizes for the top pieces. Cath and Helen, both doing "Chemistry", brought their pieces to show us and make us envious! We sent our love and best wishes to Linda Saltmarshe, who has been in hospital for a few weeks and is now recovering at home.
We finally let our guest speaker, Val Hughes, get a word in edgeways. She told us how refreshing it was to be working locally (Val lives in Luddendenfoot, although she admits that she will always be an Essex girl at heart) - although her "day job" is also in Halifax, working as a tutor at Calderdale College.
Val's talk was on her "Anne Boleyn" series of costumes, ten pieces of wearable art which she completed for her degree at Bradford College, inspired by the turbulent life (and death) of Anne Boleyn after she met Henry VIII.
Pieces depicting Anne's incarceration and execution
The dresses, with titles such as Incarceration, Iniquity, and Charade, gave an insight into the forces at play which affected the life and destiny of this enigmatic woman. Mainly using hand-made felt, machine embroidery and fabric manipulation, and a limited palette of red and black, the pieces were so complex that we weren't surprised to learn that Val had often had to stay up until 2am in order to complete her series of work in time to graduate!
The Royal Court - a nest of vipers...
Wired pieces showing Anne's entanglement
An admiring Myra!
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