We are a group of women (but men are welcome!) who have an interest in textile art and embroidery. We are of mixed abilities and there is no need for you to be able to sew to come and join us - there are no tests!
New members are always welcome - why not call in and join us as a guest for a few months?
Meeting fee for visitors is only £5.
Our meetings vary - we have talks and workshops, show and tell - we also have lots of weekend workshops and playdays. For details of what's coming up (and what's been and gone!) check out our programme below...

Saturday 20 February 2016

Inbetweeners - Barking up the wrong tree

Abi is the first to send me her update from last week's workshop with Sandra Wallace. She says, I may add a few beads, as Sandra taught us how to string tiny beads. The white puffy bits are made by painting Xpandaprint onto my scrim base. There are lots of layers, which don't all show on the photo."


The second photo shows the picture of bark that Abi used for inspiration.



Wednesday 17 February 2016

February Workshop - Fabulous Felt and Brilliant Beads

Following on from our February meeting, Sandra returned to run a workshop with members, making felt and teaching beading techniques. They also worked on making some textured background fabrics.
Here are our members hard at work! 


It's amazing what you have to bring to a workshop, "just in case"...

 Some beading samples...
 Sue L

Sue H

Sue K (I promise, not all our members are called Sue!)

Rona

Janice

Catherine

Abigail

Margaret (I'm very intrigued about that red bead!)

Felt AND beads! That's just showing off...

It's a shame our "Small World" challenge has finished!

Davina's added another continent to hers

A group shot

The start of a lovely muted collage

A colourful piece by Jo

Rachael's interpretation of rock strata

I think Jane's hoping for some freebies for her product placement...

A close-up of Jane's lovely Lucky Bag piece

There wasn't mushroom to fit in this photo of Catherine's work

A very textured felt piece with added fibres, by Janice

I feel like I'm actually in Scotland, looking at this beaded, felted piece by Sue L 

Felt, needle felt and Tyvek are the basis of Sue H's collage

I love the piece of seaweed in the foreground of this painted fabric by Margaret

It's going to be interesting to see how these pieces develop! 




Thursday 11 February 2016

February Meeting - Sandra Wallace - Fabulous Felt and a Mixture of Media

For our February meeting, we had a talk by Sandra Wallace, who as well as being a successful artist, tutor and author, is a member of our Branch! We are so lucky to have such talented members to inspire the rest of us! Sandra surprisingly started off as a teacher of maths and science, however it soon became clear that her interests lay in more artistic subjects. 
Her work is inspired by topics that have interested her - Sea and waterfalls, Native Americans, and all aspects of the natural world, all feature heavily in Sandra's work. 
Although her main interest is in felt making, along the way she has specialised in beadwork and her use of colour led to her being asked to write a book on this subject. 
Sandra also likes to work in mixed media and has incorporated more contemporary textures into her felted work, such as Tyvek and Expandaprint. 
Here are some photographs of the beautiful work that Sandra brought to show us. 


The works above and below are on the theme of "Fire and Ice"

These two pieces depict lichen and tree bark, 
using silk cocoons and beads along side felted backgrounds

This piece depicts the stunning show of lupins which can be seen in Iceland in springtime. They were planted to try to stop soil erosion but 
have started to take over, as you can see from the below photo.


You can practically hear the water rushing over the stones in this piece 
(which is actually a waterfall, but I can't turn the photo round!)

A vessel made by using wire alongside beading thread on the loom

Beautiful beaded bracelets

A stunning peacock feather, again made on a beading loom.

As well as Sandra's lovely work, another highlight of the meeting was our colour-themed raffle, which really seems to have caught the imagination of members. Big thanks to Elizabeth who organises us every month, and also special thanks to Judy who brought in lots of turned wood pieces that she'd made - they weren't all black (this month's scheme) but we were very happy to have them!


Finally, *someone* had finished their lovely little house from last month but I can't remember who it was! 
Please let me know if it was you and I'll make sure you receive the due credit! 
(If any other members have finished theirs, please send me a photo!) 


PS - You can still get hold of Sandra's book on Amazon!