Birds Playday

Another busy weekend for the Halifax Embroiderers' Guild with two new members, a brilliant talk from Harriet Lawton, and a Playday at the Maurice Jagger Centre with the theme of BIRDS. 
Several members worked from a pattern featured in Stitch Magazine last year in an article by Maggie Smith, others did their own thing. 
There was even cake. (Actually, there is always cake.)

As you can see below, all of the results were, as usual, fabulous. 

Davina's black and white birdy

Wyn and Irenes' birdy brooches

Anne's bird, "Barbara"

Barbara's beautiful bottom

Rona's parliament of owls - and a dove

Helen's work on a Thieving Magpie theme - and a dove

Myra's ruby red Robin

Janice's splendid..um..Greenfinch?

Cath's beautiful Bluebird

Liz's bird - looks kind of Native American!

Next month there is a workshop, tutored by the talented Judy Tadman - book your places with Margaret Walton now! (I promise there'll be cake!)

March Meeting - Harriet Lawton

We have been so fortunate of late, our speakers have been so diverse and interesting! This month we had a talk by Harriet Lawton, a local graduate who is clearly making a big impression in the world of contemporary art/craft with her brilliant combinations of stitch and ceramic work. 
A former student of our Programme Sec Margaret Walton, at Crossley Heath School, Harriet said that doing her Art 'A' Level at the Crossley's had given her a great boost when it came to doing her Foundation Course at Bradford College, instilling a strong work ethic and a love of fabric and textiles. 
During her Foundation Course Harriet explored her penchant for working with found objects and random collections, including stamps, sugar packets and objects picked up on dog walks. 

Moving on to Manchester School of Art it was pointed out that her work was suited to stitch and she moved to an embroidery course. 

Her most significant moment came during her second year when she discovered Japanese Kintsugi. Briefly, this is the philosophy that mending the cracks in something with gold aggrandises the damage and makes the objects even more beautiful than they were before being broken. Harriet started mending pots using goldwork joining stitches and darning. 

In her third year, Harriet moved into working on a larger scale with ceramic collage, also learning about water jet cutting to remove sections of the china she was working with. (How pleasing are the clean cut lines of this "spoon"?)

Harriet also did some work wrapping the ceramics with thread and textile before working on a site-specific piece, bidding for and getting a two-storey wall  within the art school for her graduate showcase.

As you can see from the scale, the pieces are not all, as they appear, ceramic plates, but are also enlarged textile versions made using printed and bonded pelmet vilene and other fabrics. 

Since her degree show, (which she had to complete in a very tight 5 weeks), Harriet has been selected to show at several prestigious venues including New Designers 2013, FRESH - the ceramic biennial showcase, The Whitworth Gallery in Manchester, and Traces in London. 

Basing her work mainly on mixed media and fabric plate compositions, she has now taken up residence in her own studio at Artworks, Shaw Lodge Mills, Halifax and is busy giving talks and workshops. 

Later this year she is taking up a 10 week placement in Madrid funded by an arts charity - Harriet is clearly going places, so catch her now!

Harriet is currently running a series of Mixed Media Workshops at her studio, on Tuesday evenings until 5th April. Each is a stand-alone topic and the workshops, costing £25, can be booked at www.theartworks.org.uk or by e-mailing Harriet at harrietlawton@hotmail.com. 

February Meeting - Sarah Ruaux

Sarah first caught the attention of our Chair, Wyn, when she saw her at Knitting and Stitching a couple of years ago exhibiting a pair of golden shoes (see below).

Sarah has now reached the ancient age of 13 and came to speak to us at Halifax in February. She is a member of the Guild's Parbold Branch (in Lancashire) and has a particular interest in shoes. This interest is obviously in Sarah's blood as her Grandad is also a member of the Guild and is a clog-maker. Sarah made her first pair of shoes four years ago and brought some of her beautiful work to illustrate her talk. 

The pair of clogs on the left of the below picture are the first pair that Sarah made, as the result of a challenge from her Grandad. 

Below are details from some of Sarah's pieces. 

Inbetweeners - Slippery Business

Liz says, "well they're not exactly Sarah's fabulous shoes but I'm quite pleased with my first pair of slippers for Steve's Valentine's present. There's a lady in Rastrick called Amanda who has set up a new business called "Joes Toes." She sells the felt sections and soles, you can choose the colours then stitch them up however you like. The felt is brilliant for stitching or needle felting into."

In case you want to try this splendid idea for yourselves, I have visited the website at no extra expense and here is a photo of the slippers in kit form : 

The kit costs £29 and the website address is joetoes.co.uk or you can ring them on 01484 443161

Hearts Playday

Our timely Hearts Playday at the Maurice Jagger Centre at the weekend took inspiration from the work of Beryl Taylor, Carolyn Saxby and Jude Hill. 
Members produced some stunning work, as usual, and all of their pieces were so different! 

Jan's woven hearts

Margaret's hand-stitched and map / button hearts

Julie's machine-stitched hearts

Wyn's appliquéd sea-themed heart

Helen's dyed and stitched heart panel

Cath's heart panel on a woven ribbon background

Rona's hand-stitched multi-heart / circle panel

Janice's hearts applied to a woven strip background

A variation on a theme, for Sue's "Heart is where the Home is" piece!

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And below are the updated versions of member's pieces!

Inbetweeners - Sue's Super Sampler

This is Sue Morgan's first hand-stitched patchwork sampler quilt, which she has just completed after working on it since September. I'm sure that many of you, like me, wish that you had finished anything since September! 

Inbetweeners - Anne's Lovely Box

Where does she find the time? 

Here is a box that Anne Brooke made as a demo piece for her collage box workshop. 

Anne uses a lot of wallpaper samples in her work as it is quite strong and flexible, good for stitching into by both hand and machine.

Inbetweeners - Inspired by Angie (Updated 23/2/14)

Anne Brooke says, "Getting ready for an Angie Lewin 2-day workshop on wood engraving at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Going with Liz, Jane and Natalie from our Guild. We are all as giddy as teenagers. ..well I am as I have admired her work for years. 
Her exhibition is on for a couple more weeks at YSP, I totally recommend it if you can get over there."

Here is some of Anne's preparatory work. 

To be honest, most of my finished pieces don't look that good! Hope you all have a great time and can come back and "cascade" you knowledge down to your fellow members! 

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And here are the photos of our members having the benefit of tuition from the talented Angie Lewin during that two day workshop : 

Inbetweeners - Judy shows us the Ropes

Now here's something you don't see every day - I wonder if there's a way of doing this on a slightly smaller scale? While most of us go to the haberdashers for our supplies, I imagine that Judy is on the phone to the ships' chandlers.

She tells us that this is her latest finished commission, a giant seed-pod made from 16mm rope and linen yarn. 

If you want to hear more about Judy Tadman's amazing work, make sure that you're at our meeting on 4th April when she is going to tell us all about it. 
Visitors are always welcome!