Embroidery Archives - Page 30 of 90

3rd April 202331st July 2023

Darning Sampler

There’s something about working with cloth, it’s thread count and how the cloth is woven that fascinates me. This was the starting point for my latest project Darning Sampler.

The piece started with a vintage child’s garment that’s been in my collection for a number of years and an idea that’s been swirling around my head for even longer.

Next followed extensive research into vintage and antique darning samplers. Given the very fine cloth and the weave of the cotton, only a select number of stitches were chosen. Some patterns were also adapted for this project.

I experimented and sampled with different weights of thread and settled on a very fine thread called Madeira Cotona.

The piece took nearly two months to create. Hand darned. Size 28 x 28cm.

Completed with a tiny vintage Mother of Pearl button on the neck of the garment.

This piece is part of the Embroiderers’ Guild ‘ Layers’ Members Challenge.

You can find one of my previous Members’ Challenge artworks in this post.

Update July 2023:

I’m thrilled that Darning sampler has won a First Award in ‘The Artistic Director’s Category’ in the Members’ Challenge 2023. For more details please follow this link.

3rd February 20238th February 2023

A Tall Order Exhibition

I’m please to announce that I’ve been invited by curators Dr Derek Horton and Dr Alice Correia to take part in A Tall Order exhibition at Touchstones Gallery, Rochdale.

The artworks selected for exhibition are ‘My Rochdale Lad‘ Pocket, Worker Bees and Sound of the Mill.

The exhibition runs in Galleries 1, 2, 3 & 4 from 4 February to 6 May 2023.

Artists taking part in A Tall Order exhibition

This invitation follows a wonderful conversation I had with Dr Horton when I shared my work at Touchstones in September 2022.

In the 1980s, Touchstones was known as Rochdale Art Gallery. Its daring and innovative approach to exhibition and education programming positioned it on the national map.

Led by Exhibition Officer, Jill Morgan, the focus on exhibiting artists engaged in critical and socio-political practice gave a platform to those who were not being offered the opportunity to show their work in other high profile institutions.

A Tall Order! is an invigorating look at the artwork made and exhibited here during the 1980s by a generation of artists, many of whom were women, young, working class and Black.

Featuring key works from this time and demonstrating how this period influenced many artists, the show will include loans from both public and private collections brought together from around the UK. Alongside selected works from Rochdale’s own collection, the exhibition will also present a series of three new and exciting commissions by contemporary artists, Lubna Chowdhary, Sarah Joy Ford and Jade Montserrat.

Generously supported by a grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and Arts Council England and Friends of Rochdale Art Gallery funding, A Tall Order! is curated by independent research curators Dr Derek Horton and Dr Alice Correia.
A Tall Order

Touchstones

30th January 202312th June 2023

Summer 2022

For the past few months I’ve been busy designing & stitching a new artwork named ‘Summer 2022’ .

Last year I was honoured to be invited by artist Harry Meadley to take part in Free-For-All at Touchstones Rochdale from 7-10th September 2022.

I created an event called ‘Stitched Memories’ to collect Rochdale’s memories of the 2022 heatwave for a new artwork – a companion piece to Summer ‘76. The responses were handwritten on postcards and displayed within the gallery.

My original idea was to create a single artwork of around 400 words. In reality, after collating so many wonderful hand written phrases a unique story started to evolve – enough for two artworks.

The artworks cover the period from early summer, through the heatwave and drought and end with the loss of HM Queen Elizabeth II (which occurred during the time I was at Free-For-All).

Each piece is 21 x 21cm, hand embroidered and hand stitched with vintage Sylko thread onto cotton cloth.