Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show 2022 - All the Other Exciting Bits - Part 3

Hawes Yarnbombers - Crocheted Shrek

It occurs to me that in my previous posts I missed out some of the other wonders of last year's Knitting & Stitching Show so I'm going to whizz through just some of them!

Hawes Yarnbombers - Crocheted Ogre Princess Fiona & Lord Farquaad

First of all (largely because this is what I came across first) the Hawes Yarnbombers had a Shrek display and as a Yarnstormer myself I thought I should tantalise you with some pics! And here are their useful top 10 tips if you want to try some yarnbombing/yarnstorming yourself...

Hawes Yarnbombers Tip 10 Yarnbombing Tips

You may not know but the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) celebrated their 150th anniversary in 2022.  They had some amazing work on show.  Guislaine Peart's creative box Larder contains 82 pieces of cardboard covered in fabric and stitched together and has stumpwork foodstuffs - fab!

RSN Advanced Diploma Student Ghislaine Peart - Larder

Paris Morthorpe's creative box was a Colonial Williamsburg House and Garden...

RSN Advanced Diploma Student Paris Morthorpe
- Colonial Williamsburg House and Garden

Those stitchers amongst us may find the online RSN Stitch Bank very useful too. At time of writing it contained 275 stitches. Each stitch entry contains information about its history, use and structure as well as a step-by-step method with photographs, illustrations and video.  You can access it here.

The Quilters' Guild had an exhibition relating to quilts and the written word - Text & Context...

Winifred Dodge - Clothes Label Coverlet

Winifred Dodge's Clothes Label Coverlet was made in the 1980s from over 2000 woven clothes labels - some firms are no longer in existence.  It shows one way textiles can incorporate text that often goes unnoticed.

Lesley Brankin - Belonging

The radiating words in Lesley Brankin's Belonging quilt reflect what the Quilters' Guild means to its members and was a collaborative piece.

Jo Avery - Intertwined

I loved this colourful quilt of geometric flowers and leaves by Jo Avery.

And who could fail to be impressed by Shenley Brook End School's Going for Gold quilt inspired by the gold collecting dragon in Tolkien's The Hobbit...

Shenley brook End School - Going for Gold

The Embroiderers' Guild had work on display, including EG Scholar David Morrish...

Embroiderers' Guild Scholar - David Morrish

and graduates, Suzy Ager...

Embroiderers' Guild Graduate Showcase - Suzy Ager

Eliza Gommershall...

Embroiderers' Guild Graduate Showcase - Eliza Gommershall

Adrian Wa...

Embroiderers' Guild Graduate Showcase - Adrian Wa

Amelia Fern Gething...

Embroiderers' Guild Graduate Showcase - Amelia Rose Gething

Embroiderers' Guild Graduate Showcase - Amelia Rose Gething

All in all lots to be excited about. Looking forward to the next Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate (16-19 November 2023) already!

Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show 2022 - Textile Galleries - Part 2 - The 62 Group & The Fine Art Textiles Award

Ann Goddard - Microcosm

It's 60 years since the 62 Group was established.  Their aims were to promote textile art, to be shown in prestigious venues, to be well publicised and to be taken seriously, on a par with other fine art practices.  In this exhibition - Essence - members were asked to present work that reflected the "essence" of their textile practice.  Each work could be no larger than 30x30x30cm.  

Shuna Rendel - Cycles of Time

It was a great exhibition & here I'm sharing with you some of my favourite pieces from it.  If you head over to the 62 Group website you can watch the Essence film where the artists talk about their work.  It's well worth watching.

Maggie Henton - Kept in Place

Hannah Lamb - The Garden Within

Heather Belcher - Becoming Undone

Caren Garfen - Babes in the Wood

Debbie Lyddon - Sand & Salt Bag

Helen Banzhaf - Three in a Row

The Fine Art Textiles Award supported by the Open College of the Arts recognises the creative talents and skills of exceptional textile artists.  These are the pieces that caught my attention... 

Jane Walkley - Rhythm of the Weave 3 

Jane Walkley's piece used clay impressions of mill artefacts that were then cast in jesmonite together with mill debris. These were then included in her woven piece trying to capture the repetitive rhythm of a mill worker's daily experience.

Judith E Martin - Underfoot the Earth Divine

Judith E Martin's piece was inspired by the vast rural Canadian landscape. Her dyed, machined pieced fabrics were hand quilted, resembling a ploughed field. 

Marian Jazmik - Stems & Stalks

Marian Jazmik's abstract textile art, using a variety of synthetic materials, free machine embroidery and heat treatment, is inspired by the shapes and textures of the natural environment captured through her macro photography.

The exhibitions at the Knitting & Stitching Show are always inspirational you can read my other blog post about the textile galleries here.

Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show 2022 - Textile Galleries - Part 1

 

Archana Pathak - In Lure of New Worlds

I went to the Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate recently.  It's my annual textile treat - a chance to be inspired by some wonderful textile artists, try your hand at a workshop or two if you like, pick up some advice and stock up on materials if you need any.  I love it!

Archana Pathak - Materials

This year I concentrated on the exhibitions in the Textile Galleries.  My favourite was Mapping Transience by Archana Pathak.  Archana grew up in India but now lives in London and her work explores the interplay of memory, place, identity and belonging.  She collects together postcards, letters, diaries and maps, deconstructs them and transforms them into something new.  I particularly liked her use of maps to form the threads she uses to handstitch her work. 

Archana Pathak - Transient Boundaries 

In her work in progress piece - Our World Our Making, Archana uses an old British colonial map to subtly show how allocated boundaries have been shifting in time..

Archana Pathak - Our World Our Making

James Fox in Cycling, Cloth & Conflict had some interesting and humorous work based on the bicycle and the changes it brought particularly for women. Fabulous machine stitching...

James Fox - Nothing To Lose

Aran Illingworth's Portrayal of Poverty was very moving, shining a spotlight on poverty, homelessness and displacement around the world.  Her work is richly handstitched.

Aran Illingworth - When We Were Very Young

Maggie Scott's Five Times More reflects on experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood and highlights that people of colour are at much higher risk in the British healthcare system during pregnancy and childbirth than their white counterparts...

Maggie Scott - One Hundred and Twenty-One

Maggie Scott - One Hundred and Twenty-One (detail)

Maggie uses digital printing, nuno felting and handstitch in her work.

Vivienne Beaumont - Mother & Daughter: The Message

Vivienne Beaumont's printed and machine stitched works of myths and stories were fascinating in her Seeds, Flowers & Flowing Hair exhibition.  Above, the myth of Demeter and Persephone examines the mother daughter relationship and the seasons.

Marcia Bennett-Male - Twenty Twenty Two

Marcia Bennett-Male may be better known in some circles for her stone carving and sculpting.  The Knitting & Stitching Show presented the first solo exhibition - Moments to Myself - of Marcia's textile works. Her vibrant handstitched appliques use chintz to represent England, where Marcia was brought up, and Dutch/African wax prints to represent her Afro-Caribbean background and address a wide spectrum of concerns relating to the depiction of Black women in history and myth to a more personal view on Black female mental health in our society.

So that's my quick taster of some of the exhibiting artists at the Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show this year - more to come.  There are links to each artist if you want to find out more.  Hope you enjoyed it!

Jen Cable, Sisse Fog Odgaard & Bradford School of Art at the Knitting & Stitching Show - Harrogate 2019

Jen Cable - Who blazed your trail?

Jen Cable's exhibition "An Ideal Woman?" employs traditional women's  textile techniques in a contemporary way to reflect on society's views of women's acceptable conduct.  In doing so she highlights how such expectations limit the role and behaviour of women.  In "Who blazed your trail?" the depiction of a burnt bra represents an image of empowerment inspired by the protest marches of the 1960s & 1970s.    

Jen Cable - Some day my prince will come

In "Some day my prince will come" Jen is reflecting on the industrious, servile women of fairy tales e.g the miller's daughter who gets to marry the king when she can spin straw into gold and wonders what reward would result from being able to turn bark and petals into cushions.

Jen Cable - So much more to give

"So much more to give" references Rapunzel's conditioning which meant she failed to realise she could use her own hair as a means of escape.  It asks why can't we accept individuals as they are, rather than expecting them to conform to a single norm.

 

Sisse Fog Odgaard - #Unfinished

 
Sisse Fog Odgaard's #Unfinished was an amazing display of six colourful life rafts made up of more than 2,000 pieces of unfinished knitting, collected over a period of 6 months. Sisse cut the pieces and stitched them onto a base of discarded parachutes and covered the joints with a total of 2.5 km of French knitting. Her knitting machine was powered by a lego motor! Sisse hopes to inspire us to let go of preconceived ideas of perfection and to speak openly of the things we aren't so proud of.  "When we dare to talk about our mistakes, it sets us free". You can watch a video of the project here.

Lorna Muir - HNC Contemporary Constructed Textiles

Lorna Muir, from Bradford School of Art, takes inspiration from Martin Parr's photograph collection The Non- Conformists which looks at farming and chapel communities in the Upper Calder Valley.  Her collection is an interpretion of what Charlie & Sarah Hannah Greenwood, a brother and sister who farmed at Thurrish Farm and worshipped at Crimsworth Dean Methodist Chapel, would wear at work, home and for worship. Items shown are envisaged as what Charlie would wear for work and what Sarah Hannah would wear to the Chapel anniversary, a special occasion.

Nicola Green - HNC Fashion & Textiles

Nicola Green, also from Bradford School of Art, has produced her Urban Pattern collection inspired by the Yorkshire urban landscape.  Her pieces, designed for a therapy seting for young people, have a colour palette and texture that it is hoped will have a positive impact on mental wellbeing.

Marian Jazmik & the Vlieseline Fine Art Textiles Award at the Knitting & Stitching Show - Harrogate 2019

Marian Jazmik - Gravel Path (2 vessels), Lichen 1 & Lichen 2

This is the third in my series of blogs about the 2019 Knitting & Stitching Show at Harrogate.  Marian Jazmik's exhibition - Beyond the Surface - was fascinating. Marian takes photographs on her walks on the Lancashire moors and on her travels abroad and digitally manipulates these to reveal hidden surface textures at micro and macro scales.  Fungi and lichen are of particular interest to her. Using mixed media including plastics, packaging, wood, wire and papers and using free machine embroidery & the application of heat Marian produces these amazing surface textures...

Marian Jazmik - Beyond the Surface

Marian Jazmik - Beyond the Surface

I was also blown away by the exhibits in the Vlieseline Fine Art Textiles Award.  Here are just some of the fanastic entries including one by Suzette Smart who is inspired by her local landscape, birds, animals and storytelling and using collaged fabric, machine embroidery and hand stitch...

Suzette Smart - Draw my world in words

Amans Eliane stitched letters to someone close to her, who was undergoing cancer treatment, on torn bedsheets .  These letters were never sent but knitted up - the knitting itself indicative of the time passing during this difficult period...

Amans Eliane - A toi, Lettres secrete

Ann Goddard's piece highlights the decline in the global insect population and the threat this poses to the health of the planet.  Her chrysalises, some of which have been burnt, have been formed from Ugandan bark cloth...

Ann Goddard - On the Brink

Caroline Bartlett uses cloth to embody memory, identity and experiences, folding backwards and forwards on itself as a metaphor for the degenerative and regenerative processes of life...

Caroline Bartlett - Imprint II

Using ideas from mathematics, Marilyn Rathbone has created an artwork that determines itself from the structure she has chosen, represented by dorset buttons and joined by bugle beads...

Marilyn Rathbone - Self Avoiding Walk

Susan Sami celebrates the past story and the beauty of the gradual decay of Brighton's burnt West Pier Marina using printing techniques and machine embroidery...

Susan Sami - Up in Smoke

Gaining creative inspiration and materials from her allotment, Alice Fox has produced some vessels formed round apples using stitched looping.  The apples dried and shrank leaving the vessel shapes...

Alice Fox - Apple Vessels 1-5

Hope you've enjoyed looking at at this brief selection of amazing textile art.