Stitching with Jessie Chorley at Loop, London

Jessie Chorley - Designer, maker, shop owner

I have just been on an Embroidered & Appliqued Illustrations workshop with Jessie Chorley at Loop in Camden Passage, London.  Jessie, designer, maker & shop owner, is a textile artist who combines hand stitching with applique and patchwork to create scenes and stories.  

Jessie Chorley - All Day Still

We started the day with tea and biscuits and a kit that Jessie had put together to get us started.  This included some base fabric, some precut shapes, some of Jessie's lovely printed pieces and a key stitches info card.  Jessie had also brought along lots of fabric & threads for us to dig into.

Pack of goodies to make our piece

Everything Jessie had brought looked enticing & was all displayed in her characteristic style...

Jessie Chorley's Suitcase of Equipment

Handmade Buttons - Jessie Chorley

Button Tin

Handmade Brooches - Jessie Chorley

Packs to stitch and embellish - Jessie Chorley

Her stitched samples were a great inspiration and she showed us her key techniques of couching, seed stitching, button making, running stitch and back stitch.  In no time we were stitching away.

Jessie Chorley - Samples Book

More from Jessie Chorley's Samples Books

The time whizzed by and at the end of the day we all laid our pieces outside to check out our progress...

Our achievements at the end of the day

Detail from some of the above pieces

It was a great day.  And afterwards there was still time to look round the wonderful Loop.  Situated in Camden Passage, it's well worth a visit - and impossible to leave without buying something! 

Loop in Camden Passage, London

I haven't finished my piece yet but I did work on it on the train home and I am pleased with how it's progressing.  I hope to get some more done this week!

My piece so far

You can find Jessie's shop at 158a Columbia Road, London, E2 7RG  - open Thursday to Sunday from 11am to 6pm.

What a fab day - thanks Jessie & Loop! 

Julie Arkell Workshop at Hope & Elvis - Part 1

Julie Arkell

I have been enjoying a number of workshops at Hope & Elvis this year but the highlight was definitely the Julie Arkell workshop.  I love Julie's work.  Julie is a textile and mixed media artist who creates whimsical folk art inspired scenes.  Her creations are made from papier-mâché and have knitted and handstitched garments or features and are embellished with handstitched phrases.  She also makes textile brooches...
 

Julie Arkell brooches

Julie's exhibition, "Away, Away", is currently on at the Harley Gallery, very close to the Hope & Elvis workshop.   So, we started our first day with a visit to the exhibition.  You can read about the exhibition here.

I am lucky enough to have been on one of Julie's courses before at Loop in London.  You can read about it here.   There we were dressing one of her creatures.  On this course we were making them too! 

Raw materials for the papier-mâché creatures

My first figure begins to take shape

Branching out into other figures

  
All round the room lots of creatures were emerging...
 

And by the end of the day we had lots of creatures drying out following a first layer of papier-mâché...

To give our creations more time to dry out we went to visit the Hemswell Antiques Centre on our second day which was quite a treat!  There we searched for treasure for our creatures from books with interesting papers for the final surface, to fabrics, to ephemera.  We all had a great time. 

 

End of day 2

By the end of day two we had our final layer of papier-mâché on the creatures ready for them to dry overnight.

Day 3 was painting day.  It was time to add some features and begin making clothes. 

Somebody's Hero

One of the great things about Hope & Elvis is that everything is provided so there were lots of materials to choose from...

and there's always something fascinating around the place that you haven't spotted before...

Some of the talented makers in our midst were kind enough to bring in a selection of their work to share with us...

Annette Emms - Tiny shoes and other lovely pieces

Simona Hill's Needle Lace

We worked hard and by the close of day 4 it was time for show & tell but I think I'll leave that for another day ...

A Workshop with Julie Arkell

Julie Arkell

I have just been on a workshop run by Julie Arkell - great excitement!  I love her work and all those fantastic rabbit people and creatures she creates.   She likes to work with everyday materials such as newspapers, glue, fabric, yarn, cardboard, wire and other bits and pieces.  And she collects interesting phrases or sayings that might come in handy too!

Julie Arkell's papier mâché dolls

We started the day by choosing one of Julie's papier mâché dolls.  Her papier mâché is made from the Guardian you'll be pleased to know but the dolls' final layer comes from old paperbacks. Julie prefers to use those from before 1950 because the paper is thinner. (Mine was French which added a certain "je ne sais quoi"!) 

Knitting

Then using Julie's fabrics and yarns, knitting patterns and guidance we spent the day hard at work to dress our dolls ..

and more knitting!

I made my doll a rabbit ear bonnet, some knitted knickers, a top and skirt.  Here's the journey ...

My chosen Julie Arkell doll

Check out those knitted knickers!

My finished efforts

We all started with a similar creature but they all looked quite different and wonderful by the end of the day!

Our finished creations!

Just look at that appliqued flower, those stripey legings, that collar, the spotty apron, the shawl - lovely bits of detail.

You can read more about Julie here and you can take a longer look at some of her work on Beverly Armani's Julie Arkell Pinterest Board

The workshop was held in a fantastic yarn shop called Loop in Camden Passage, London.  It is impossible not to be tempted by all their goodies.  I indulged my love of buttons and managed to come away with only one ball of Habu yarn for which I do have a plan!  

Goodies from Loop

It was a great day - thank you, Julie and thank you, Loop!