Chris Gray at City of York Embroiderers' Guild

Afghan Bodice - richly embroidered 

This month Chris Gray came to talk to us to share her inspiration and work.  Chris is inspired by the textiles of Central Asia and Eastern Europe with their rich symbolism and fantastic detail.  She brought some amazing world textiles for us to see and handle.

Child's Hat

Blanket from India/Pakistan area made from collar and cuff edges

Detail from a door banner

Shisha mirrors are used to ward off the evil eye and cowrie shells are fertility symbols.  Chris likes the idea of work being more than just decorative and uses symbolism in her own richly decorated pieces.

Decorative scroll pouches - Chris Gray

Decorations - Chris Gray

120 hours stitching to make this triptych - Chris Gray

Beautiful patterns (detail) - Chris Gray

Chris says, "You don't have to visit (a place) in person to interact with other cultures and allow influences to enrich our lives and what we do."  Thanks for the inspiration, Chris. 

Yarnstorming the Fulford & Fishergate WI

Yarnstorming, yarnbombing, graffiti knitting, fibrestorming, guerilla knitting or whatever you want to call it - that's what was on the agenda at the Fulford & Fishergate WI this week. 

They had very kindly asked me along to talk to them about yarnbombing and wanted to try out some of the techniques used.

They all had a go at finger knitting and arm knitting

and got to hear about my yarnbombing adventures.  Hope I've inspired them to join in with our Poppies in the Park Installation in Rowntree Park, York later this year!

A lovely evening and great tea and biscuits - thank you Fulford & Fishergate WI!

Fabric Bowls

I belong to a textile group called Nest of Makers - who are a very friendly bunch.  We get together and sometimes we do our own thing and sometimes we have a skill sharing session.  At our last meeting Heather Chalkley showed us how to make fabric bowls.  I've only ever made these using hand stitching before and that was very time consuming.  Heather showed us how to make them using a sewing machine and we made rapid progress.

Fabric ripped into strips and ironed - it's good to have more than one fabric

You need fabric + matching thread, polypropylene rope, a sewing machine, some pins and a small bulldog clip.

Polypropylene rope

Then away you go ...

Sewing in progress!

You can see how much rope is needed for one bowl!

By the end of the day there were some lovely bowls ready for use!

After our lovely bowling day I went home enthusiastic to make more.  I decided I would use neutral fabric and stitch with neutral cotton thread and dye them.  So that's what I did.  After dyeing them all over, I then inverted the bowls in a shallow dye bath to get a contrasting colour on the rim.

An undyed bowl

Finished bowls

Here's what I learnt ...

It's quicker to use patterned fabric to get a colourful result and you don't need that much!

If you put a wet inverted bowl in the dye bath you get a rim that is just the area covered by the dye bath.

If you put the inverted bowl in dry the dye rises much further up the bowl but you get a nice shading effect ..

If you don't like the colour you have some scope to change it

 

Blue with green

Becomes blue with black!

 
and it can be quite addictive ...

Lots of bowls

The printed fabric bowls have gone to new homes and after some more dyeing this is what I've ended up with in the dyed bowls line ... 

In the end I made 8 bowls and used about 50m of rope.  Hold on to your washing lines - they may not be safe with me about!

A Day with Mandy James at Hope & Elvis

Did a fab workshop with Mandy James aka Daisy Moons Sewing Days at Hope & Elvis recently.  Mandy uses vintage papers, fabrics and haberdashery to produce her collages.  If you haven't seen Mandy's work then take a look here ...

After inspiration overload, Mandy talked us through various techniques with tips and demos.  Then we were let loose to raid the supplies provided by the lovely Louise Presley from Hope & Elvis ...

Vintage papers and a working typewriter to use

Vintage fabrics galore

and together with our pack of goodies from Mandy we set about producing our own vintage pieces ...

Templates, papers etc.

Hard at work

The results were great ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

A really lovely day with a lot of lovely people.  Can't wait to visit Hope & Elvis again!  (Check out the workshops on offer!)

Karen Casper at City of York Embroiderers' Guild

Miss Coral (detail) - Karen Casper

Recently Karen Casper came to talk to the City of York Embroiderers' Guild. Working as a textile designer under the name Tulle & Candyfloss her larger pieces have a theatrical feel.  However, she also makes commercial head and wrist pieces ideal for special occasions such as weddings. 

Karen uses antique/vintage lace, tea/coffee staining, hand-dyeing and painting together with vintage jewellery and pearls.  She also recreates modern lace using free machine embroidery and dissolvable fabric.  

Karen starts by choosing a theme and follows this up with lots of research usually using books, visiting exhibitions and galleries rather than the internet.  Next, she produces lots of samples and after a process of elimination chooses the techniques she will employ on her finished product.  Her projects culminate in a photoshoot which she styles herself.  This provides images for marketing and publicity - particularly useful if the original work is sold or at an exhibition.  

Fairground themed skirt (front) - Karen Casper

Fairground themed skirt (back) - Karen Casper

This skirt is based on a vintage fairground theme and the shape is meant to represent a carousel.  Techniques used include digital printing of photos onto fabric, bleaching, quilting, embroidery and embellishment.  Garden canes and hoops are used to support it and it took 150 hours to make.

Miss Coral - Karen Casper

Miss Coral (back) - Karen Casper

The theme for the Miss Coral cape was the underwater world and the environmental issues that threaten it, with coral as the inspiration.  The cream colours represent the dead coral and the colours, the living coral. Metallic threads are used to give a twinkling under water effect.  Glow in the dark threads (Karen was sponsored by Madeira who produce such threads) are also used to represent the electric creatures from the deep.  This took 260 hours to make and has many 3D elements.
 

Ventalina - Karen Casper

Ventalina (detail) - Karen Casper

The fan is named after gorgonia ventalina which is a delicate lacy coral.  Both pieces use antique lace and Karen's modern free machine stitched lace.  They were commissioned for Manchester Museum's "Coral: Something Rich & Strange" Exhibition.

Contemporary Veil - Karen Casper

Contemporary Veil (detail) - Karen Casper

The Contemporary Veil was part of a body of work inspired by Victorian garments particularly mourning capes and veils.  This piece uses a vintage veil as a base embellised with chain and moss stitch from a Cornely embroidery machine.  The fact that the moss stitch is temporary and can be undone adds to the fragility of the piece whereas the colour suggests a sense of freedom and liberation.

It was a very interesting talk and great to be able to see Karen's work up close.

Date for your diary ...
The Triennial Exhibition of City of York Embroiderers' Guild will be held at the Guildhall, York from Friday 19 June 2015 to Sunday 21 June 2015.