February Meeting - Karen Casper

Our speaker for this month's meeting, Karen Casper works under the name of Tulle and Candyfloss. Karen is a great advocate for using the upcycled and the decayed to give it a new identity.
She brought some excellent examples of her work, created as she completed her degree and masters, which as she said, she started from nothing, having left school with few qualifications.

Karen's work in a fashion shoot on her website www.tulleandcandyfloss.co.uk

Karen's work has been inspired by several themes, including lace and undersea coral. She enjoys researching her subject thoroughly before starting work on a piece, and brought along lots of sketchbooks, full not only of design ideas but also stitch and fabric samples as she works towards resolving a piece. 

Miss Coral

Her coral inspired pieces use glow in the dark threads from Madeira (she was a Madeira sponsored student throughout her studies) and wire to give shape to the finished piece.

Karen styles photo shoots for all her creations and her striking images on social media have given her a worldwide audience. Her lace inspired pieces have been exhibited in Calais and Latvia and her work is being commissioned as unique, hand crafted headpieces.

She refuses to be pigeon-holed, and enjoys being artist, designer and tutor - and a sharer of her exquisitely detailed stitched pieces many of which she brought along for us to marvel over.

Other things

Preparations for the June exhibition are progressing. There will be themed exhibitions including 'Make do and mend', 'Magna Carta' and 'Best dressed doll' and also a general exhibition of work - everyone is encouraged to enter work for the exhibition.

Stitched pieces which can be donated as raffle prizes would be welcome as would handling samples.

There has been a request for purple fabric for the Regional Competition.