February meeting - Elaine Hughes

Our speaker at the February meeting was York based artist Elaine Hughes. She graduated from MMU with a degree in Embroidery. Over time her work has evolved to become paper based collages assembled with stitch.

Elaine Hughes - On the Beach at Night Alone (detail)

Her love of the 1930's 40's and 50's ephemera is reflected not only in her work, using found objects from those periods, but also in the style of her work and the name of her business 'Oh Golly Gosh'.

After graduation, Elaine took on a number of roles, but she stepped away from creating her own work. Eventually, it was entering the Embroiderers' Guild Page 17 Project with her piece 'On the Beach at Night Alone' from Walt Whitman, that re-established her creative practice and ultimately led to a studio in York.

Elaine Hughes - On the Beach at Night Alone (detail)

Elaine's very interesting talk considered her influences, her methods of creating her quirky artworks and her plans for the future. And . . . a piece of advice we can probably all relate to - never 'save' your best pieces of fabric for something 'special'. Use them now!

In other things . . .

Don't forget Young Embroiderers next meeting is on 18th February at the Viking loom. See the YE page for more details.

Morning stitch club is thriving - though please let the committee know if there is a topic you would like covered, or would be happy to demonstrate, to keep up the momentum. Next month Carol will be covering Initial designs, and Shirley will be continuing with Stumpwork.

Regional Day is 6th June at the Regen Centre in Riccall. Speakers to be announced at a later date.

A trip is planned to the Castle Museum, York. to have a behind the scenes look at some of the textiles. Proposed date is Monday 6th July. Please sign up to express an interest.