April Meeting - Harriet Lawton

Our speaker this month was Harriet Lawton. She may have already come to your attention with articles in the May/June 2013 and Sept/Oct 2013 issues of Embroidery Magazine. These magazine articles showcased Harriet's work for her BA in Embroidery from Manchester MMU and featured the installation of large 'ceramics' she made for the new Manchester School of Art building.

Harriet Lawton: Cafe Gallery installation 2013
 (image taken from her website)

Harriet's talk gave us a whistle stop tour of her time at Manchester, and how her career has developed since graduation. She talked about her love of objects and collections, and how this has been a major theme in much of her work. In her second year, she looked at the Japanese tradition of Kintsugi, where repairs, rather than being made invisible are accentuated with gold. Harriet took this into embroidery by mending broken ceramics using voile and organza with insertion stitches, darning and faggoting.

Harriet Lawton: Hand-Stitch Perspectives, Japanese Kintsugi Plate and Teacup
(image taken from her website)

This led on to working with the ceramics directly, using water jet cutters to cut isolated motifs and borders from damaged plates to create new works and installations.

Harriet Lawton: Circular Edge Composition
(image from Harriet's website)

Harriet realised that she was becoming a Fine Artist rather than an Embroiderer, although her work still draws heavily on textile techniques. For her Cafe Gallery installation, she digitally printed images of ceramics onto shiny fabrics which were then bonded to many layers of vilene, creating pieces that on first inspection appeared to be ceramic, and she brought examples of these techniques for us to look at - and touch!

Since graduation, Harriet has had a residency in Madrid, has her own studio, and teaches both here and abroad. She is currently working with the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection on the project 'Cataloguing Padiham' inviting local residents to record their impressions of Padiham. An exhibition at Gawthorpe Hall will open later this year.

This was a really interesting talk (accompanied by lots of samples and work to look at) and highlighted how contemporary 'Embroidery' can be.


Other things . . .
The Coach trip to Manchester for the Guild AGM on Saturday 7th May 2016 departs from the Folk Hall at 7.30am. Judith Johnson will be 'in charge' on the day as Sue is taking part in Pocklington Open Studios and is unable to join us. There is no meeting at the Folk Hall that day.

The usual July meeting has been replaced by a trip to Scampston Hall to see the Capability Brown exhibition. Please let the committee know if you are available to car share. Further details later. If you are planning to visit Scampston independently, please note we have been advised it is closed to visitors on Friday 10th June (although this doesn't show up on their website here)

As we are not having a proper July meeting, we have added an August meeting on 6th August. This is the Big Stitch Day. See the Programme page for more details.

Library. We will be having a stock take of our library books at the August meeting. Please return all your borrowed books at or before this meeting.

March Meeting - Hayley Mills-Styles

Well... it seems that tomorrow will be April, and so this blog post on the March meeting just sneaks in to the month.

Our speaker was Hayley Mills-Styles. She describes herself as a Thread Artist, linking threads of narrative with the threads she uses in her work.

Detail of current work inspired by the coast

One of our branch members, who blogs as Hippystitch, has already written such an excellent post on the talk by Hayley that it is practically superfluous for me to write another account. Click here to read about Hayley's talk. (With thanks to Hippystitch for letting me share her post.)

In other things...
The committee would welcome donations for the Raffle Prize for Regional Day. Small, stitch related items would be much appreciated.

Also, a reminder that the April meeting is the judging of the competition for the best piece of work using a commercial design.

Normal blog service will resume next month (hopefully!)

February meeting - Jacqueline James

Our speaker this month was Jacqueline James, rug weaver extraordinaire!

Jacqueline at work (image taken from her website)

Unfortunately, she wasn't able to transport her loom to the meeting, but she did bring many examples of her vibrantly coloured rugs - and a couple of monochrome ones too!

Jacqueline was born in the UK but grew up in the USA. She returned to the UK in 1982 and studied Constructed Textile Design at Harrogate College from 1985 to 1988. Very early on in the course she realised rug weaving was the thing she wanted to do, and started to specialise.

She was inspired by the work of Peter Collingwood and uses the 'shaft switching' techniques he invented to create reversible woven rugs. Jacqueline draws inspiration from many sources including nature, architecture and ethnic textiles.  Her love of colour was enhanced during a trip to India .

Wool rug

Initially she worked in wool, but then moved on to using a cotton weft and became proficient at dyeing the yarn to her or her clients' requirements, creating spectacular weft ikat designs.

woven ikat cotton rug

Jacqueline works to commission and has work in many churches, including an altar frontal in York Minster and Clifton Parish Church, York. She has also participated in York Open studios on several occasions, and worked as an artist with local schools.

She is very modest about her achievements, but she can't hide her enthusiasm and very obvious talent for creating the most wonderful rugs. It was a pleasure to see her talk and her rugs.

In other news . . 

Embroiderers' Guild AGM - Manchester 7th May 2016. In place of our normal meeting, the branch is hiring a coach to take us to the AGM. Sue Giles is arranging the coach, which will leave the Folk Hall at 7:30am. Cost will be about £15 depending on numbers.
Entry to the AGM is free, but you need to register your planned attendance. If you wish to attend the whole day where the speakers are Susie Vickery and Sian Martin, there is a cost to the day, which depends on whether you are wanting lunch or not. Full details and booking form are in Contact Magazine issue 41.

If you haven't got your issue, it is also available online from the Embroiderers' Guild website here.

You need to log on, to get to the information about Contact magazine and the AGM, by clicking on the (circled) Members' Room button. If you don't receive a printed Contact magazine, but are a member, check your account detail preferences. There is a drop down menu for choosing to receive a printed copy or an e-book.

Capability Brown festival.
Set up at Scampston Hall will be on 29th April
Contributions to the group project must be returned (completed!) to the April meeting to give time for the whole thing to be assembled.
Exhibition forms for exhibiting individual work are now available and must also be returned at the April meeting.

December Meeting - Christmas Special

Happy New Year!
I'm not certain where December went, but just in advance of our meeting tomorrow, I thought I'd put up some photos from our Christmas meeting.

We had a members' day, which is a really lovely opportunity to meet other members of the group and have a good chat whilst sharing a love of stitch.

Stitching away, with our branch chairman keeping an eye on us!

This year we had a mini 'round robin' where we all worked a small part of an embroidery before it was passed on to the next person at the table to add the next element.

To add a little extra challenge, each table was only allowed to use one stitch, so versatility and creativity were called for.

Fly stitch in various shapes and sizes

It wasn't all hard work!

There was cake - both fruit and sponge varieties, together with a bran tub and raffle, and the Christmas Competition.

This year the theme was 'A Christmas Parcel' and was won by Jose.

November meeting - Elizabeth Almond

The speaker today was Liz Almond. She explained her love of Blackwork, showing us the first piece she did around her City and Guild years. Revisiting the subject years later Liz created designs which she sent off to various magazines where they generated interest. 

A selection of Liz's work

Liz set up a teaching embroidery website "Blackwork Journey" and has Facebook pages and Pinterest, contacting people all over the world.

She has been influenced by Mosque and Temple designs and the use of geometric Islam patterns. She shared many pieces of advice on "How to do" and "How not to do". She particularly emphasized the importance of fastening off ends to make the back of the work as neat as the front.

Liz shared her story of "The Box of Delights" - chocolates done in coloured Blackwork, with designs in bite-sized pieces.
Her prolific output and her obvious love for her work gave us delight too!

In other news . . .

The Christmas meeting has a requirements list as follows.

Postcard about 6x4" 
Piece of coloured fabric
Embroidery ring about 8/9"
Threads and spangly bits
Felt tip or dissolvable pen
A hard table mat
Needles etc

I don't know what it is we're making, but it sounds intriguing! Don't forget your 'Christmas Parcel' competition entry. And just a reminder that the December meeting starts at the earlier time of 1:30pm

October Meeting - Isobel Hall and AGM

Our speaker this month was Isobel Hall, experimental mixed media textile artist.

One of Isobel's bowls (image from her website)

She brought with her some of her exquisite collection of books, bags and boxes, created using an innovative range of fabrics. These fabrics included cocoon strippings, PVA, and her own 'scrimmy paper', which were then manipulated and embellished.

Rose Vase (image from Isobel's website)

Isobel's theme for this new body of work, is The Briar Rose, and her collection is to be exhibited at the Knitting and Stitching Shows this autumn. She explained some of the techniques she uses to create the rich surfaces, and many of our members were able to try out these techniques at the workshop she gave the next day, before she bundled everything back in to her car to set up at Alexander Palace. Closer to home, we should be able to see her work at Harrogate in November.

In other things....

The next Young Embroiderers meetings will be on the 28th and 29th October. The theme will be 3d vegetables! For contact details, see the Young Embroiderers page 

The Programme for 2016 has been announced, and can be seen in full on the Programme page

Members are encouraged to make work for the Capablility Brown exhibitions next year. As a reminder, we will be linking with the Ryedale and Hull branches to put on an exhibition at Scampston Hall near Malton. The gardens are open this year until the end of October, and Embroiderers' Guild members may have one free entry, on production of their valid membership card. (The gardens are closed on Mondays).

We had a sneak preview of our entry for the Regional Challenge which will be unveiled at the Regional AGM next Saturday (10th October) at Scarcroft Village Hall. Coffee is served from 10:30, with the event starting at 11:00.

AGM news

Kath gave a resume of the last year (which I won't repeat here - you can read all about what we've done over the last year in the blog!), and thanked all the committee for their work over the year, especially Dulcie, Pauline and Sheila who are standing down this year. She welcomed Gillian and Caroline on to the Committee, and added that there was still a need for more committee members - so if you could volunteer your services, please speak to any committee member for more details.

The other announcement at the AGM concerned the Bursary. This was set up several years ago, using money raised from our triennial exhibitions, to support the development of an embroidery student whose home residence was in the Yorkshire and Humber region. Despite our best efforts and contact with all relevant colleges, there have been no applicants for the past three years. It has been decided that the scope of the bursary will now change, and members of Embroiderers' Guild branches in the Yorkshire and Humber region may apply for the bursary, to help towards the cost of a relevant embroidery course. Details will appear on the Bursary page shortly. The first award will be made in October 2016, and entries must be submitted by March 2016.

September Meeting - Hannah Lamb

Our speaker this afternoon was Hannah Lamb. She'd already given a workshop this morning to branch members, so we had plenty of opportunity to talk with her about her work.
Hannah originates from semi-rural Buckinghamshire, but now lives and works in West Yorkshire. Her work, since graduating from Manchester Metropolitan in 2001, has been an exploration of re-cycling and re-purposing, capturing experiences and finding a sense of place.

Work for Hannah's solo exhibition 'In Search of the Green' at The Bowery in Leeds.
Image from her website

Her very interesting talk took us through her life - from growing up in a household where collecting found objects and re-purposing them was usual - to her graduation, and on to discovering the cyanotype process which features in her work. She attended a workshop with Ruth Brown of Stone Creek Silk and was also inspired by the eco-printing techniques pioneered by India Flint.
More recent work again includes embroidery and has been inspired by textile archives both at Bradford College where she lectures, and at Sunny Bank Mills where her work will be in a new exhibition opening in late October.

In other things....

Annual subscriptions were due today. See the About Us tab above for more details.

Jose G won the Ida Barber trophy for best original design. On accepting her prize, she encouraged all branch members to enter the competitions. This leads nicely to the theme of the next competition which is at the December meeting. The theme is 'A Christmas Parcel' where it's the outside of the parcel that counts.

Dulcie gave us a taste of next year's programme which will include new speakers, a trip to Manchester to coincide with the Embroiderers' Guild AGM and a talk on the story of the Embroiderers' Guild collection. All will be revealed here when details are finalised shortly.

Celia outlined the Guild's participation in the 300th anniversary Capability Brown celebrations. We will be joining with the Hull and Ryedale branches to put on an exhibition in the newly restored Conservatory at Scampston Hall near Malton.

Conservatory at Scampston Hall

Members are invited to visit the gardens to get inspiration as work will be in response to the landscape at Scampston Hall. The gardens are open to the public until the end of October. Embroiderers' Guild members may have one free entry to the gardens on production of their valid membership card - a wonderful opportunity to get some late summer inspiration.

Despite wide publicity, there were no applications for the Student bursary which the branch offers. In view of this, the committee will consider other options for the use of the money, and will report back to members.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND HELP WANTED. Yes, I put it in big letters. There has been a big request for new committee members. Several currently serving committee members are standing down at the AGM next month and replacements are needed. Many hands do make light work. The branch has lots of ideas for things to do in the coming year, but does need help to make this happen. Please contact Kath if you can help in any way. And if making cups of tea and coffee is your forte (which I'm sure it is), Judith would love to hear from you.
It is also time for election of Chairman of the Yorkshire and Humber region. Pauline Heywood has said she is happy to stand for a second term, but signed nominations for other candidates can be made.

As next month's meeting includes the AGM, for those attending the morning session, lunch will be available at the earlier time of 12.00. The AGM will commence at 1.30.