Embroiderers' Guild Chesterfield Branch
We meet on the first Thursday of each month except August at 7.00pm, notices 7.15 for prompt 7.30 pm start for speaker or workshop. We meet at The Saints Parish Rooms, St Mary's Gate Chesterfield S41 7TJ We have a mixed bag of meetings with speakers, tutor-led and member-led workshops. Visitors and new members always welcome.
Wednesday 24 June 2020
Wednesday 9 April 2014
MEETING - 1 May 2014
Moving On: A Personal View Gwen Hedley is a well known, Kent based, textile artist and freelance
teacher. She has written two books “Surfaces for Stitch” and
“Drawn to Stitch” On her website she describes her talk in this
way: “This lecture discusses the trials and tribulations of moving
on in ones own work, developing new pathways and seeking new
horizons. It examines ways in which my work has developed and
changed, and the thoughts and ideas that make it happen. Such thought
processes and approaches might spark new ideas in others looking for
a change in direction.”
1 May 2014 - Exhibition Table
Cushion made by Liz Morris for out Chinese Raffle at Regional Day |
Seeing other
people's work can act as an inspiration and give ideas for future
work. May's exhibition table will be a collaborative effort
showcasing members' work prepared for Regional Day and other local
Guild events:
- Cushions for our Chinese Raffle at Regional Day
- Entries for Kickstart
- Entries for the Regional competition “Be-ribboned, Be-jewelled and Be-ruffed”
Friday 2 May – Creative
Connections: Gwen
Hedley. An all day workshop. Participants have already been given
details of venue, requirements etc. Sorry, all places are now taken
and there is a waiting list.
Friday 28 March 2014
3 April 2014
Threads
of Connection - following the threads: Dr Kate Wells. Kate uses
sustainable and ethical production methods to produce work inspired
by the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi. This is sometimes described
as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and
incomplete". Kate will be talking about her work which spans
over 30 years of studio experience and draws on a love of landscape,
birds, rich pattern and fine detail.
Exhibition
table: Sheelagh Doran
who will be showing the
work she has done on her internet City
and Guilds course and
books and magazines from the Danish Embroiderer’s Guild.
17
April 2014
Meeting
of Stitch Group when members do their own work, exchange ideas and
meet in a social setting.
Photo: Close up of work done for a Group project and submitted as part of the course work.
Saturday 8 March 2014
Meeting 6 March 2014
Our guest speaker was Melanie Birmingham who gave an in-depth
insight into all things felt.
Her title was ‘May Your Stitches Be Tight’ which is a well-used
greeting in yurt communities. Melanie enthralled us with her background knowledge
into ethnic felt making along the northern and southern Silk Routes. She
demonstrated techniques passed down through generations for over 1000 years
which she had learned first-hand on her travels. We were guided along the Silk
route and eventually reached the Mongolia area. Felt making, especially the
wonderful rugs is a communal activity, you are greeted on entering a yurt with ‘May
Your Stitches Be Tight’ and then you get to work. All the community work
together women, children and men who help with the horses to roll the fibres
into felt. These rugs are used as social hierarchy symbols, the brown ones go
on the floor first as everyday rugs, these are for the family to use day to
day, guests are invited to sit on layers of patterned rugs – the higher the
layers the more important you are. These are the Sunday best rugs.
We also saw a variety of different hat styles and Melanie
enlightened us to the fact you can tell whether the stitcher was right or left
handed from the stitching used. Melanie creates replicas of archaeological exhibits
to demonstrate the techniques used. Felt has been made in the same way since at
least 1800 BC – unfortunately Victorian male archaeologists omitted details of
stitching and colour on their finds and most are black and white photos.
We had an Exhibition table with Grace’s work to ponder and
marvel a; a plethora of embroidery and textile styles to admire. Well done
Grace, you are an inspiration to all.
Tuesday 11 February 2014
March meeting – Thursday 6 March
2014
‘ May Your Stitches Be Tight’ -
Melanie Bermingham
Melanie Birmingham is a felt maker. She
will be talking about stitching on felt; historical, ethnic, and
contemporary. She will have photographs of work in her illustrated
talk as well as samples and examples of embroidery using felt to view
and handle. You can find out more about Melanie at www.feltmakers.com
Exhibition table: This month,
Grace Learey, one of our members is bringing a selection of her work
for the Exhibition Table. Grace prefers to experiment rather than
using one consistent style. So her work contains machine embroidery,
hand embroidery, painting and numerous stitch techniques. And all of
it is different.
Photo: Embroidered slippers made by Grace
If bad weather forces us to cancel the meeting, we will place a message on this blog and email all our members.
Monday 27 January 2014
February meeting – 6 February 2014
7 for 7.15pm start
at The Saints Parish Rooms, 3 St Mary's Gate, Chesterfield
After many years
of teaching art and textiles in Sheffield and North Derbyshire, Sarah
decided to go back to college herself, studying MA Textiles at
Manchester School of Art.This is the tale of what happened; how life
intervenes and what she did next.
You can find out
more about Sarah at http://www.sarah-burgess.com/index.aspx
February
meeting – Exhibition Table
Chris
Commons, one of our members, has been an artist all her life. She
trained as a painter and developed her interest in creative textiles
later. She uses a variety of approaches but this picture show her
favourite method. She paints onto the fabric a carefully drawn
picture, parts of which are enhanced by closely worked machine
stitching. It looks possible to walk through her archways and doors.
Chris will bring a selection of her work and there will be an
opportunity to talk to her about her work before the start of her
meeting
Bad winter weather
If the weather is bad and the meeting is cancelled, we will email members on the day and place on notice on this blog and on our page on the East Midlands Embroiderers' Guild website.
Sunday 15 December 2013
Meeting 2 January 2014
Weather permitting, this months meeting
is a workshop lead by Jean Groom. We are going to decorate the felt
flowers made at the November meeting. If you didn't attend that
meeting, Jean has some spare felt flowers to decorate so you won't be
left out. Please bring
- The flower/flowers that you made earlier
- Needles and scissors. If you are going to use fine beads, you will need a beading needle.
- Threads and beads in suitable colours for your flower/flowers. We will provide a small selection of these.
Optional things to bring
- Sequins (we will provide some)
- Thimble if you use one
- Broach back
- Light if you have one (with extension cable if it is not battery operated). Don't go out and buy one as we have been told that we can use the ones belonging to the Cross Stitch Group. Lighting to work by was a problem last month so the more lights we have, the better.
The display of members' work and books
last month was very successful; so we plan to repeat it. If you have
any of the following, please bring them:
- home made felt (which you have made yourself or purchased)
- embroidery involving felt (your own or purchased)
- books on felt making or books showing pictures of embroidery on felt.
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