9 June - Linda Rudkin, “Colours from Nature”

In June, Linda Rudkin gave a fascinating talk on dyeing natural fibres with natural products. After a brief introduction of how Linda got into dyeing after retiring from Teaching English at a comprehensive school in Leicestershire, she moved swiftly on to her fast paced, fact packed guide to dyeing.

Starting with a list of necessary equipment, the talk covered every aspect of dyeing. Linda told us about the various mordants that are used to fix the dye to the fibre, how and when they are added, and amused us with a couple of tales relating to the only mordant that she has never used - urine.

A good part of the talk covered the different materials that can be used and how various types of material should be treated. For each group (flowers and leaves, wood, vegetables, etc) Linda showed us sample boards that she made to record how different fibres (wool, silk, cotton, rayon, etc) absorb the dye and the effect of the various mordants. It was surprising to see that the colour obtained rarely bore any resemblance to the original plant stock and how a mordant can alter the hue or brightness.

Onion Sample Board, courtesy of Linda Rudkin

Logwood Sample Board, courtesy of Linda Rudkin

Velvet Cushion, courtesy of Linda Rudkin

It was a visit to the Bayeux Tapestry that started Linda on her exploration of colours from nature. The beautiful, soft shades of the wool and how well they have stood up to the test of time sparked an interest that has grown into an comprehensive knowledge and understanding of natural dyes.

At the end of the talk, Linda spoke briefly about Flower Pounding and showed us samples of her work using this method: the results are strikingly different from those obtained using a dye bath.

Flower Pounding Sample Board, courtesy of Linda Rudkin

On 18 September 2010 Linda will teaching a workshop on flower pounding. Judging by the oh’s and arh’s her samples produced, and the crowd around Fiona following the talk, the class is filling up fast. For further information or to book your place, contact Fiona.

12 May - Judith Lovatt, “ What if ...?”

In May, Judith Lovatt gave a talk about her work and how to explore and develop your design ideas.

Since she was little, Judith stitched, knitted, printed and painted before becoming an art teacher. Judith enjoyed her work for 20 years but had to retire her post of head of an art department in secondary education due to arthritis. Judith continues to explore the possibilities of mixed media and loves to work with free hand and machine embroidery and has a particular passion for French knots which, she says, is the best stitch for texture and accent.

"Monet's Garden" courtesy of Judith Lovatt

"Monet's Garden - detail" courtesy of Judith Lovatt

"Blue Doodlebird" courtesy of Judith Lovatt

Judith brought with her countless examples of painting, printing and layering with fabric and thread. Her talk ended with a demonstration of blown spray painting.

1 May - Maggie Grey Workshop

Places on this workshop were filled as quickly as it was organised. Following her talk last year, Maggie very kindly agreed to squeeze us into her already very full schedule. Everyone knew of Maggie, either through her books, her blog or Workshop on the Web so the class was eagerly anticipated.

Entitled "Slip, Slap, Stitch", the idea is to make a slip and a background, slap the slip on the background and stitch them together. It was a fast paced class and we covered a lot of techniques. To begin with we foiled velvet and painted lutradur, which we set aside to dry. These were the basis of our background and later in the day we would sandwich them onto felt and machine stitch the layers together before burning away some of the lutradur with a hot air gun.


In the mean time we made our slip by machine embroidering an outline onto black felt, cutting out the shape, attaching it to another piece of felt and machine embroidering into the void spaces.


Finally, these were cut out again and stitched to the background.




Maggie is an engaging and enthusiastic tutor. A wealth of information and advice, she encouraged everyone to develop their own designs and ideas. I think that everyone who was lucky enough to secure a place on this workshop would agree that it was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative day.

14 April - Joanna O’Neill, "Books, Batting and Beeswax"

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a judge at a major textile show? In April, Joanna O’Neill gave us an interesting insight to her adventures on the Quilter’s Guild judging course, and experience as judge at the Festival of Quilts.

The correspondence course is divided into six modules that cover a diverse range of subjects that encourage a wide appreciation of Art and Craft. Joanna brought along her extensive course notes and a huge pile of samples made during the design and construction techniques modules. The accredited course culminates in a Judging practical.

In addition, a selection of Joanna’s own quilts where on display.

"Golden Apples, Silver Apples" courtesy of Joanna O'Neill

"Breakout" courtesy of Joanna O'Neill

"Pearls and the Spider" courtesy of Joanna O'Neill

A new course is being planned to start in the autumn of 2011, details can be found on the Quilter’s Guild web site.

March 13-14 - Ruth Isset, Weekend Workshop

Those of us who did Ruth’s workshop a while ago on colouring papers were once again excited at the prospect of spending another weekend playing with colour. Admittedly, those of us who tend to work in monochrome and sludgy colours were wary of magenta and turquoise but this was our risk-free chance to try them out. Practiced workshop attendees know that, although we are given a materials list, you don’t have to bring everything listed and the kitchen sink (everyone does that at least the first time) as the tutor always has supplies and others are always willing to share.

First, Ruth took us through the technical bit about which fibres would react with the procion dyes which she had bought for us to use, how the weave of the fabric could affect the way in which the colour was taken up and may (or may not) spread. She talked about the relationships of colour, how a golden yellow will look different when next to a scarlet or emerald green, and how the colours change again when mixed. We weren’t expected to faithfully remember all this but it does help to have an introduction and if you wanted to know more, Ruth had bought copies of her books with her. If you just wanted a reminder of what can be achieved then her postcards were there too.

Looking at the wonderful range of coloured fabrics she had bought for us to see and handle helped you decide which colours you wanted to try out, but the fun of these workshops is to also try something which you probably wouldn’t do at home. Ruth kept us supplied throughout with ready-mixed colours and was happy to mix more when they ran out. She charged only a nominal amount for supplying everything (including brushes and pipettes) and it’s a much more economical way of experimenting than buying everything yourself.

Starting with a restricted range of colours, we chose 3 and painted first onto papers – taking one colour and adding just a hint of another to watch the gradual and subtle movement down the page – and, yes, there is a difference if you add the yellow to the green or add the green to the yellow. Then we did the same sort of exercise on fabrics some first prepared with the chemical solution (forget your chemistry lab and pungent odours, this is a very gentle solution which just helps to “loosen up” the fabrics) and we saw the difference when exactly the same colours were painted onto dry fabrics. Those with the chemical solution allowed the colours to blend much more, and what you first painted was not always what you ended up with as, if you allowed time for the paints to move around in their own way, they created soft fuzzy edges and halos of colour. We quickly found out who were the “bully boys” - the colours that make themselves known and shout louder than the others (magenta was a definite contender for this title).


Those who wanted to create an exercise book of colours, tones and mixes to refer back to went happily down that path, whilst others of us just played with the colours, putting this one next to that one. Using the same colours on different fabrics and threads gave us more ideas as they each delivered a different end result. We also tried toning down the colours to softer shades although they never quite ended up as pastels.

In between using the colours, Ruth would show us other ways of adding it to the fabric. If you had persuaded your cat to let go of his litter tray, then use it for space dying (a technique where you drop the paint onto the scrumpled up fabrics then dribble the solution on top so they run and blend together). Fold and tie your fabrics into tight little bundles and dip the edges into paint and watch it soak up, then when dry and unfolded you had a kaleidoscope of both pattern and colour (there were lots of oohhs and aaahs as we did this after lunch on Sunday).

Between us all we had a great range of fabrics – cottons, velvets, linens, organdies, muslins, silks – and likewise with threads. At the end of the weekend we had an even greater range of coloured fabrics and Ruth showed us some ways of then using them – starting with small blocks of colour and adding other next to it so the piece grows almost organically (and because you’ve dyed them with similar colours at the same time they blend very well together); or sewing them in patches one on top of another and using the dyed threads to add rows of running stitch; sewing them in tiny strips with frayed edges to see the graduation of colour; laying one on another and cutting back so the colour underneath is exposed.


With tea and coffee provided (help yourself style, with biscuits too) and a bring and share lunch this was a very relaxing but stimulating weekend. I’m not the only one looking forward to having Ruth back for more.

10 February - Vikki Lafford, "Enchanting Embroidery"

After reading an article in the Oxford Times Magazine, Alex wasted no time inviting designer Vikki Lafford to talk to the branch about her work. With the programme for the current year already fixed it was a year before we got to hear her story and see her enchanting work.

Vikki’s early interest in drawing and painting was greatly inspired by the abundance of nature surrounding her childhood home and by the fairies and woodland creatures she imagined inhabits the murky undergrowth of the Cotswold countryside. This love of folklore combined with a passion for art and textile led Vikki to achieve a degree in Embroidery in 2002 that led to employment as an embroidery designer. Finding digitizing corporate logos less than fulfilling, in 2006 Vikki returned to education and gained an MA in Textile Design at the Chelsea College of Art and Design. For her graduation collect of dresses Vikki once again drew inspiration from fairy tales but this time from the darker, more sinister, older tales. Elements of her designs reveal the underlying themes of brutality and awakening sexuality found in the many of the older versions, while outwardly depicting the femininity, romance and enchantment of her childhood favourites.

Talia, incorporates three layers of fabric, an outer white layer representing the innocence of childhood that is lifted to reveal the lower layers of pale green and deep green that represent growing sexual awareness. The dress is entwined with flowers and leaves just where the Princess slept was surrounded by forest. The creepy crawlies that inhabit the forest floor are embroidered on lower layers. But the flowers hide the hands of the King who raped and impregnated the sleeping Princess Talia. Only when her second child sucked on her finger and drew out the flax fibre that had caused her long sleep, did the Princess awake.

"Tallia" courtesy of Vikki Lafford

"Tallia, detail" courtesy of Vikki Lafford

The Cinderalla dress is of course a ball gown. The bottom of the dress is stained red. In the version of Cinderella told by the brothers grim, the stepsisters cut of parts of their feet in an attempt to fit the glass slipper when the Prince searches for its true owner. Like Talia, Cinderella is embroidered and embellished with motifs from the many variants of this popular tale.

"Cinderella" courtesy of Vikki Lafford

The third dress Vikki brought to show us was made for, and won second place, in The Spellbinding Textile Competition with the theme of Magic. The Enchanted Woodland Gown is adorned with hand painted silk flowers and delicate, embroidered butterflies while spiders and centipedes crawl onto its dirt stained hem.

"Enchanted Woodland" courtesy of Vikki Lafford

"Enchanted Woodland, detail" courtesy of Vikki Lafford

I found it fascinating to her from the designer/maker the thought processes behind her creations.

Vikki has now started her own business, Liliia, creating feminine, elegantly detailed, hand crafted clothing and accessories in luxury fabrics.

November 11 - Janet Phillips, "Designing woven fabrics"

The thing with weaving is that you can only do stripes and checks.

That's what Janet Phillips told us before showing us how versatile and varied stripes and checks can be.

Janet's interest in weaving was sparked during a family outing to tweed mills where the threads and colours made a lasting impression on her. The memories of that visit lead her to study Industrial textile Design at the Scottish College of Textiles.

Janet confessed that she does not do any embroidery and although some of our Branch members have also done weaving, must of use had not, but as Janet remarked, a shared passion for fibres and colour gave us a lot of common ground.

Some technical weaving terms inevitably cropped up but Janet explained these as she went along so that the non-weavers among us where not totally lost. The focus of the talk was on the use of colour, texture and pattern and Janet had brought with her a selection of her beautiful hand woven scarves to illustrate what she was talking about.

We were told how, by its very nature, weaving tends to 'dull' colours but where shown how use of other shades can enhance and enrich a colour. The same shade of pink is used in both of these scarves in the picture below, but different shades of blue alter its appearance.

All pictures courtesy of Janet Phillips

This scarf demonstrates the same principle. On the left the colours of the rainbow are 'dulled' by the adjacent black threads but on the right the same colours are enriched by using other threads of a similar shade.


We were also shown how pattern could also greatly alter the appearance. In this photograph, the same two weave patterns are used on both scarves but there position is transposed.


Not so easy to show in a photograph, but obvious when allowed to feel the samples, is how the weave alters the drape and handle of the fabric just as much as the threads used to create it.


Also on display was a multiple section sample blanket woven by Janet in blue and white to sample some of the many different weave patters that can be achieved from the same basic weave, in this case twill. The blanket, woven in one piece, is divided into 10 by 50 sections and no two sections have exactly the same weave design. Starting in the bottom right-hand corner with basic 2 and 2 twill, the sections move through different variations of herringbone, zigzags, wavy lines, and a variety of textures. This blanket is a working reference that Janet uses when creating new designs.




At the end of her talk Janet reminded us that everything we had seen was either a stripe or check.

September 25-27 - Frances Pickering, Weekend Workshop

Nine beautiful handmade books were the collective outcome of a fun and creative weekend with Frances. I had no idea what to expect as I arrived at the village hall on Friday evening, but we were soon put to work on designing the covers. The theme for the weekend was 'Elizabethan Splendour' and this gave us a starting point for our designs, patterns and colours. Using Gesso, wax and a wide range of lovely colour and thread products brought by Frances we turned a strip of calico into a rich, leather and jewel encrusted, book cover. Each of the nine books were so different and individual. Frances also brought many of her own books to give us inspiration.



Creating the inner pages and content were as much fun. The good pace, the mix of mess and meticulous work and the constant entertainment from Frances’s husband who was on hand to help with technical matters, made the weekend most enjoyable. The shared meals eaten outside in the beautiful September sunshine added to the enjoyment. I have come away with a lot to work on and lots more ideas to develop in the future. It really was a stimulating, fun and entertaining weekend. Thank you Frances and all who made it happen.



by Polly Woolstone

14 October - AGM and Jo Dixon, "Working with mixed media"

We aren't talking ...
... said the laptop to the projector ... And that was that!!

Today we had our AGM and once Guild business was out of the way members were going to be treated to an illustrated talk by Jo Dixon, a local mixed media artist. Sadly the aforementioned paraphernalia of the 21st Century worked but were not communicating with each other so, and I take my hat off to Jo, she proceeded to tell us a little about herself, her artistic journey and where she was going, without them or any other visual aids. Trained in Textiles she took her inspiration from travels to a variety of countries, of which India seemed to have been the biggest inspiration that was still influencing her today. The zinging pinks, oranges, yellows and other bright colours had left a lasting impression, and we later saw that they were still present in her current work based on studies of allotments. Not may people are able to see heat in an English spring or summer setting and then translate this into vibrant images. Morocco was another source for shapes and colour, as it had been for Paul Klee.

"Valley Path" courtesy of Jo Dixon

We later were able to admire some of her work on a rather small scale on the laptop though this obviously could not do justice to the size of the original, the hot and vibrant colours and the texture. She had already mentioned that she uses a variety of different papers, brown packing paper and tissue paper being her favourites. She layers different papers with smaller shapes and muslin, painting and inking them, and sometimes adding stitches.

"Peacock" courtesy of Jo Dixon

One of Jo's favourite quotes is by Braque: "The most important thing about art is the thing you can't explain!" I was surprised that tonight I had been moved by her words, her descriptions ... the most important thing about art is the imagination!

by Ulrike Hutchins
who has just stepped down as the newsletter editor but now finds herself writing for the blog ;o)

Note: Click on the pictures for a larger view.

*****

Our apologies to Jo and to the members for the technical difficulties last night, we hope that it did not spoil your enjoyment of the evening.

Jo will be running a mixed media day course at Sunningwell School of Arton Thursday, 3rd December. 10.00 - 4.00.
Booking Contact: 01865 730442

September 9 - Kath Danswan, "Bowled Over"

Our first speaker from the 2009/2010 program was Kath Danswan.

Kath gave us a brief description of how she learnt needlework from her mother and grandmother then told us the story of how she came to enrol for City and Guilds Embroidery Part I instead of an A level course in Literature that she had been considering. We heard how the bowls, for which Kath is best known, came about and developed during her City and Guilds Parts I and II, and HNC in textiles. The numerous bowls that Kath had brought with her illustrated the talk beautifully.

While her love of embroidery comes from her mother, from her father Kath inherited a love of nature. This and her travels have clearly influenced her work. The colours in the silk cap used to produce her very first bowl reminded Kath of her trip on the Skyrail at Cairns in Australia and inspired her to make a series of bowls representing the rainforest, complete with bugs. A trip to the Great Barrier Reef during the same holiday was the inspiration for a fish bowl. More evidence of her travels can be seen in Venice I and II, and nearly all of the bowls are covered with flora and fauna.

We also saw a selection of bowls created for her book 'Beautiful Bowls and Colourful Creatures'. These included a set of bowls inspired by the four sessions, a bridal bowl and a series of Africa bowls created to satisfy the editor's request for "something orange".

"Africa Bowl" courtesy of Kath Danswan

To finish, Kath introduced us to some of her larger bugs and her newest creations, brooches.

"Bug Brooches" courtesy of Kath Danswan

Note: Click on the pictures for a larger view.

2009 - 2010 Programme

9 September 2009
Kath Danswan - "Bowled Over"

25-27 September 2009 Weekend Workshop
Frances Pickering - "Elizabethan Splendour"

14 October 2009
AGM and Jo Dixon - "Working with mixed media"

11 November 2009
Janet Phillips - "Designing woven fabrics"

9 December 2009
Christmas Social

13 January 2010
Alex and Karen - "Our life with Cherrilyn"

10 February 2010
Vikki Lafford - "Enchanting Embroidery"

13 February 2010 Satuday Workshop
Kath Danswan - "Beautiful Silk Bowls"

10 March 2010
Jane Mollison - "Textiles and Painting from Peru to China"

13-14 March 2010 Weekend Workshop
Ruth Issett - "Colour on Cloth"

14 April 2010
Joanna O’Neill - "Books, Batting and Beeswax"

24 April 2010 Saturday Workshop
Maggie Grey - to be confirmed

12 May 2010
Judith Lovatt - "What if ...?"

5 June 2010 Saturday Workshop
Judith Lovatt - "Compose and Distort"

9 June 2010
Linda Rudkin - "Colours from Nature"

14 July 2010 - Summer Social

August 2010 - no meeting

8 September 2010
Jennifer Hughes - "China - Protected Heads and Bound Feet"

18 September 2010 Satuday Workshop
Linda Rudkin - "Flower Pounding"

13 October 2010
AGM (and entertainment to be decided)

10 November 2010
Anne Sillifant - "An obsession with trees"

8 December 2010
Christmas Social