SEW Regional Day - Meet the Speakers, Michele Carragher

The Embroidered Narrative: Costume Embroidery for Film and Television

Michele Carragher is a Costume Embroiderer who specialises in hand embroidery and surface embellishment, using traditional hand embroidery techniques, smocking, beading and surface decoration. She works directly onto the completed garment or starts with motifs and textures on silk organza, which are applied to the costume and then working into once on the actual garment.

Daenery Dragonscale Dress, Game of Thrones, HBO
© Michele Carragher

Michele studied Fashion Design at The London College of Fashion and at the same time attended a three year evening course in Saddlery at the Cordwainers College learning skills in leatherwork. After leaving college she worked in Textile Conservation, repairing and restoring historical textiles before moving into a career in costume for Film and Television, initially working as a Costume Assistant/Maker on productions then gravitated towards the decoration and embellishment of costumes, using skills in hand embroidery and surface decoration.

Margaery’s Wedding Dress, Game of Thrones, HBO
© Michele Carragher

The first production that saw her undertake the role of a Principal Costume Embroiderer was for HBO’s 2005 Emmy Costume award-winning production of Elizabeth 1, starring Helen Mirren. Her most recent work has been on HBO’s 2012/14 Costume award-winning television series Game of Thrones, working on all six seasons. Michele’s highly creative embellishment of the show's stunning costumes are now as much talked about as the television series itself and the books upon which the series is based.

Embroidered Insect, Game of Thrones, HBO
© Michele Carragher

This talk is about the path that led Michele to work in Film and Television industry as a Costume Embroiderer, explaining how she developed her style and techniques, as well as giving insight into how she does her job. Michele will show examples of her embroidery work and explain the process into how she created some of the designs for Elizabeth 1 and Game of Thrones.

http://michelecarragherembroidery.com/

For more information on the SEW Regional Day and a booking form, please email karenroweeg@gmail.com

SEW Regional Day - Meet the Speakers, Diana Springall

The Madeira Lecture: Contemporary Embroidery and the Relevance of Drawing

Diana Springall is amongst the most well-known of all British textile artists. Her work is found in many private and public collections including the Embroiderers’ Guild.

Letting the Days Go By by Jane Poulton
© Diana Springall Collection

Following her training as a painter, Diana soon realised the importance of adding craft skills to her teaching career, in particular, embroidery. At the start of the 1960’s, as a passionate teacher and practicing embroider, she made scores of 35mm slides for her students to share but knew that nothing could them more them more than enabling them to see and handle the real thing. Thus, Diana began to collect examples of contemporary embroidery by graduate students, and her colleagues and peers. Most were purchased for modest sums, but many were an agreement of exchange and in several significant cases have been gives.

The Cinnamon Tree by Virina Warren
© Diana Springall Collection

What Diana saw in the building of this resource was one that would allow me, at very short notice, to show those who questioned me with the words “what do you mean by embroidery?” she could reply by say “I will show you”.

On My Window Sill by Diana Springall
© Diana Springall Collection

Diana’s talk will be about the textile artists of the last sixty years who have pursued the subject with professional passion. Their individuality can be seen to stem from a higher education system that valued the significance of observational drawing.

http://dianaspringallcollection.co.uk

For more information on the SEW Regional Day and a booking form, please email karenroweeg@gmail.com

SEW Regional Day - 16 April 2016

Tickets are now available for the

Embroiderer's Guild

South East West Regional Day

2016

Hosted by the Oxford Branch

at

Our Lady’s Abingdon Senior School,

Abingdon, OX14 3PS

on

Saturday, 16 April, 2016

10am - 4 pm

The day includes two fabulous lectures:

The Madeira Lecture: Contemporary Embroidery and the Relevance of Drawing

Daina Springall - In a career spanning over forty years, she has devoted more than half to full-time teaching and lecturing. Dianna’s talk will be about the textile artists of the last sixty years who have pursued the subject with professional passion. Their individuality can be seen to stem from a higher education system that valued the significance of observational drawing.

The Embroidered Narrative: Costume Embroidery for Film and Television

Michele Carragher is a Costume Embroiderer who specialises in hand embroidery and surface embellishment. Her highly acclaimed work on HBO’s Elizabeth 1 and Game of Thrones has won numerous Costume Awards. Michelle’s talk is about the path that led her to work in Film and Television industry as a Costume Embroiderer, explain how she developed her style and techniques, and give insight into how she does her job.

Member’s Competition – Any Silk, Any Thread

'Any silk, any thread, Any toys for your head
Of the new'st and fin'st, fin'st wear-a?
Come to the pedlar; Money's a meddler
That doth utter all men's wear-a'
A Winter's Tale, Act 4 Scene 4

This year’s competition commemorates 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare.
Entries are invited from all members who may take their inspiration directly from the competition title or from any aspect of the life and works of Shakespeare. Entries may be of any size and dimension, including 3D.

Entries are also invited from Young Embroiderers, whether they belong to a group associated with a branch or not,
and will be judged as a separate class.

The Shopping Mall

An opportunity to buy direct from the Region's finest textile suppliers:

Art Van Go

21st Century Yarns

Village Fabrics

plus a selection of second hand Textiles books
and specially created “Goody Bags”

All this plus tea/coffee and Danish pastry on arrival and a buffet lunch.
Tea/coffee and cake will be available for purchase at the end of the afternoon.

For more information and a booking form, please email karenroweeg@gmail.com

We would like to express our thanks to Coats and Madeira UK for their continued support

South East West Regional Day 2016

Booking forms will soon be available for the

Embroiderer's Guild

 

South East West Regional Day

 

2016

Hosted by the Oxford Branch

at

Our Lady’s Abingdon Senior School,

Abingdon, OX14 3PS

on

Saturday, 16 April, 2016

10am - 4 pm

Guest speakers

Diana Springall

Michele Carragher

Traders

Art Van Go

21st Century Yarns

(others to be announced)

We would like to express our thanks to Coats and Madeira UK for their continued support

South East West Regional Day, Part II

Lunchtime gave everyone a chance to look round the traders and stretch their legs.


We had a raffle with lots of generous prizes from the traders, which seemed to go well, especially if you had a pink ticket.


Then the winners of the competitions were announced with our very own chair person, Alex Messenger, winning the ‘Rags or Riches’ section with a thought provoking denim piece, asking the question whether the people who make our clothes are paid fairly for their labour.

Second was Carolyn Walker and third was Liz Hykesman. Sadly, there weren’t many entries for the competition; it would be lovely to see more pieces on display? Does anyone have any alternative suggestions? Should it be more open or should we not a hold competition at all?


There was a separate competition for Young Embroiderers. The ‘Dolls’ competition for embroiderers aged 6-9 years, was one by Eleonor Surmin and Florence Cooper.


Florence Honey, Alison Mumford won the 10-13 years old competition. There were no entries in the 14-16 years section.


In the afternoon, we were all interested to hear Michael Brennand-Wood’s talk. We had to listen intently as he had a lot to tell us and spoke fluently and quickly. He explained that as a child, he spent time with his grandparents. His grandmother was a weaver and his grandfather was an engineer, so he spent time with textiles and in the shed with tools and wood and metal.

When he went to college he thought he would like to study Fine Art but then decided to switch into textiles as it was something of an unexplored area, and constantly tries to bring old skills up to date.

Although he found that many people involved in the UK Fine Art arena are very dismissive of pattern, he believes that pattern provides a visual language which helps to inform some of his work. His three main tenets are depth, translucency and structure.

He showed us many slides of his work from the 1990s, when he was exploring themes based on lace. Many of his pieces are large; two to three metres wide or more. It was interesting to see them hanging in galleries worldwide, even if they are not always hung as they are conceived to be seen. One such piece, consisting of five circles, was displayed in Japan ... in the opposite sequence to which Michael intended them to be.

He moved on to his more recent work, in which he started with Asian patterned textiles as a reference source and reproduced the shapes and colours by using Gerbera flowers, then had machine embroidered flower shapes made up. From there he started to reintroduce wood backgrounds, wire, lights and grids.

He has recently completed a piece of work for a community music venue in Bristol. It included many disc shapes covered in badges, embedded in the wall above a bar area. The discs were the size of various records, singles and CD, the badges all had the common theme of entertainers, such as Kylie Minogue. There were also LED lights set into the walls.

****************

Olympic Project 2012

Jill Drury explained that the Embroiderers’ Guild will be involved in the Olympics by asking each branch to produce some embroidered Postcards of a particular country represented at the Olympics. The postcards can represent anything to do with the country, such as flowers, coins, architecture (and embroidery, surely.

There was a draw starting with Andover, who drew Iraq; Cherwell Valley drew Ireland and Patsy pulled out Yemen, for Oxford, so there is a challenge. The postcards will be similar to the rainbow squares, except postcard sized, mounted over card and laced at the back. The cards will made up into rectangles, with the top left postcard being the flag of the nominated country. Each branch was given an envelope with more details, so we will be hearing a lot more about it I’m sure.

****************

Wolfson College was a special venue and everyone commented on how pleasant a setting it was. As Jill Drury predicted at the outset, it was a wonderful day.


Thank you to Sally Fulton for her detailed report of the day, and Ulrike Hutchins for the accompanying photographs.

South East West Regional Day, Part I

"Thanks to everyone at Oxford Branch who helped to make this such a wonderful day", were the sentiments of Jill Drury, the SEW region representative of the Embroiderers' Guild. Her words were also fully endorsed by all the visiting members of the region, with loud applause.

There was a buzz in the air from the start with the traders starting to set up at 8.30 on a very sunny summer morning. We had a great selection of books, threads, beads and finished items to choose from.


Visitors started arriving around 9.30; how quickly the time goes when everyone is preparing for the day. The Morsbags, made by Oxford Branch members and given to visitors, were well received. Then it was time for a reviving coffee before settling down to hear from the EG and from the morning speaker.


Jill Drury appealed for new regional committee members, as a considerable number of the current SEW committee are standing down this autumn. Jill herself will be continuing for a further year, but is happy to explain her role to anyone who may be thinking of volunteering and she could help the next person to take over gradually.


Anthea Godfrey from Headquarters explained that Contact Magazine is now available as eContact on the EG website and rather than giving us all a speech, she encouraged us all to read the substance of what she would say on the EG website as well. No news was given regarding any plans for moving from Hampton Court.

Alastair McMinn from Coats Crafts was also there and kindly brought some threads for us to try out, lovely colours in cotton and rayon. It was mentioned that we had chosen a good day to get away from all the sporting activities; football, Wimbledon and a Grand Prix. However, not many people noticed that the rainbow squares had been hung up in a slightly different sequence to the rainbow. In the reception area, they were hanging in the colours of the German flag and the English flag, as a reference to the World Cup game being played that afternoon!


Bobbie Britnell was the morning speaker, what a great choice. Bobbie told us about her earlier work experience in Soho, making costumes for shows such as "The Talk of the Town" and "The Black and White Minstrel Show", earning £6.50 per week. Then she moved to Savile Row Taylors and decided that she would like to teach, so after a year of comprehensive tailoring training, she enrolled at teacher training and went on to teach at a Comprehensive school at Guildford.

From there she completed City & Guilds parts 1 & 2 and then moved to rural Shropshire, where she still lives. She works freelance accepting opportunities to work in the community with all ages and backgrounds, from primary schools to a local detention centre.

She enjoys Morris Dancing in her spare time. Her husband also dances and they accompany each other’s group by playing the backing music, Bobbie plays an accordion and it is the dances and the music which informs a lot of her quilts. She travels to Europe to participate in dancing festivals and enjoys seeing the embroidered outfits that some of the other dance groups wear. She sketches and takes photos while she is there.

She had a lot of pieces for us to see as well as slides to illustrate her talk. The quilts were colourful and curious including the charmingly named "Such a Getting Upstairs I never did see" – which was named after a particular Morris dance.

"Such a Getting Upstairs I never did see 1, 2001", courtesy of Bobby Brittnell

"Such a Getting Upstairs I never did see 2, 2001", courtesy of Bobby Brittnell

Bobbie uses a certain weight of cotton for her quilts and dyes them all herself. Then she bonds shapes and overstitches quite heavily, using a slight zigzag stitch all over. She is interested in trying to produce a 3 dimensional effect from a 2 dimensional piece, using very realistic shadow effects – down the edge of a pleat for instance. The effect was very realistic.

She has recently built a studio annexe at her house and runs courses there, both on her own and together with Ruth Issett. She also invites visiting tutors to run courses, see her website for further information.

Lastly, she showed us some of her recent work which has much more abstract, neutral coloured backgrounds but with the addition of the red tulips which some of us saw at Art in Action last year. We all thoroughly enjoyed the talk and seeing the quilts close up.


The Buttery produced a great lunch and the weather was nice enough to sit outside on the terrace, what a bonus.

To be continued ...

SEW Regional Day - Michael Brennand-Wood

Michael Brennand-Wood

Michael Brennand-Wood, visual artist, curator, lecturer, arts consultant. Since 1979 he has occupied a central position in the research, origination and advocacy of contemporary International Art Textiles. He has exhibited in major galleries and museums world wide, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa and National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

His work can be seen in private, public and corporate collections worldwide. He won The Creative Concept Award in 1987 and The Fine Art Award in 1989 at the International Textile Competition in Kyoto, followed by the first RSA Art for Architecture Award 1990. In 1990 he was awarded a Distinguished Visiting Fellow, British Council, City University, Kyoto, Japan. In 1992 he was 1st Prize Winner at the 3rd International Betonac Prize in Belgium.

"World of Echoes", courtesy of Michael Brennand-Wood

In 1982 he curated the controversial exhibition ‘Fabric and Form’ and co-curated the ‘Makers Eye’ both for the Crafts Council, followed in 1992 with ‘Restless Shadows’ a major Goldsmiths College touring exhibition of contemporary Japanese Textiles. Until 1989 he was a senior lecturer in the department of visual art at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He has taught extensively in colleges and universities in the UK and overseas, and has undertaken residencies in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Belgium.

From 2001-08 he was awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts in conjunction with the University of Ulster to research geometrical complexity in Central Asian textiles at Ulster University, Belfast. In 2007 he won the Fine Art Award, Pfaff Art Embroidery Still Life in France.

He is currently Visiting Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University.

"Flower Head- Narcissistic Butterfly", courtesy of Michael Brennand-Wood

He has recently competed two new works for the Yorkshire Cancer Centre in Leeds and developed an interdisciplinary arts programme for Colston Hall, a music venue in Bristol.

More information is available on Michael's website.

SEW Regional Day - Bobby Brittnell

Bobby Brittnell

Bobby has a background in tailoring and in making theatrical costumes for such shows as the Black and White Minstrels Talk of the Town and several West-end musicals. She later qualified as a teacher and ran the textile department in a large comprehensive school in Guildford and during her full time teaching also completed her City and Guilds in Embroidery.

Themes and ideas for her own work often stem from her immediate surroundings. She prefers to draw and play on paper or in a sketchbook to help generate thoughts and ideas, although at times can work intuitively and directly develop with the fabric and techniques. Music and dance also plays an important role in her life and these are often used as springboards in her work. Alternatively, venues and new challenges that group exhibitions may bring can inspire new directions and ways of working.

Most of the techniques that she employs include dyeing cotton fabric to which surface decoration is added through painting, printing and bonded appliqué. The work is then heavily machine-stitching to create a textured surface and then worked back into with drawing and stitching to create greater impact and definition. Newer work using still-life as inspiration is simpler in content and execution, but hopefully still has impact.

Bobby is a professional teacher and textile artist of standing in the UK and with an increasing international reputation. She teaches a variety of creative courses from her home in South Shropshire, England as well as all over the United Kingdom and abroad. In Sept 2008 she began tutoring on the BA (Hons) Embroidered Textiles Course for the Julia Caprara School of Textile Arts. She is a member of ‘The Textile Study Group’ a high profile national exhibiting and teaching group. She is a recommended tutor of the Embroiderers Guild and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She has work in private collections in Great Britain, including the offices of KPMG, USA, Canada, Austria, Germany, and Portugal. Her work regularly appears in publications and books.

"Tulips on Tiptoes 1, 2008", courtesy of Bobby Brittnell

"Honesty 1, 2008", courtesy of Bobby Brittnell

Details can be found on Bobby's website.