Fantasy Birds

When in Orissa we went to Raghurajpur, where we watched one of the village craftsmen engraving on treated palm leaf strips. We bought a piece to share and I chose a piece which showed animals and birds. Each of the designs was approximately 3cm square but modern technology allows size increases which allowed me to turn these two birds into free motion embroidery.

Bird
© photo Jane Treavis

Fantasy Bird
© Jane Treavis

Water Bird
©photo Jane Treavis

Fantasy Swan
© Jane Treavis

Edwardian Body

A picture of a piece done by the much missed Margaret Charlton in the late 80s or early 90s. It’s called Edwardian Body and was part of a series she did that married the two parts of her life. Margaret was a GP in Oxford for many years and really only started her creative side when she was approaching retirement. I was lucky enough to meet her when we were both doing city and guilds at Urchfont Manor and she was immensely supportive of all my textile efforts. The picture belongs to Amanda Smith.

Edwardian Body
© Margaret Charlton

Barbie:Icon?

This piece was made for an exhibition entitled 'Iconic Women'.

I was never a fan of Barbie, but she is definitely iconic! She is undoubtedly a very strange shape once she has been up to life size, seen here standing next to 'Mrs Average'. The more I investigated her the more interesting she became. The two figures are made from fine Vilene and mounted onto sheer fabric which has lots of information (some good, some bad, some weird!) about Barbie laminated onto it.

Barbie:Icon?
© Karen Rowe

Leaves on the Canal

On a warm, late sunny afternoon I sat and watched the leaves floating by.

Done for an exhibition in 2010. Layers of dyed chiffon with hand stitching on each layer of running stitch and French knots. Individual leaves made of layers of muslin, silk and chiffon stitched and wired.

Leaves on the Canal
© Alex Messenger

Queen of Flowers

This piece by Carol-Anne Conway is stitched in a Japanese embroidery technique known as ‘fuzzy effect’. As far as I know this technique is unique to Japanese embroidery.

It is stitched on a special ground fabric that has a pronounced weft valley. The threads are stitched into the valley and then couched with either short stitches perpendicular to the foundation thread or with longer diagonal stitches. By using different thicknesses of foundation thread and by altering the colour of the couching threads, a rich composition can be created using a limited pallet of colours.

Queen of Flowers
© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Detail of left-hand flower
© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Detail of right-hand flower
© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Naseem Darbey

After a busy day I was in two minds about going to the Guild’s monthly talk, but after googling the speaker I was intrigued and decided to chance it. I’m so glad that I did. Naseem had driven all the way from Leeds to talk to us, battling weather and bad traffic to be with us.

Having trained in illustration and embroidery at Halifax College of Art, she began using freehand stitch as her preferred drawing method. Through direct observation she creates unique three dimensional pieces. Working on a range of museum projects her inventive mind and skilful use of threads were evident.

© Naseem Darbey

Memorable work was some beautifully 'drawn' crows. She made each feather separately then assembled the whole creating a lace-like yet somehow sinister quality. Her own life experience had a big impact on her work and after coping with breast cancer and a mastectomy she managed to get funding to study at the Museum of Pathology, Kings College, London. Here she developed some amazing and beautiful pieces from studies of cancerous breasts. She became interested in the lighting and use of shadow as well as using lights within her work. She is now working on developing a larger scale ‘walk in’ piece in collaboration with an architect.

© Naseem Darbey

Naseem’s energy and enthusiasm was captivating. We were full of admiration for not only her amazing and beautiful work, but her ability to get funding and to work collaboratively with a range of organisations and people.

© Naseem Darbey

I was one of the first to sign up to the course she is running for us in September. I’m so glad I made the effort to go to her talk.

José Hendo

In May, we welcomed José Hendo as our guest speaker. It was impossible not to be infected by her passion and enthusiasm for ethical, sustainable fabrics and especially her fabric of choice, barkcloth.

© José Hendo

Barkcloth is from her country of origin, Uganda, and José feels it is the perfect ambassador for sustainability. To illustrate its beauty and versatility, José brought along a number of outfits, including the one she was wearing, bags, and other examples from her collection.

© José Hendo

We learned about the history of barkcloth, how it is cultivated and harvested, and how it is transformed into fabric. Using barkcloth creates sustainable jobs in Uganda and the Mutuba tree, from which barkcloth is harvested, is important to the ecosystem and community. Through Bark To The Roots (B2TR), José has connected with the barkcloth making communities in Uganda where she has adopted a tree and planted the 1st in the 1 million tree planting campaign.

José brought with her the Jubileo barkcloth harvested by Paul Katamiira (in honour of the King of Buganda's 25th anniversary. We were amazed to see the this beautiful whole cloth harvested from a single tree.

© José Hendo

José also spoke passionately about her quest to ensure her own label adheres to the principles of R3 – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – and of zero waste. So impressed was one of our members that she awarded José The Fiona Medal for Services to Upcycling, designed by Karen Long and made by Fiona.

© José Hendo

Therapy Hand Puppets

In April, our monthly meeting departed from its usual format by not having a speaker but had us all sewing puppets instead.

Everything had been prepared beforehand: two double-faced heads cut out and stitched, bodies (male and female) also stitched, and an array of threads, buttons and wools for eyes etc.

We had all the details of how to go about making the puppets with two faces so that they had, for example, a happy face on the front and a sad one when turned around.

The fun of stitching these things began! Of course Amanda Smith finished hers by the end of the evening but most of us took ours home in various stages of incompletion. Mine took ages to finish, with added details of collars, hair, hands etc. Not so easy!

We hope these puppets will be useful tools in helping young children talk about traumatic experiences.

A most enjoyable evening and thanks to Karen for the mountain of preparation that made it possible.

For more information about the puppets see https://www.knitfornowt.org. Patterns for the sewn puppets can be found here.

By Maureen Ergeneli

Richard McVetis

The visit from Richard McVetis was a great evening which was not only fun but gave us a wonderful insight into his thinking and meticulous work.

© Richard McVetis

His tiny, rhythmic stitches in black cotton on natural wool run around the corners of his 6 x 6 cm cubes creating a fascinating series of blocks entitled 'Units of Time'.

He inspired us all with his simplicity that conveys so many messages about our time and space as well as looking back to Fifteenth Century stitch.

© Richard McVetis

Richard keeps it clear using a limited range of stitches being seed, dots and crosses. He shared his story with such enthusiasm and joy giving us a wonderful and inspirational evening. His highly professional work depicting the world around him with such skill and thought made us all want to look again at the use of lines, dots and crosses.

What's on in March

Richard McVitis is a London based artist. McVitis uses a range of media including drawing, installation, and textiles to explore our perception of space and time. In this talk Richard will talk discuss how his minimalist work is an endless exploration, not just of form but of the reclamation and potential of process and repetition within stitch.

© Richard McVitis

"Units of Time"
7.15 pm on 13 March 2019
at Iffley Village Church Hall, Iffley, OX4 4EG.

Visitors welcome £6.00

Oxford Branch Ruby Anniversary

In July, we enjoyed a lovely ‘Ruby’ Summer Social. With a bit of stitching, some eating and drinking, and an impromptu mini-auction of a yummy fruit-and-veg box straight from Polly’s allotment.

Anne Stearn, Oxford EG’s first ever chairman (and founder) joined us and said she was thrilled that forty years on Oxford EG is still thriving.

What's on in June

During twice yearly visits to the Himalayas, Alain Rouveure collects works from craftsmen he admires, and sells them worldwide at exhibitions, his "Tibetan Rugs in Exile" lectures and from his Galleries in the Cotswolds. Most items on sale, especially his Tibetan rugs, are commissioned by him.

Alain believes that business does not have to be driven by profits at all costs. New or old, each item in his Galleries is unique and has been selected for its quality, its obvious visual appeal and the ethical nature of its production and provenance ... no child labour ... no harmful chemicals ... minimal impact on a fragile environment ... no looting of temples in search of antiques.

© Alain Rouveure

"Tibetan Rugs in Exile"
7.15 pm on 14 June 2017
at Iffley Village Church Hall, Iffley, OX4 4EG.

Visitors welcome £6.00