Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch at the NEC March 20th - 23rd

 A girl needs a certain kind of sustenance when doing the shows . . . . .

Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch was brilliant - busy - but brilliant. I didn't get a lot of chance to see all of the show but what I did see was fantastic. 

The exhibit I liked the best was Barkcloth to Artcloth - it was remarkable. A collaboration between Textile artist Bobby Britnell and Shoe designer Janet Middleton using traditional Barkcloth material from Uganda and re-inventing this wonderful fabric and creating little shoes. The idea was for textile artists to decorate a piece of barkcloth in their own style and Janet was to make a small pair of shoes from it.



This exhibition has been created to raise awareness and funds for Hands up for Uganda. www.handsupforuganda.org A project that was started by Bobby ad her family that has just grown and grown, what everyone had achieved is quite fantastic.  

The shoes will also be exhibited at the Excel show 3rd - 5th April - Creative Stitches/Fashion and Embroidery. Do go and see them if you can - they are delightful.

 The NEC show is a great way for me to catch up with loads of friends - here are three of them . . . .


Viv from Art Van Go, Bobby Britnell and Sue Chapman. The three graces???
Steph Redfern was there with some great new work. 
 . .  and Kathleen Laurel Sage was on the stand behind me - and also delivered a workshop for me everyday in the Vilene Experimental Textiles Workshop.
Hilary and her girl Friday! 

The divine Hilary Beattie had a joint exhibition with Jenny Rolfe.
One of Hilary's quilts.

It was great to catch up with Jean and Walter from Oliver Twist. Here is the lovely Walter posing beautifully in front of their colourful wares.

 And of course there was Art Van Go - and young Kevin Mead. (Viv was on walkabout somewhere). www.artvango.co.uk
And then Bobby arrived . . . 
 . .  to share Crocs . . .
 It was fab to see Margaret Beal again - and she has a new website - do take a look. www.fusingfabric.co.uk

My dear friend Wendy Dolan was also there - Wendy (www.wendydolan.co.uk) is being a big help to me while I am in Australia and running the Vilene Experimental Textiles Workshop at the Excel show for me.


I ran a 45 minute workshop every day extolling the virtues of the S133. The heaviest iron-on interfacing from Vilene. I had the flower shapes laser cut and the students decorated them with decorated newspaper, transfer foils and sparkle.
 
 
We had a great time and the students created some fabulous work.
My Experimental Textiles group also exhibited at the show - I will post about that on Saturday.
*

Hello Jill
Hello Diana
AND
Hello Swansea!!! 
We all miss you.
x x x

Comments

  1. Anonymous27 March 2014 at 07:57

    Thank you for giving us a taste of the show! I couldn't make it because I was poorly and I have made some barkcloth shoes....sad face!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kim Thittichai27 March 2014 at 08:04

    Oh that is miserable!!!! Can you get to the show at Excel - Docklands? Have you seen the shows on the Artcloth FB page - https://www.facebook.com/barkcloth2artcloth?fref=ts x x x x

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts

Extreme Surfaces for Stitch - West Dean College July 17 - 20

Image
Mary's beautiful composition of painted Bondaweb, newspaper, foils, gilding flake and jewel dots - and seaweed! Every now and then in your teaching life you come across a 'super' group. 'Super' in the the way they work together, share their materials and experience and of course they produce some fabulous work. It is particularly unusual to find this on a three day course - it is something I would associate with much longer course. Nine students who have never met before with the widest divide of experience and age from 17 to much older, experience ranged from very little through City and guilds up to degrees and a PHD in textiles based subjects. "Where sheep may safely graze . . "  The view outside the workshop door - sigh . . . it is so beautiful. Of course, being at West Dean College  www.westdean.org.uk helped, what with stunning surroundings, space to work and wonderful food it would be difficult to find anywhere else more suited t
Read more

Zap, Pow, Slash and Burn! Foredown Tower part the first

Image
  Layered Tyvek and polyester organza. We had a great day to day at Foredo wn Tower. I t was the f irst day of a two day workshop - Zap, Pow, Slash an d Burn! This workshop gives stud ents a chance to play with all the zappable products that I work with namely, Tyvek, Vilene Spunbond and polyester organza.    The group painting their Tyvek . There were nine in the group and although it was pouring with rain outside and blowing a hooley, we were almost snug and warm inside.    Working with a heat gun, an inch away f rom the surface of your work and holding the heat gun at a slight angle.   The group ha ppily using their heat guns.   The following images are all three layers of heavy (75gm) Tyvel layered with polyester organza and then stitched together on a sewing machine . The samples were then zapped with a heat gun. This exercise helps the stude nt learn contr ol - by moving the heat gun away from and towards the work, you can control the amount of lay
Read more

Hot Textiles at The Bridge, Brighton. 6th and 7th September

Image
  A scrumptious sample of textured and foiled Tyvek. I am finally catching up with myself, have been in rather a headless chicken mode for the past few weeks - things are bit calmer now. I have a few days in between each teaching session now right up to when the shows start next month. As long as I keep moving I will be fine. So . . . I have a new teaching venue in Brighton, just 10 minutes up the road from me, I can't believe how close it is - such a treat. I have booked some more workshops for next summer and once I have decided what I will be teaching, I will let you all know the dates and workshop information. The Bridge Community Education Centre is light and airy place with plenty of well equipped rooms and a fabulous cafe with scrummy food. There is a huge car park and the Centre is close to Falmer station and is also on many bus routes. www.thebridgebrighton.com   We had a group of seven fabulous girls. This is the Art Room. I was teaching a weeke
Read more

The Full Works - 2 day workshop, Solihull Embroiderers Guild 17th & 18th July

Image
 3 layers of 75gm Tyvek layered with polyester organza. The Full Works is my basic workshop learning how to use heat tools. We work with Tyvek, Lutradur/Vilene Spunbond and painted Bondaweb.  Solihull Embroiderers Guild is a great group. Good fun and well organised. Have a look at their website. All Guilds can do with new members, if you fancy joining, you won't be disappointed. www.facebook.com/SolihullEmbroiderersGuild   and the website - www.embroiderersguild.com We started off painting up all the products which took a couple of hours. It is important for students to know how to paint up all the products if they want to do this kind of work at home. When working with heat distressable materials, it is important not to paint them too thickly or the paint will form a barrier.    Painting up the products.  Painting Bondaweb. Lutradur/Vilene Spunbond. We started off playng with the Tyvek, laying it between 2 sheets of baking parchment and 'stroking&#
Read more

More prettys at Bobbys

Image
We have had the first day of my new course Print, Paint, Stitch and Play! and things seem to have gone well so far. I love teaching in Bobby's studio, it is purpose built with plenty of space, power and water. We had a fab day painting Bondaweb and colourwashing newspaper. The group then worked through my tearing and layering process and this is what they have produced so far. They have already started stitching into the papers and tomorrow we will be printing onto them. We had a discussion tonight about how to spell Prettys or Pretties. Apparently the latter is correct but I like the former so that is the word I am going to use - I have no doubt a certain gentleman in the Portsmouth area will now be sitting with his head in his hands and shaking his head saying No! NO! As part of this process you need to be able to describe a piece you have layered up with gilding flake, sequins, glitter and all the other gorgeous sparkly bits we are using. So I have started c
Read more

West Dean - Layered Textiles - Hot Techniques for jewelled surfaces - part 2

Image
  3 A4 sheets of painted Tyvek layered with polyester organza. this was then machine stitched together and then zapped with a heat gun to reveal different layers of colour and to create texture. The second day of a three day course - we have covered most of the basic techniques now and the students will be combining their own layers and stitching into them tomorrow.  There are seven in the group and it is another good group - textile ladies do seem to be good fun in general. I rarely get someone who moans. These are two Bondaweb pieces that I missed yesterday We worked with Tyvek for most of the day, starting with 'kissing, stroking and caressing' single sheets and moving on to layering Tyvek with polyester organza and zapping back. I don't know if you can have too much of a good thing but here are all the layered samples - front and back - Maggie's front and back Jean's front and back   Janet's front and back
Read more

Sussex Quilters - Tinkering with Tyvek workshop 5th June

Image
A stunning corsage - one of the best I have seen on a workshop.    I had a great day today teaching at Southwick Community Centre for the Sussex Quilters. The workshop was 'Tinkering with Tyvek'. As usual for my workshops this was a process based day. I think it is important to know what the the materials will do before you can decide to make anything. First thing, we spent an hour painting both sides of several sheets of A4  heavy Tyvek and fabric weight Tyvek. Dull but necessary, it is very important not to paint the Tyvek with thick paint. If you do, the paint will form a barrier and the Tyvek won't react to heat. We then had a play with ironing Tyvek shapes between baking parchment, learning the 'Kiss, Stroke and Caress' way of lightly heating the Tyvek till it shrinks and puckers. We then moved on to layering 4 sheets of A4 Tyvek with polyester organza and machine stitching them together ready for zapping back - a bit like cheeky reverse
Read more

West Dean - Layered Textiles - Hot techniques for jewelled surfaces part 3

Image
  Painted and foiled Bondaweb with painted, textured and foiled Tyvek The final day at West Dean was a day of layering and stitch, a great treat. Having the extra day made such a difference, to the work and to the group. All the students bar one were beginners in the Hot Textiles field and they all produced some brilliant work. We worked through all the basic Hot Textiles processes as you will see in the previous posts. The students were left with various piles of heat treated fabrics which I asked them to create some kind of composition - here are the resulting samples -   Layers of transfer printed CS800 Vilene Spunbond zapped with a heat gun and decorated with frayed organza and embossing powder.   Transfer printed CS800 Vilene Spunbond zapped with a heat gun decorated with a Tyvek motif.      Polyester organza decorated with painted Bondaweb, zapped with a heat gun and decorated with textured Tyvek  Painted Bondaweb decorated with hea
Read more

Registering your interest in my online teaching . . .

Image
It's almost here! I have been getting a lot of requests for me to teach online over the past 2 years. From all over the world. This combined with me wanting to stay at home in Ireland more and slow down a bit has decided me - it is going to happen. Starting in May. I am currently building a database and everyone who is on the database will be the first to hear what is happening and when. They will also receive the Sonas Studio newsletter (you can opt out). My house in Ireland is called Sonas - it means happiness and well being in Irish. I chose it because it sounded just  . . right. This year I will be concentrating on my one/two day workshops that will translate well to online workshops. For example -Tinkering with Tyvek, A New Starting Point and Transforming Transfers will be online from May to July. This all very new to me and I will be having IT help from my good friend Jayne. If you have been to the show at the NEC in March you will have seen her there. She he
Read more

Colouricious Textiles Holiday - Block Printing Jaipur. 20th - 30th September 2016

Image
  One of the many breathtaking rooms upstairs at the Chomu Palace. Well - what can you say when you have run out of words to describe something so wonderful?  I have just had one of the most amazing 10 days of my life - in Jaipur, India. It was a Block Printing Textile Holiday created and escorted by Jamie Malden of Colouricious. I don't think I have ever felt so well looked after, excited or encouraged. Every single day was a remarkable one, full of colour, sounds, smells and sparkle. From the choice of hotel to the many workshops that were arranged for us, everything ran like clock work. Jamie was assisted on this holiday by the wonderful Puneet and his family. Puneet is Jamie's 'man in Jaipur'!! He fixes and arranges things and helps everything to run as closely as it is possible to clockwork precision.   First thing in the morning on our way to another fabulous block print workshop. Most mornings saw us climbing into an air conditioned coach to explo
Read more