Beware of Embroidery

Tilleke Schwarz, Purr Chase 2008

Beware of embroidery is a new exhibition that features the work of five international contemporary artists. Kate Keara Pelen, Louise Riley, Tilleke Schwarz, Laura Splan and
Tamar Stone.

The exhibition is at the Pitshanger Manor Gallery, Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, Ealing, London W5 5EQ until 27th February, opening times Tuesday-Friday 1-5pm and Saturday 11-5pm.

Rescued & Revived Ltd.

It was lovely to see my friends Botkin and Galliers of Rescued & Revived Ltd at the Bust Craftacular. These lovely ladies only started stitching together a few months ago and they have been going down a storm with their beautiful cushions, picnic rugs and throws. I cannot believe how much they have achieved in such a short space of time.

Desk Thursday

Content the exhibition I am taking part in opened in Aldeburgh tonight, I could not get there because of industrial action on the trains. Instead I started stitching a quilt which I began 3 years ago with a glass of wine and listening to the the latest cd by Regina Spektor, Far. The flowers and the cd were presents for my birthday. Beautiful colours and the sweet peas smell gorgeous!

For desk thursday on flickr.

Night Dress

The cameo contains strange flowers that look like a combination of real dried flowers with hand made felt petals and a tiny spider that must have been in the flowers.

Cameo

Here are some new ideas I am working on for brooches, it has been lovely to start stitching again after a long absence. The book was a recent find at the car boot. It had quadrupled in price from 2/6 to 50p! Published in 1885.

Michelle Holden

Bookworm

Michelle Holden, 'As an artist – maker, my practice, which originated in embroidery, has evolved into paper and text based works where I combine my desire to hand craft and deconstruct the found object (books and maps) into original works of art through a combination of cutting and stitching.'

You can see more of Shellie's work on her website, Spool.

Cut from the same cloth

Embroidery by Katy Prowse.

Song by Anthony and the Johnsons.

Mariska Karasz

I found this book a couple of weeks ago at the Embroiderers Guild Bookshop in Hampton Court. I had not heard of Mariska Karasz before. She was an artist who worked in fashion, designing clothes for adults and then children. Later on she developed her embroidery skills to make beautiful abstract wall hangings. Karasz wrote a book called Adventures in Stitches - Dear Ada has a link on her blog. She was given a retrospective exhibition this year at the Georgia Museum of Art.

Pricked: extreme embroidery

Spreckley (detail) by Paddy Hartley.

Paddy Hartley is one of 35 International artists showing in the latest exhibition called Pricked: extreme embroidery at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York until March 9th 2008. This follows on from their show Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting earlier this year. These shows are available as touring shows - if only one of the major spaces in the UK would bring these exhibits over here. You can see more of Paddy Hartley's work at the National Army Museum in London.

Paddy also sells his work on etsy, Made By Paddy.

Tilleke Schwarz

Rites (detail) embroidery on linen by Tilleke Schwarz

Tilleke Schwarz is exhibiting her wonderful work at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace until Sunday 14th October. There are some fantastic artists showing here this year including Primmy and Jessie Chorley and Julie Arkell. Click on the link to see the full list of exhibitors.

From Hoxton to Ladbroke Grove, via Soho

Riflemaker gallery, 79 Beak Street, London W1

I left Spitalfields and went to see the new show by Jessica Rankin at White Cube in Hoxton, it was an interesting show of embroidered paintings, with text, charts and maps stitched into coloured panels of organdy. It is on until 19 May.

Then I went to Riflemaker to see another show of mixed media work by Chosil Kil. Chosil also uses embroidery in her work. I loved this exhibition a lot ! This show is only on for 2 more days until Monday. This is the first time I had visited this gallery - its in a very beautiful Georgian building reminiscent of the houses in Spitalfields. More in the next post . . . .

Finally I popped into 2 of my favourite galleries, Flow which had a group show of craft with connections in Wales and then to England & Co in Westbourne Grove, which was in the middle of a re-hang so it was a bit chaotic. They do show some very good artists at this gallery.

Maria Ikonomopoulou

Spaces Between Us - a series of embroidered photographs by Maria Ikonomopoulou. I found this amazing work through another interesting artist called Anneke Harmsen. Anneke has work on flickr too.

Felt workshop

Hand-made felt and embroidery by Sukyella

For the last 3 weeks I have been working with my friend Emma at a primary school, making felt. The children have each hand-felted a square and now they are embellishing the felt with embroidery - here is a preview of the project. There will be 60 squares altogether which we will then make into a hanging to put up at the school. All the children have loved the workshop and their work is soooo beautiful.

Textiles

Snippets from my textile sketch book 2006

Heart thread drawing.

Gouache, ink, wool and thread on primed linen. 2006

Hand Book

Notebook with embroidered cover 1990.

Doodle thread drawings

Today I am working on a cross-stitch doodle, I am not sure about how the background is going to turn out. I want to finish the drawing and then fill in with some colour. I like the combination of the free-form doodle drawing with the slow, methodical process of cross-stitch.

This was inspired by the Cy Twombly exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in 2004. I doodled with pencil on a piece of linen and then embroidered it with thread.

Recent textile work

Artery 2006, handmade felt with wrapped fabric, embroidery and beads

Strange Fruit 2006, hand-made felt with knitting (stuffed with wadding), wrapped fabric and embroidery.

I also studied City and Guilds feltmaking at Richmond Adult Community College with Dianne Higgins and these were 2 of my final pieces. The idea for the wrapped coils of fabric came from a lovely book called Three Dimensional Embroidery by Janet Edmonds published by Batsford.