Textile Art

Textile Techniques Class – moving onto some embroidery

Techniques, Textile Art

This week my students looked at using waste fabric to stitch on anything, where the waste fabric is pulled out thread-by-thread after stitching has been completed.

My students had chosen gorgeous embroidery kits from Nancy Nicholson and we hooped them up and started with the simpler stitches. This was continued for a second week. The designs really start to stand out with the threads giving a such a tactile 3D quality to the design. We discussed what to do with the finished piece, from backing it and attaching it to the front of a bag or box, making it into a decorative cushion panel or simply stretching it over an art canvas for hanging on the wall for all to admire our handiwork.

As this was a longer session we chose some gorgeous wool fabrics and starting cutting out pieces to make beautiful storage bag-boxes in our next class, to be embellished with our stitched designs. Can’t wait to show off my students’ work in my next post.

Exhibiting in the St. Abbs Annual Art Exhibition in 2018

Textile Art

I am excited to announce that I will be exhibiting at the well-respected St. Abbs Annual Art Exhibition at the Ebba Centre in March 2018! I will be showing my textile embroidered art landscapes inspired by East Lothian. For these pieces I use painted fabrics, machine and hand embroidered and with wool, mulberry bark and silk sewn in to make vibrant thread ‘paintings’. For latest news from the Ebba Centre, check out their Facebook page.

Barley stitches embroidery detail

Textile Art

Close-up of barley stitches embroidery detail

Here is a close up photo of my barley stitches. I am really happy with the overlaying of the stitching since it gives a great 3D effect enhancing the depth of the picture. This image is from the foreground section of my latest textile art landscape. The work is based on a view of the Lammermuir Hills from the entrance to West Mains farm and it is the largest landscape I have worked on so far, almost A4 sized.

barley stitches embroidery detail

Work in progress

Textile Art

My third landscape textile artwork in progress. Silk painted background, embroidery detail with machine and hand embroidery used to work in some dyed wool picked up at St Abbs Wool Fest last weekend, plus silk throwsters and mulberry bark. Based on a view of the Lammermuir Hills from West Mains Farm near Morham.