In this talk Gillian lead you around Europe and even further afield, illustrated with her vibrant and evocative photographs. Many of these places are familiar with students who travel.  When travelling she continues her research into ethnic embroidery, she photographs and sketches to produce a lively travel journal.

Saturday 12th December

Empress Mills - The Evolution of Thread

www.empressmills.co.uk

Thursday 14th January

Sew to supper

An evening of stitching and chat. Please bring a plate of some thing yummy.

Saturday 13th February

Thursday 10th March

Jonathan Korejko - Paper Talks

www.jonathankorejko.co.uk

 Paper is a living, exciting, contemporary artform, and it has an important story to tell.This presentation illustrates many fascinating aspects of papermaking with colourful slides, music, videos, and sounds. It includes the history of papermaking, recycling, the science of fibres, hand and industrial papermaking, papermaking in an educational setting, and contemporary artists working with paper.  The talk is custom built to fit into the personal interests of each audience group. For example, papermaking and its relationship to textiles, both past and present, is highlighted for groups which work in embroidery, spinning, weaving, and quilting. 

Saturday 9th April

Sue Stone - Inspiration for Stitch

www.womanwithafish.com

An in depth look at Sue's inspiration which includes a short introduction to herself and her work ,the visual artists who inform her work, the family album, her travels, how she combines her ideas and a look at her most recent work. 


Thursday 12th May

Katie Chaplin - Mottainai

www.japancrafts.co.uk

Mottainai expresses the Japanese feeling of regret for wasting something. It is especially relevant to textiles, as threads and fabrics were often prohibitively expensive for ordinary people in the past. For hundreds of years, ordinary Japanese people reused and recycled textiles over and over again to squeeze the maximum use from each piece. In this talk I explain more about mottainai, and will bring examples of antique textiles for you to handle. There will also be a demonstration of furoshiki gift wrapping and sakiori weaving using vintage kimono silks.

Saturday 11th June

Andrew Wynne - Batik                

Andrew will talk about Batik and it’s ancient traditions and multi cultural aspects, as well as his own evolution as a practising artist.
He will demonstrate various methods of wax resist and dye applications on papers and fabrics and will have a selection of work to show and sales of tools, waxes and dyes.

Thursday 14th July

Joy Norman - Papermaking and beyond

www.joynorman.co.uk

Delicate and intricate mixed-media work. Combining the diverse qualities of paper pulp with textile fragments, organic items and found objects, Joy creates intriguing framed works, wallhangings, sculptural shapes and vessels.