It doesn’t seem like a whole year ago that we were just cautiously coming out of lockdown. Our picnic this month was the anniversary of our first in-person get-together in July 2021. Formally the new SCS group started earlier in the year, but our first meeting with ‘real humans’ that summer rather than rectangular people on zoom felt like a new beginning, so this years picnic was a nice anniversary. Numbers were slightly depleted this month, due to holidays, Covid, and the extreme heat. However, those who attended had a good day, and managed to stay cool with the help of a collection of gazebos. Our stand-in David Bailey this month was Sue P, so thanks for the photos Sue.
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A passion for colour
Carol Naylor was our inspiring speaker this month. Carol started by surprising us when she said that she was initially a ‘reluctant embroiderer’. She wanted to get into art college (Goldsmiths) to study painting, but was offered a place on the Goldsmiths embroidery course instead. People tried to talk her out of it. She accepted their misgivings (‘You can’t sew’, ‘You don’t like embroidery’) but she accepted the place, thinking that it would be ‘a foot in the door’ and that after a few weeks she would change to painting. Little did she know that embroidery would turn out to be a life-long passion.
Somehow the change to painting never happened, and she found herself getting drawn into the world of stitch. Carol was lucky to be at Goldsmiths during the time when the legendary Constance Howard was teaching there. She spoke about her memories of Constance Howard’s green hair and her exacting standards. Carol struggled with embroidery for some time, but spoke about a breakthrough when Constance gave positive feedback on a small aspect of one of her pieces.
Carol’s interest in painting is self-evident in her work. From her post-graduate studies onwards, she developed her own style of ‘painting with the sewing machine’. She always creates from her own observations. She uses photos and sketchbooks as part of her preparation, but she finds it essential to have seen the subject directly. She brought sketchbooks for us to look at, and it was fascinating to see the development of a sketch, through stitch samples, and into a finished piece.
Carol works from the back of her work. The threads that she wants on the front of her work would be too thick to go through the needle, so she puts them in the bobbin and stitches ‘upside down’. The two photos above show the two sides of one of her pieces – interestingly, the back is also lovely!
Carol ended up with a long-term career in textiles, becoming head of department at Chichester College for many years, interspersed with teaching Spanish. She eventually left the college to focus on her own work. She draws her inspiration from landscapes, with particular love of the South Downs, Italy and Spain.
She spoke about how she loves to inspire other people, and also how she loves to see the work of other artists. She showed us some examples of work by other people that she admires, and talked about how different artistic disciplines can influence and inspire each other. Carol is a Fellow of the Society of Designer Craftsmen and was chairman for four years. She has work exhibited in the current exhibition at the Bankside Gallery (open now, until 26th June). She will also has work in a forthcoming exhibition at the Oxmarket Gallery in Chichester, as part of the local art group ARTEL. Each member of the group has submitted art inspired by the Chichester Ship Canal. Good timing, as the exhibition is open from Tues 21st June to Sun 3rd July, so I for one plan to go along to see it. Details in the link. https://www.oxmarket.org/exhibitions/artel-2022
Curious Threads
If you are free on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, I recommend this exhibition at Colonnade House (open from 10-5) by local textile group Curious Threads. Members of the group are Alison Livesley, Amelia Leigh, Jane Falls, Liz Howlett, Sue Duncan, Sue Sherwood and our very own Linda Hoddy. The group crosses the boundaries between quilting and embroidery; each member of the group produces a personal response to different ‘group challenges’. There’s some beautiful work there, as well as lovely bulging sketchbooks. It’s inspiring, and well worth a visit.
Findon village celebrations have started
The secret is out: SCS member Gay Hibbs is a yarn-bomber! This one is in Findon village.
Bling and sparkle
The first AGM of Southdowns Creative Stitchers was held yesterday. It was good to celebrate the start of our new independent stitch group. The Chair’s report will be available for members; the brief summary is that after a lot of hard work, we are now well established as an independent stitch group with a healthy membership, healthy budget, and lots going on. After a lot of hard work sorting out things like a new constitution, bank account, budget etc., we are very pleased that we we can get on with what we all enjoy…stitch. The business part of the meeting was dealt with quickly, allowing time to look at the pop-up exhibitions and to catch up with old friends and new members.
Mavis Shoesmith inspired us with a pop-up exhibition of her City and Guilds work – you will find some photos of her display later in this post. Also on show were pop-up exhibitions by the three sub-groups; Traditional Embroidery, Thursday Workshop and Mixed Media. Photos below.
We also had the ‘Travelling Scrapbooks’ out for people to see. These are 14 scrapbooks that were created as a lockdown project. Each person chose a visual project and provided a sketchbook. The books then travelled round the group so that people could add their own contributions to that subject. At the end, the books ended up with their original owners, stuffed full of inspiration and surprises from other people. We hadn’t quite appreciated just how much work would be on show in these books, so a brief showing didn’t do them justice. We will try to think of a better way to show then another time – maybe here on the website, or maybe as a slide show at one of our ‘sit and stitch’ meetings.
Here are some images of work by the three different sub-groups. What a wonderful mixture of techniques, media, designs and colour…and what a lot of ‘woman-hours’ must have gone into all of these!
Traditional Embroidery group and Thursday workshop group
And now on to Mavis Shoesmith’s work. Mavis brought her City and Guilds work for us to see and drool over. The name of this post is ‘Sparkle and Bling’ for a reason; Mavis loves to use glittery, sparkly additions to her work. She brought a very wide range of work, from traditional to experimental. Inspirations for her designs come from such different sources that make her work very individual and varied. Thank you Mavis!
A tribute to Sue Bush
We were so sad to lose our friend and fellow-member Sue Bush. Linda Hoddy, together with our secretary Sue Parkinson, wrote a lovely tribute to Sue for our newsletter, but we wanted to share an expanded version here. There is so much to say about Sue, and so many memories and anecdotes. She was a big personality, and people naturally gravitated to her. She had many close friends in the group.
Sue joined Worthing Embroiderers Guild 25 years ago and stayed loyal and active throughout that time. She was an active member of the committee and could always be relied on to volunteer whenever help was needed, whether it be stewarding at an exhibition, teaching a workshop, or just making a welcome cup of tea. She organised volunteers to ‘sit and stitch’ at Parham House, and it was always a great pleasure to find yourself sharing a ‘shift’ there with her. During the time when committee meetings were held on Zoom, Sue would always sit in her sewing room stitching away during the meeting; listening intently and taking an active part in the meeting, but never one to waste a single moment as she had so much creativity waiting to be expressed.
Sue was a regular member of the Traditional Embroidery group, and also threw herself wholeheartedly into the new Mixed Media group. We were all astounded at the energy that Sue put into her creative work; when most of us would be pleased to produce one piece of work, Sue could be relied on to produce five or six. She was remarkably cheerful and resilient; for example, she approached the successive Lockdowns as an opportunity to do even more creative work. She loved to try new things, and she loved to share her enthusiasm with other people. At a recent meeting she inspired us all with her amazing collection of embroidered bags, boxes and books. She talked us through the many techniques she used in her work including beading, felting, weaving, patchwork, embroidery and canvas work.
Sue was born in Leamington Spa in 1946. She had a sister, Teona (Tig), a daughter Lucy and a son Ian, and grandchildren. Sue and her sister grew up in the Clent hills in Worcestershire. Seeing how much energy Sue had in her seventies, it isn’t difficult to imagine how much energy she must have had a child. At her funeral, an anecdote in her eulogy described Sue falling off her horse as a child, dusting herself down, making no fuss and getting straight back on. That sounds like the Sue we all knew and loved: no-nonsense, no fuss: ‘Just get on with it’. Sue didn’t suffer fools…but at the same time she was incredibly kind and supportive, as well as fun, which earned her the friendship and respect of so many people.
Sue did various jobs over the years, some linked to her love of fabric and stitch. She worked for Liberty’s haberdashery department, and she also worked for the designer Belinda Belville. Her role there was beading onto wedding dresses, including wedding dresses for the Royal family. Sue loved beading, and loved to teach workshops and projects on her favourite subject. She very kindly mended a beaded necklace for me: it broke a long time after I made it and I had forgotten the technique, but Sue fixed it and returned it as good as new. I will think of her when I wear it.
Sue met her second husband John in the departure lounge before a cruise. They loved going on cruises together, and Sue would make a sampler after each trip as a keepsake. Sue lost John in 2018. Even more than before, Sue threw herself into all the creative activities and friendships that sustained her. After being very ill a few years ago, Sue made a great recovery and seemed full of energy and zest for life, so it was very unexpected when she passed away so suddenly. She has left a ‘Sue-shaped hole’ in our group. We will miss her friendship, her willingness to share knowledge and skills, her incredible enthusiasm and her hunger to learn new things.
I’ll finish with a prayer that was read at Sue’s funeral. If you scroll down below that, you will find some examples of Sue’s lovely work. If you would like to comment, or add your own contribution to this tribute, you are welcome to write in the ‘Comments’ box below.
The Needlewoman’s Prayer.
God grant that I may see the stitch
Until my dying day
And when my last short thread is clipped
And scissors tucked away
The work that I have done lives on
That other folk may see
The pleasures I have known, Lord,
In the skill you gave to me.
Textiles: Nature and Colour
How lovely it was to have Susan D’Souza at our meeting to tell us all about her work.
Susan gave us an introduction to her work which explores nature through details of plants, gardens and landscape images. Her process involves taking photos from nature and then abstracting images and creating layers with dyer or hand painted fabric applique techniques using stitch to highlight detail and texture.
Susan’s work often incorporates natural, found, and sustainable materials and plant-based dyes highlighting the fragile relationship with nature, she likes working slowly, recording the changes in the seasons.
Susan brought many pieces of her work which included Batik and natural dyes.
Susan has a Batik and resist workshop on the 3rd July at Prairie Gardens should you wish to learn a little more of her craft.
https://www.sussexprairies.co.uk/event/batik-wax-resist-textiles-with-susan-dsouza/
Don’t forget to visit her website for more information https://susandsouzatextiles.com/
Chinese and Japanese Embroidery
A belated ‘thank you’ to Cobi Erskine, one of our members who gave a fascinating talk on Japanese and Chinese Embroidery at our March meeting. Annette Ragless wrote a few words to try to sum up Cobi’s talk.
‘What a treat we had with Cobi, and to think that we have only seen a fraction of her collection and stories. Cobi showed us the first piece of embroidery she had created, and spoke about a book that her father gave her as a present: ‘Five Thousand Years of Textiles’. This book gave her a real insight and a taste for travelling and creating. Her next piece was Blackwork, which is where a lifelong passion started for this art.
Cobi assisted in researching the book ‘Miao Embroidery from South West China’ with Rush Smith, and she showed us her own sampler of all the different methods.
We saw samples of Cobi’s own work as well as the many pieces she has collected over the years, including:
Zhen Xian Bao – Thread books with pockets
Emblems of the Chinese Civil Servants (Birds) and Military (Beasts)
Chinese Tribal Miao Ethnic process – created in strips and stitched together to create Baby carriers.
Shibori – Navy and White Bag
Kogin – similar to Sashiko but created by thread counting
Temari Balls – A form of original Chinese Folk Art, given as a symbol of loyalty and friendship.
Kuba cloth
Pocari Work
The final piece was one of Cobi’s own work: a purple shaded woven banner which was inspired by an Art Deco vase. Cobi used fabric doilies on this, which had been hand-dyed.
