I’ll be taking part in this exhibition and Sale at the very beautiful Marchant’s Hardy Plants. In addition to all the arts and crafts there will be high quality plants for sale and delicious organic lunches. Why not have a day out in Sussex and enjoy a feast for the senses? Hope to see you 🌺🌼🌸☀️🥗
This is the fourth year in a row that I’ve taken part in the Women of the Cloth pre-Christmas event at Sprout Community Arts in the Furzedown area of Streatham. This year, as usual, we have invited a new and different set of guest artists & makers to join us and provide variety, new interest and different workshops for our regular visitors. Take a look at the Women of the Cloth website News & Events page for all the details, but below is a taster and brief guide to workshops on offer:-
Each year amidst the hubbub created by the Chelsea Flower Show in London, a whole host of alternative garden-related events are taking place, some in little known places, others in more well known spots. The event is known as Chelsea Fringe and this year I will be taking part with Kim Winter of @flextiles in our other guise as Women of the Cloth.
On 30th May, for just £10, from 10.00 a.m. until 2.00 p.m. you can come along and make either a needlefelted bird with me, or a wet-felted bird pod with Kim. Minimum age is 8 years and you will need to book directly with the venue South London Botanical Institute – places are limited, so don’t delay! Founded in 1910 in Tulse Hill, the Institute has a beautiful botanical garden and runs a wide range of courses, workshops and events for all ages. It’s a bit of a hidden gem. There will also be a Chelsea Fringe fair on 17th May at the Institute when a smaller taster session, needlefelting a ladybird, will be on offer in the afternoon.
One evening last week, as part of the Museums at Night season, I went along with some friends to Cecil Sharp House in Camden, London – home of the English Folk Dance & Song Society to see this event exploring the connection between the making of textiles and song. Yan Tan Tethera (one, two, three) – a traditional method used by shepherds in the north of England to count sheep, as well as a method used by knitters to count stitches.
Tables were set out around the edge of the great hall, adorned with baskets of yarn, knitting needles and crochet hooks, so that everyone could take part in the event by knitting charms and keepsakes to be added to the Mandala made by textile collective & gallery Prick Your Finger, celebrating the communal activity of making.
Meanwhile the floor was filled with folk singers and dancers. One of my old schoolfriends sings with the Dulwich Folk Choir so a little group of we ‘girls’ went along to enjoy seeing her take part in the song and dance. We had a bit of a lark with our knitted ‘charms’ one of which was a short strip of cable stitch, which one bawdy onlooker thought resembled a certain bit of the female anatomy! Not sure I’d agree ….
T’ sang was — “‘Sally an’ I, Sally an’ I, For a good pudding pye, Taa hoaf wheat, an’ tudder hoaf rye, Sally an’ I, for a good pudding pye.’ ” We sang this (altering t’ neams) at every needle : and when we com at t’ end cried ’ off,’ an’ began again, an’ sae we strave on o’ t’ day through.” This extract gives a good idea of what is meant by ” a Knitting Song.”
Here’s a glimpse of friend Alison, and all her singing buddies, getting stuck into one of a number of songs, such as the Cotton Breeches song
“Oh father, father I am married
Oh that I had longer tarried
For the women they do swear
That the breeches they will wear”
(from the song, Will the Weaver, collected from John Burton, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex), and
the Cotton Breeches dance. Danced by a woman on a table with skirts tucked in
(Dance collected by Clive Carey from Alfred Bishop, Thaxted, Essex)
Other delights of the evening were Dancing of the Bobbin, partaking of the ale, admiring the textile artworks by Freddie Robins, Basket weaver Shane Waltener, Folk artist Stewart Easton, and the East London Textiles McGrath Makers Group and just generally being in amongst a huge session of good-natured communal making. Knitting along at the next table was Julie Arkell – a well-known textile folk artist who runs her quirky creatures workshops in knitting shop Loop, in Islington, London.
An interesting event forming part of an exhibition running in and around Cecil Sharp House until 25th September.
I will be with Women of the Cloth’s Kim Winter at Dulwich Artists Open House during the weekend of 10th & 11th May at 28 Worlingham Road, London SE22 9HD.
We will be exhibiting as ‘Cloth and Camera‘, alongside members of the South London Photography Group in the home of one of our guest artists Dianne Brown, whose colourful upcycled t-shirt rag-rugs were much admired at our recent Avent Gallery residency.
Do come along and have a look at Kim’s beautiful shibori-tied, Indigo-dyed scarves, my nuno-felt scarves, cushions, small tactile gift items, felt wall panels and Dianne’s gorgeous rugs!
There will be plenty more Open Houses in the surrounding streets, so you can have a lovely day wandering around popping into different houses to see an array of artworks, with coffee or pub breaks in between. What could be nicer!
Well, we’ve come to the end of another enjoyable textile event – our second Spring show at the Jeannie Avent Gallery in London SE22. It was a riot of colour, chatter & textile activity with lots of new visitors as well as old friends who had visited us here last year. Workshops were well attended & people went home with an amazing array of gorgeous tactile textiles, made with skills they didn’t know they had! 
Kim’s beautiful shibori tied, indigo dyed scarves flew out of the gallery, destined to be gifts for friends, mothers, daughters & aunts.
Janet’s beloved needlefelted dogs were gathered up by those who just can’t resist their imploring little faces and quirky characters, to be cherished by dog-lovers everywhere.
We said goodbye to our favourite of Dianne’s colourful rag-rugs made with recycled t-shirts, which was bought for someone’s toddler daughter to step out onto when she leaves her bed in the mornings – soft, deep pile underfoot. Gorgeous!
And goodbye to Joan’s orange weaving which had given such a zing of gorgeous colour to the wall.
Carol’s workshops attracted a wide range of participants as always. A day of feltmaking resulted in these accomplished pieces of work by first-time felters and by one who has been twice before.
Beginners’ embroidery introduced Mary Thomas to a different way of producing abstract art, and 9-year-old Christopher embroidered a little garden for us all to enjoy.
Shisha mirrorwork embroidery class presented a challenge to some, but by the end of the evening all had managed to get the basic stitching techniques into their fingers, and took home their practise pieces ready to do more. Lara and Emma enjoyed it so much they want to come back , and they are most welcome. We had a good laugh at some of the hiccups along the way, such as someone sewing her embroidery to her dress!
Mustn’t forget our needlefelted birds and dogs workshops – as popular as always. Robins are always favoured by first timers at the birds workshops as they are an easy shape to work on to start with, and 13 year-old Marielle made a lovely little dachsund for her first try!
A big THANKYOU to all our supporters and friends, and to all our new visitors. We had a great time sharing our textiles and our making skills with you all – until the next time ….
Kim, Carol and Joan – Women of the Cloth
And our wonderful guest artists
Janet Thompson
Dianne Brown
Last week I enjoyed a ‘mothers & daughters’ visit to see Hannah Hoch’s work at the Whitechapel Gallery in East London. We two mothers are part of a group who meet up to get creative at each others’ homes, roughly monthly, and our two daughters are both in the midst of art courses of one sort or another, so we thought we would all go to an exhibition together. Within our group this month we embarked on a paper collage day where we attempted to make a dent in the piles of magazines we all collect throughout the year, so it was fortuitous to have an exhibition ofcollage to go and see.
Hannah Höch (1889-1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. This collection of 100 of her montages and watercolours is the first to be shown in Britan. Her work often appears both whimsical and disconcerting with its dismembered heads & bodies repasted in unexpected formations onto unlikely backgrounds, such as in ‘Heads of State’ where she displays ‘portly German politicians in the swimsuits floundering against a backdrop of fine embroidery’.
Her work contained strong political messages seen to be against Naziism which necessitated her retreat to a secluded cottage where she lived out the war quietly cutting & pasting, producing images inspired by musings on such things as androgyny, bisexuality & melancholy. Her sense of colour & composition were the most striking thing for me, filling my head with new thoughts on representing feelings and issues close to my heart through paper, cloth and colour. Here’s a glimpse of what I produced myself at our group cutting & pasting day! Not too bad I thought, and must have been influenced by the proximity to Valentine’s Day …
14 North Cross Road, East Dulwich London SE22 9EU
Following on from last year’s residency at Jeannie Avent Gallery, which was a great success and a lovely place to be, we will be back there for two weeks from 3rd April 2014
As usual, we will have a variety of work on show and for sale, with various guest textile artists adding yet more choice of work and techniques to see and to buy.
We will be running workshops, a few of which are listed below, more to be added soon. Email us at womenofthecloth2012@gmail.com to book places:
Sat 5th April – 10.30 till 16.00 Feltmaking Day: make some colourful felt using sheeps’fleece, soap & water
Sun 6th April – 11.00 till 15.00 Creative Weaving with Joan
Mon 7th April – 10.30 till 16.00 Needlefelting: Garden birds
Weds 9th April – 18.45 till 21.00
Felt balls for necklaces & bracelets
Thurs 10th April 14.00-17.00 and Sunday 12th April
Lino block printing with Robyn Archer
Create your own carved lino block using traditional carving techniques. Print your design onto a tote bag and greetings cards.
Sun 13th April 14.00 – 17.00 – Beginners’ Embroidery
Mon 14th April – 11.00 till 16.00 Needlefelted Dogs
Mon 14th April – 18.45 till 21.00 Shisha Mirrorwork Embroidery
Full day workshops £50.00 including materials, half day or evening workshops £25.00 or £30.00
What a busy workshop season it’s been this Autumn! I’ve just finished a two-week residency at Sprout Community Arts in the thriving community of Furzedown in Streatham, London SW16 with my fellow textilers Women of the Cloth
Our workshops proved very popular this year and we had the pleasure of teaching new craft skills to many newcomers, all of whom went home with gorgeous colourful items to adorn their homes or to give as gifts to friends and family. Slipper workshops are always a sellout. I just love all the different designs and colourschemes people come up with
New this year was our Needlefelted dogs workshop, run by Janet Thompson. She had envisaged that everyone would make a little Jack Russell as a first piece, but participants had other ideas and whole array of little dogs trotted out at the end of the workshop!
My favourite newcomer was 12 year-old Tatum who wanted to learn Indian Shisha mirror embroidery so that she could add a Bindi to the forehead of a beautiful portrait she is stitching for a competition. Sadly, I didn’t get a picture of the piece she is working on, but here are her mirrors at the first stage of stitching. She picked it up in no time and came back to show me the completed Bindi and learn some additional stitches. Great stuff. If you see this post Tatum, let me know when the whole embroidery is finished – I’d love to see it.
I had 6 round the table for an abstract feltmaking day – a bit of a squeeze at Sprout’s table, but some beautiful designs were created by beginners and some who’d been to previous workshops of mine.
The next day we had Joan showing people her very popular figure weaving techniques – the colourful, happy figures make great tree decorations.
No sooner had I finished at Sprout, than it was Crafty Pint Christmas workshop time, at The Railway pub! We had 40 keen crafters doing a mix of Felt Baubles, Willow Woven stars, wreaths & Christmas trees plus lino cutting and printing a set of cotton napkins. What a feast of activities to delve into. It was great fun – mulled wine a welcome addition thanks to The Railway.
One more workshop to go before Christmas – Felt baubles, stars & hearts for the tree at Serendipity Tea Rooms on Monday night, 16th December – 6.15-9.00 pm £25.00 including tea and CAKE!!
Do come and join in.
Workshops dates for 2014 being added slowly but surely … see the sidebar to the right of the page.
Winter workshops will take place at Sprout Community Arts in Streatham, as part of my two-week residency with Women of the Cloth from 27th November. Workshop dates are contained in the following WOTC newsletter
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It’s been a busy few weeks for workshops, and great fun as always. At the end of September I was in Brighton with some of the wonderful women I met in Jan 2011 at Anokhi in Jaipur, Rajasthan. We have kept in touch, as textile enthusiasts tend to, and they all wanted to learn to make felt slippers. It was a glorious day of colour and laughter, and delicious food too …
After choosing colours (not easy) we all layered up our fibres around slipper-shaped templates and began wetting them through and adding soap before beginning the agitating and rolling processes. A delicious pot luck lunch half way through gave everyone the energy for a last burst of effort before removing the templates and beginning to rub the slippers into shape on their own feet, so that they fit perfectly. When dry we will stitch on leather soles and hey presto – feet-hugging slippers in a range of beautiful colours!
Next slipper-making workshops:
Saturday 26th October in my studio, and Thursday 5th December at Sprout Community Arts
Then, during the first weekend of October I opened my house to the visiting public for Lambeth Open weekend where I was joined by fellow Women of the Cloth Joan, Kim, Janet and Virginia for two energising days of showing our work, talking textiles, sitting making things and YES more workshops! Wetfelting on Saturday morning, needlefelting Saturday afternoon and embroidery on Sunday.
Shisha mirrorwork embroidery is proving very popular, with some finding that once they start they can’t stop!! The possiblities for doodling with thread around your mirrors is endless, so it’s very easy to just carry on, and on, and on …
If you enjoy stitching with colour my next two workshops at Serendipity Tea Rooms in Streatham will suit you perfectly.
On Monday evening, 14th October from 6.15 to 8.45 pm we’ll be making embellished pincushions using some of my handmade felt pieces and blingy trimmings brought back from India. Simple stitching is used to make the pincushions, but if you want to get fancy why not add some of your own embroidery too?!
Then on Monday 28th October at the same time at Serendipity, we’ll be stitching some gorgeous colourful flowers using Indian Applique techniques. Make yours into a needlecase, a small picture, or sew it onto a skirt, shirt or dress pocket.
Beautiful colours
Pincushions made with felt & Indian trimmings
Carol's Creative Workshops 
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