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 🌺🌼🌸☀️🥗
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
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
This summer has been full of workshops – Indian embroidery, in my home studio and at Serendipity Tea Rooms , always sets people a challenge. We have concluded that it takes an average of three tries before the technique of sewing on a shisha mirror actually sinks in, then the fun can begin. Embellishing with beads, coloured threads, buttons and sequins – it’s all very absorbing. Time flies …
Choosing colours & eating biscuits!
Then there was a felt fish workshop at Streatham Festival’s Make your own Fete at the Railway Pub, with Crafty Pint and Flaming Nora organising such a brilliantly creative day for what seemed like millions of local kids on a hot sunny day!
Kids’ felt fish drying in the trees, Make yr own Fete @TheRailwaySW16
Needlefelted garden birds is always a popular workshop and this summer has been no exception with workshops at the Railway Pub and another two coming up NEXT WEEK at Serendipity Tea Rooms on 22nd August and then with Makerhood at the Southbank Centre’s Village Fair on 24th Aug
A flock of happy needlefelters and their birds
I even got to take part in a workshop myself learning Willow Weaving with Crafty Pint tutor Geraldine. I absolutely loved it and took home four different finished items, all set to experiment with incorporating willow weaving into my feltmaking or vice-versa. Can’t wait to have some time to do that- I think my needlefelted birds are going to like the willow bird feeder!
Willow bird feeder
In between workshops, Kim Winter of WordPress blog Flextiles and I joined forces as Women of the Cloth for the Lambeth Garden Museum Summer Tumblr, which was a treat of a day spend in the knot garden in brilliant sunshine with lots of other artists/makers demonstrating our crafts and selling our wares. What a relaxing day we had in a beautiful place chatting with like-minded souls and interested visitors.
Women of the Cloth, Kim & Carol, @GardenMuseumLDN Summer Tumblr
When the summer of workshop fun is over, we Women of the Cloth will be taking part in the Lambeth Open studios weekend on 5th’6th October when we’ll be joined by several other textile makers for a housefull of colourful cloth activity. Watch this space for more details to come.
