Category Archives: Embroidery

7 STRANDS TEXTILE SYMPOSIUM

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Well it’s been a mad couple of weeks getting ready for the Rijswijk Textile Bienniel in the Netherlands. Making sure my work was all prepared,frames retouched and then getting the work packed. Making the boxes was an event of its own! Cutting,taping, joining 2 together for the big pieces and then getting it sent to the Rijswijk Museum in the Netherlands. It arrived in 2 days. Good old DHL Express,fantastic service. 
In amongst all that I found out I had been successful with my Arts Council bid for the 7 Strands at the Minster Textile Symposium and Exhibition so then it was all hell let loose.
Leaflets to be prepared , the website to update, site visits, etc,etc. I feel like I have had no sleep for the last fortnight. Still it will be worth it when it all comes together. 
For more information about the Symposium and Exhibition please visit : 7 Strands
The tickets will be available to buy online from Sue Stone or at Gate Gallery by 26 May 2011.
Please book early to secure your place as tickets are strictly limited.
It’s a real privilege to bring artists of this calibre to my hometown. The Textile Symposium will be a first for Grimsby and we deserve to see the work of National and International artists in this area.The artists Helen Banzhaf , Lucy Brown, Dorothy Ann Daly, Ann Goddard, Christine Gornowicz , Tilleke Schwarz and myself, are all members of the 62 group of textile artists. This event must surely encourage a wider audience and a greater appreciation of Textiles as an art form.

image • Tilleke Schwarz • Fisk (detail) 2010
Our work can be seen in 2 exhibitions:
7 Strands • 2 June to 23 July at Gate Gallery, 12, Brighowgate, Grimsby, DN32 0RA


7 Strands at the Minster • 16 June to 17 July at Grimsby Minster, St James Square, Grimsby
International Textile Artist, Tilleke Schwarz ( Netherlands) and Brighton based Textile Artist, Lucy Brown will be visiting the town on 12 July. Tilleke will give a half day workshop entitled : Telling your own Story and an illustrated lecture; Making sense out of non sense ,at the Symposium. Lucy Brown, who uses vintage and second hand clothing as the raw materials for her practice,will be giving a talk called : Other Peoples Clothes.
I am really looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the event.

7 Strands

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Helen Banzhaf


I am very excited that the 7 Strands exhibition is to be hosted by Gate Gallery in my hometown of Grimsby. See the Gate Gallery website for further details .This will be a rare opportunity indeed for Lincolnshire folk to see such a diverse high quality Textile Exhibition . www.gategallery.co.uk

7 Strands brings together the work of Helen Banzhaf, Lucy Brown, Dorothy Ann Daly, Ann Goddard, Christine Gornowicz, Tilleke Schwarz, and Sue Stone, all members of the Internationally renowned 62 Group of Textiles Artists working in various disciplines including Stitch, Weave and Conceptual Textiles which challenge the boundaries between Fine Art and Making.

The images below are a taster of what you will see in the exhibition. 2 June to 23 July 2011.

David as Dali (left) and From Grimsby to Gracia (right) by Sue Stone
Tilleke Schwarz

Dorothy Ann Daly
Christine Gornowicz
Lucy Brown
Ann Goddard



At a Tangent – Textiles by The 62 Group – Gallery Oldham

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At long last I managed to visit the exhibition. Gallery Oldham proved to be a great venue for the work, although I did feel the lighting could have been better. It was a small but varied exhibition. I’m not sure it was one of the group’s best exhibitions but it was great to see handling samples and sketchbooks on display. My own personal highlights were a fantastic mixed media piece by Jae Maries  and 2 beautiful woven pieces by Christine Gornowicz:
Image below courtesy of Christine Gornowicz.
 
Also on display at the gallery  was :Threading Dreams: the Art of Kantha
I am so pleased I caught this exhibition before it closed. It was so inspiring.
The exhibition showed early Kantha embroideries by textile artist Lynn Setterington with a selection made by women and children of the Sreepur Village Charity in Bangladesh. 
Visit www.sreepurvillage.org for more details about the work of this charity. 
To buy charity cards visit www.sreepurcards.org 

Afghanistan Inspiration European Tour is still in progress

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To see details of the tour please visit:   www.oneearthtextiles.co.uk.  
My piece  ‘A Mug for Maida ‘ can be seen next at Verona Tessile, 8 to 13 March 2011,
Galleria d’Arte Moderna Palazzo Forti – Volto Due Mori, 4 , Verona, Italy


I had just finished reading ‘ A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khaled Hosseini  when I came across the Afghanistan Inspiration project on the ‘Embroidery’ magazine website. The life of the women in Afghanistan is so difficult and so very different to my own. I knew right away I wanted to be involved in this project. The square I chose for my inspiration was stitched by Maida. I chose this square mainly because the colours and shapes are ones I would use in my own work. I have tried to echo the design of Maida’s square using the same colours and zigzag design to compliment the original shapes. I wanted to make Maida’s original piece ‘the star of the show’ by placing it as the decoration on my own vessel , a coffee mug. The resulting collaboration is a small hanging made with a mixture of hand and machine embroidery combined with applique.


At a Tangent – Textiles by The 62 Group – Gallery Oldham

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I am privileged to be a member of the 62 Group of textile artists which includes many textile artists with established international reputations. The members’ individual work explores diverse current social, domestic and personal issues.

The next 62 Group exhibition ‘At a Tangent’ runs from 22 January 2011 to 10 April 2011 at Gallery Oldham .
 This exhibition demonstrates the group’s energy and vitality, and their continuing determination to produce innovative, exciting work.

Sue Stone’s ‘From Grimsby to Gracia’ – a Weekend in Barcelona , detail shown left, was inspired by a recent visit to Barcelona, this self portrait references a cardboard cutout of Dali seen outside the Dali Museum , the Gaudi mosaics and tiles in Parc Guell , a colourful tiled floor from a neighbourhood bar and a fish from the artist’s hometown of Grimsby.

For more information go to www.womanwithafish.com

Machine Stitch Perspectives

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My stitched textile Woman with a Fish ’07 is featured in Machine Stitch Perspectives, a new book by Alice Kettle and Jane McKeating . This piece was one of two which were selected for the Embroiderers’ Guild exhibition Art of the Stitch which toured Europe from March 2008 until November 2009.