There was a good turnout to help set up the exhibition which opens on Tuesday 29 March 2016 at the National Needlework Archives, The Old Chapel Textile Centre, Main Street, Greenham Business Park, Newbury. RG19 6HW.  The exhibition is open til Thursday 28 April 2016, Tuesdays to Thursdays 10am until 4pm. For information about the venue see the National Needlework Archive's website.

Sandy Snowden took a small selection of 'Worn Threads' work to the Birch Hill Easter Fair, held at the community centre where the group meets. She did a great job of widening knowledge of textile art, our group and what we get up to.

There was lots going on at the fair: face painting, Easter egg hunt, cakes, home-made Easter eggs, and so on. The event supported the Bracknell Town Council's Mayor's chosen Charity - Bracknell Home-Start Bracknell Town Council Mayor’s chosen charity.

A busy day yesterday installing our new exhibition 'Worn threads' at the Lady Sew and Sew warehouse exhibition space in Henley on Thames. 

The exhibition is open from Thursday 4th February to Monday 22nd February 2016, weekdays 10am until 4pm. For information about the venue see www.ladysewandsew.co.uk

For those people wanting to send photos to Sandy please find below instructions on how to use wetransfer.com:

You will need to know which folder on your pc contains the photo you want to transfer. 
1. To open https://www.wetransfer.com/ in another window, click here .
2. The website may offer for you to "Get WeTransfer Plus", in which case, click the "skip" button.
3. The website will ask you to accept the Terms and Conditions, click "I agree".
4. The website will show a box looking like this:

5. Click "+ Add files"  - this will open a window for you to find the folder that contains your photo.  Find the correct folder and then select by the photoby double clicking on the photo.
6. Click "+Friends email" and enter Sandy's email address. 
7. Click "+Your email" and enter your email address. 
8. Add a message with your name and the title of your piece of work (to make life easier for Sandy).
9. Click "Transfer" and you're done.

I was fortunate enough to visit New Zealand earlier this year and was inspired by a piupiu skirt I saw in the Te Papa Tongarewa (Museum of New Zealand). 

A piupiu is a skirt-like garment made of flax strands that hang from a waistband. The leaves of the New Zealand flax are first stripped back to the fibre in regular sections, leaving sections of unstripped leaf in between. The loose fibres are then twisted together by a spinning action. These strands are boiled and dried so they whiten and roll into tubes. Then they are dyed black, only the exposed fibre takes the dye, creating a striped black and white effect. Finally, the strands are attached to a woven waistband.

I was also inspired by the fabulous scenery at Doubtful Sound.  The photo doesn't do justice to the fantastic greens and the silvery waterfalls.

I made some fabric beads by rolling a triangular piece of fabric around a knitting needle and heating with a heat gun.  I used the same technique on large flower shaped sequins and then strung them together:

I made several different sizes of these hanging strands and put them together to make a necklace.  I had to insert spacer fabric beads to get them to hang properly.

Any suggestions on the best way to display this are most welcome.

TVCT’s challenge for Exhibition in 2016

Key points to note for entering a piece for exhibition.

·        Create a piece inspired by a garment, which can be an item of clothing, shoes or handbags.  The piece can be a wall piece or 3D.

·        Wall pieces must be designed to be hung on the wooden coat hangers (top or trousers), provided by TVCT. Maximum overall width is 3 hangers. 3D pieces will be placed on plinths. Please discuss with us your ideas for displaying 3D. Pieces must be finished to exhibition standard.

·        Please provide a photo of your ‘inspirational garment’ on or before the meeting on 21st November 2015. 

·        Entry is restricted to members who attend meetings.

·        A completed Submission Form and entry fee of £10 need to be brought to the meeting on 21st November 2015. Cheques payable to TVCT.

·        The final deadline for finished work is the meeting on 23rd January 2016 (no postal submissions).

·        A label showing the maker’s name and address and the work’s title needs to be attached to the back of the piece. The hanger/s need to be included with the work.

·        The work will be transported several times, (possibly in the rain) - from the TVCT meeting, for selection, to exhibiting venues and back. Please provide suitable named, and reusable packaging materials.

·        We cannot guarantee to hang work that is difficult or impractical to display. The venues may also limit us on the number of pieces we can display. If your work is not hung we will return your entry fee.

·        Your work will need to be collected from the TVCT meeting on 21st May 2016. If you are unable to collect your work on this date in person, you must make prior arrangements for the return of your work.

·        You will need make your own insurance arrangement.


Further information is available here.

Entry forms are available by contacting us.  

There are some wonderful examples of Jo’s work on her website - http://www.jmdecorativeart.co.uk/index.php.  Jo, who is also a member of the Worshipful Company of Painters and Stainers, works primarily with pieces of antique lace.  She alters the surface of these delicate fabrics with painting and gilding to produce unique decorative items.  Some of these are framed, some are made into jewellery and others are used as patterning for interior design.

Jo spoke about the development of her practice, her training and her years in teaching and showed images of her diverse work.  She is now extending her working practice to include surfaces such as glass, leather, plastics and wood veneer.

Jo presented a very comprehensive account of her practice; however I would have liked to have learned more about the very basics of the gilding process.  I found the small fragments of lace coloured with metallic pigments very effective.  The delicate sheen of colour complemented the elegance of the patterned lace in which you can still see every stitch and twist of thread.  I found the negative prints created by the lace pieces on plain and coloured backgrounds particularly interesting.  These retained a sense of the antique cloth in a very real sense due to the prints not always appearing complete or whole.  

In the afternoon Jo led a workshop using metallic foils which we transferred to pieces of cloth using bondaweb and other adhesive films which acted as the glue, producing very effectively decorated samples.

As ever, Thames Valley Contemporary Textiles offered its audience a different perspective of textile practice much appreciated by its members and guests.

Jo Mabbutt – Metallics Workshop Materials List of Suppliers
www.jmdecorativeart.co.uk
Suppliers                  

Metallic Transfer Foil:
Available in packs and also off the roll from Applicraft                                          www.applicraft.co.uk

Real Metal Leaf:
Transfer leaf (on wax paper) available in books of 25 sheets from:

o   A S Handover                                   www.handover.co.uk

o   Wright’s of Lymm                             www.stonehouses.co.uk

o   Gold Leaf Supplies                          www.goldleafsupplies.co.uk

Lutradur:
Available in different weights, packs and rolls from:

o   Spunart                                              www.spunart.co.uk

o   Other craft websites

Misty Fuse:
Available in packs or on a roll from:

o   Rainbow Silks                                  www.rainbowsilks.co.uk

o   Other craft websites

Fuse FX - gossamer fusible web:
Occasionally available in small packs from Art Van Go      www.artvango.co.uk     

Jo gave a most interesting talk in the morning and then took a workshop in the afternoon where we did some experimental guilding.