Our first session of the new BETA year began with a minutes silence, in loving memory of our member Margaret Richards who has recently died. A separate blog about Margaret will be forthcoming, suffice to say for now, that she will be very much missed. She would have loved this evenings presentation it is so sad that she could not be with us.
Tonight’s speaker, Ann, was engaging, endlessly fascinating and amusing (see the Reese Mog inspired cushion below). Ann describes herself as an artist who happens to work in textiles and is inspired by political issues and women’s experiences, now and through history. Prompted by finding herself with an empty nest, she began her formal education in textiles with city and guilds she also studied at Westhope, one of our groups favourite places for stitching. One of her first pieces of work was the pincushion also pictured below which was inspired by the aging body. Another early piece was influenced by the fascinating and powerful medieval queen Eleanor of Acquitaine. This piece was oil paint on cloth and includes a figure of a unicorn. Anne uses a lot of variety in the techniques she employs including machine stitching, layering fabric and burning back with a heat gun.
Other inspirations came from Jane Austens novel Persuasion, set in Lyme Regis. Ann was also inspired by Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace, who was educated by her mother and who developed the mathematics underpinning Babbages plan for a first computer, which sadly did not get completed until centuries later.
Ann lives in the midlands and a particularly fascinating and locally inspired part of her presentation had a local focus. This was not on the relatively privileged women famous in the suffragette movement, but on ordinary working class women’s part in the struggle. Their contribution, Ann pointed out, is significantly under represented. Some women were locked up in Stafford Prison and subjected to force feeding. One of the first suffragettes to be force fed was held in another local prison Winston Green. She was a working class woman from the area. The piece featuring the daisy shown below draws on this quote ‘I am within these walls but where is the man’. A bag for hunger strikers shown below features women’s heads, with high collars to hide the marks from their ordeal. Another piece about the struggle for the vote uses androgynous drawings and challenges unfairness that women’s rights had to be conferred by men. More whimsically the Easter egg, also shown below, was made for a friend from Scotland. It celebrates the haggis and the story that they were grown in cellars, fed by the droppings from whisky distilling.
Ann gives the fee she receives for talks to the Haven project which works with refugee women and children. This post does not begin to do justice to the range of Ann’s work her breadth of knowledge and the insights and humour she provided. If anyone gets a chance to hear her speak elsewhere, she comes highly recommended.
At the meeting we also held our raffle, with bags completed by Diane, both were beautiful but sadly not photographed on the night. Apologies to them both.
Our meeting next month on Monday 14th October at 7.30 will be modelled on a previously successful evening, with a carousel of different stitch activities. Materials will be provided, but please bring a basic sewing kit. The travelling books will restart fully at that meeting so please bring your book, with your completed contribution and be ready to receive a book in return to take home with you and add a piece. The raffle colour is black and white and as always textile related contributions are very welcome.
Birmingham Embroidery and Textile Art 