We really enjoyed welcoming Debbie back for a visit and for her presentation about turning pictures into textiles. Debbie has always enjoyed sketching and using sketch books and was enthused by a facebook challenge, some time ago, to do a sketch every day in May. She also became involved in a local urban stitching group, which was fascinating to hear about, as this was new to most of the audience. Debbie found that she was supported by seeing other members work and by their friendliness and what she described as the staggering quality of their work. She stitched with the group in The Birmingham urban environment but also in other cities in the UK.
Debbie was already a stitcher when she joined this group and began to combine her two loves. She printed sketches onto fabric and used quilting and other stitch embellishments to transform them. A knowledge base was relevant to both methods, with colour theory being particularly useful. One of the differences if stitching rather than sketching, is the time committed to the piece, which makes thinking about composition so important. Debbie has also completed workshops at the Midland Art Centre including textile printing and mono printing which have informed her work. She recommends using Inktense pencils that are softer and stronger than water colours and that once they are used with water are fixed. Debbie’s also mentioned the influence of Lynne Chapman, a children’s book illustrator, now doing 3D textile work.
The work below features pieces by Debbie inspired by the urban environment. The piece with a woman’s head was based on the Tenant of Wildfell Hall and another piece by Staffordshire Pottery. there is also a glimpse of a lovely concertina book of sketches.
Debbie sketches all the time and takes a miniature bottle of water with her. If using fabric she will prepare this at home. Some of her sketches take 10 minutes to complete others longer for example the robin pictured above. Paper sketches can be stabilised with bondaweb in order to stitch.
We also had our raffle, silver this month, with lovely bags that are shown below made by Ruth and Roman. Apologies for a recent blog where beautiful bags were misattributed they were in fact completed by Sian and Deborah. The December raffle colour is Gold, please bring contributions. The next meeting on 9th November is our Christmas Party, with savoury snacks and sweet treats make by the committee. There will be no sales table this month. Marion Plumb a BETA member is giving us a talk about Geisha. Marion is both knowledgeable and entertaining this is highly recommended. There is no competition but Members are asked to bring items that have been inspired in some way by Margaret Richards.
Finally as Meriel reminded us in an email, we are making gift bags for Anawim a women’s charity very dear to Margaret’s heart. Details are on a recent email from Meriel but a bag of some sort no larger than A4, containing mainly toiletries, would be brilliant if you are able to contribute.
Birmingham Embroidery and Textile Art 