Following on from Decembers meeting Anne gave a further talk tonight about the Embroiderers Guild using photos from their digitisation project. Please note these images are copyright to the Guild and not for reuse in any way without permission.
Anne started with some of the oldest pieces in the collection two pieces of Coptic weaving from 500-600 AD.
There is then a gap of nearly 1000 years before getting to pieces from 1500 AD including a spot sampler in red thread and from 1600 AD an alter frontal in red thread. Sections from the latter are available in kit form from the Crewel work company website https://www.crewelwork.com
Anne also included a few items that had photographed particularly well during digiisation including a white work embroidered collar from late 1800s and some gold work letter cases from 1900s.
Anne also included items to inspire her audience as they are effective but achievable including a kit from Korry’s Little Shop so that a version can be stitched by members https://korrylittleshop.co.uk/shop/ols/categories/samplers
Anne concluded her fascinating talk with an interesting reuse piece where the black and gold work of a piece has been preserved on the back of a contract from a later era. The original fabric probably disintegrated. The collection also has two motifs that fitted inside the strap work of the original design. An article in the 1936 edition of Embroidery magazine featured a diagram of how it might look. A digital archive of all the magazines are available at https://embroiderymagazine.co.uk/sibscribe-3/
We also held our usual raffle this time in green the effective bags were made by Ruth and Bev and members contributed to the contents.
At next month’s meeting the raffle colour is blue. The talk is by Ruth Duffy an Irish textile artist. Please bring blue raffle contributions if you can.
Birmingham Embroidery and Textile Art 