London Textile Month did in fact take place in September and I am only just now getting around to writing about it! In my defence, I have had my website revamped to reflect where I’m currently heading with my textile practice, which I’m very excited about.
London Textile Month was a month-long celebration of all things textiles via a calendar of events, workshops, and talks across the city organised by Selvedge Magazine. I decided to try and attend one a week, although I missed one week as I went back to Milan to pick up my work from the Foodie exhibition (you can read all about that in my previous blog post), so I ended up attending four events.
The first was an exhibition at Deptford town hall called ‘Drawing into Thread: Embroidery as Encounter’. This was a display of embroidered works made through a collaboration between artists based in Canada and Pakistan. This collaboration lasted for ten years as drawings were passed to embroiderers and embroideries passed back to artists in a cycle of creative exploration. Some pieces had clear designs but many were abstract and it was interesting to see how different stitches had been used for mark making.
The second event I went to was a talk and tour of the costume department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama hosted by Nikki Weston. This was a fascinating opportunity to see behind the scenes of a working theatre costume department, hear about how they do quick changes backstage, the wide range of costumes they are asked to produce on a quick turnaround, and how they manage and organise the actors costumes throughout a shows run.
The third workshop I went to was back at Deptford town hall and was called ‘The Art of Appliqué’ hosted by Yasmeen Branton, the founder of Sand and Stars. This was such a relaxing day of stitching and chatting with other textile enthusiasts. We learnt the traditional method of needle turn appliqué, adding cut out shapes to a background to create a picture. Yasmeen had so many lovely examples of how this technique can be used to make beautiful items like cushions, quilts, and even framed as art. I found this workshop so enjoyable and Yasmeen was a very patient and knowledgeable teacher.
The last workshop I went to was ‘Origami Fabric Manipulation with Kristine Berg at the Museum of the Home. Another fabulous teacher, Kristine had an impressive career as a costume designer/maker for film and television which led her to the technique of textile origami, or as its traditionally known, smocking. This technique is created using a grid system and is quite strict in its application; you need to follow the pattern to get the effect you are looking for otherwise you will end up with a mess! This was another fun day out and it was great to meet all the other textile artists that attended the event.
I had such a great time at all the events throughout the month and I will definitely be signing up for more next year. It’s so good to spend time with other people who share my joy in textiles and to learn more techniques to add to my repertoire.