Textile Talk

Alison is a self-taught artist who works primarily with textiles, often incorporating mixed media elements into her work to enhance their compositions. She began her journey into textile art in her mid-forties, and since then, her work has continually evolved as she experiments with new techniques and ideas. Her work is a celebration of the natural world, captured through this tactile and versatile medium.

Drawing inspiration from the ever-changing seascapes and landscapes around her, Alison seeks to capture the beauty and tranquillity of nature in each piece she creates. She skilfully combines new and reclaimed fabrics, using meticulous layering and stitching to create two distinct styles: one that is richly textured and abstract, and the other that embodies a representational, painterly quality.

Her work has been featured in notable exhibitions, including the ING Discerning Eye exhibition and the Royal Society of Marine Artists’ exhibition. She also took part in series 9 of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year. She is a member of the Society for Embroidered Work, the Visual Artists Association and the Devon Artists Network.

She has now written her first book entitles ‘Textile Seascapes’ which is published by Crowood Press. It takes readers through the essential skills and techniques needed to create stunning textile seascapes. This comprehensive resource equips both beginners and seasoned artists with the knowledge to craft beautiful textile pieces.

Alison's site https://alisonwhateleydesign.co.uk/

School of Stitched Textiles https://www.sofst.org/

Amazon link to Alison's book https://amzn.to/3Up7cHU

Jude is a practising mixed media artist and tutor. She currently teaches small groups of 1 or 2 from her own studio, and also larger groups in both the UK and across Europe. She has also exhibited both individually and as part of groups in the UK and in Europe. Jude has taught Masterclasses at Festival of Quilts and worked as the Studio Manager with Leslie Morgan at Committed to Cloth.

Coming from a creative family, she has been ‘making’ for as long as she can recall. Jude has travelled extensively around the world and lived in several different countries. This has all shaped and enhanced her artistic practice. Excited by all forms of fibre, her creative journey has included quilt making, dyeing, hand and machine stitching.

Jude’s current practice focuses on Japanese Shibori techniques with Indigo dyeing. She also uses origami techniques with vintage maps, paper and cloth. Botanical printing on both fabric and paper is also an area of focus for her practice and teaching. Hand stitching will always be her first love and sometimes it feels like her hands have an in built memory! The outcome of her practice takes the form of wall art, books and vessels. 

Jude's site is at https://judekingshott.co.uk/home-1

School of Stitched Textiles https://www.sofst.org/

The Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate Convention Centre runs from the 21st to 24th November 2024, And here’s an exclusive offer just for you: Use the discount code SST when you book to save on your tickets. Simply head over to theknittingandstitchingshow.com/harrogate/sst to secure your spot.

Artist Salley Mavor has spent over 4 decades honing her signature style and working methods, carving out her own niche within the children’s book world and the fiber art community. She creates 3-dimensional hand-stitched artwork with fabric, found objects and a unique combination of embroidery techniques she’s developed during her career. A combination of storytelling imagery, extra attention to detail, fervent craftsmanship, and the use of familiar, yet intriguing materials set it apart. Her pieces are presented as tableaus, like miniature shallow stage sets, with scenery, props and characters assembled in shadow-box frames. Her scenes have been used as children’s book illustrations, social commentary, and stop-motion animation.

As an illustration student at the Rhode Island School of Design in the 1970’s, Salley left traditional mediums behind, preferring to communicate her ideas with sculptural needlework. Salley has illustrated 11 picture books using her distinctive blend of materials and hand-stitching techniques, including Pocketful of Posies, which won the 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. Her popular how-to book, Felt Wee Folk is in its 2nd edition, inspiring creativity in all ages. The picture book, My Bed: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World is her most recent publication. She works in her home studio in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Links 

Website: www.weefolkstudio.com

Shop: https://salleymavor.etsy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/salleymavor/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weefolkstudio/

School of Stitched Textiles https://www.sofst.org/

Dr. Jack Roberts, aka JPR Stitch is a fine artist whose primary medium is freehand machine embroidery. His art is formed from simple organic flowing abstract shapes, but is constructed from a dense and complex web of stitch. His stitchings are a reflection of the calmness, tranquillity and contentedness that he feels when sitting at the sewing machine and creating. Sewing is his meditation and the art emerges from this experience.

“The experience is important to me, it rebalances me, but this sense of balance flows into the art. The colour and pattern have impact, it draws you in. As you get closer you see the complex web of stitch, your field of vision becomes filled with the dense, detailed and overlapping labyrinth of stitch - you get lost in the detail. You might begin to try and visually ‘unpick’ the stitches, following the threads as they loop and weave through the fabric and each other. I hope my stitchings gives others the space in a busy world to find a sense of balance, tranquillity and calmness.”

Part of his ‘process’ has become the sharing of the story – Instagram is his sketchbook, journal and diary. He uses this space to talk about his art, share the making process and explore ideas.

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jpr_stitch/

Website - https://www.jprstitch.com/

Email - [email protected]

School of Stitched Textiles - https://www.sofst.org

Helen moved from Art to Art Quilting in 2004 and has enjoyed many international awards for her unique approach to machine quilting and creating art quilts. In 16 years of quilting, Helen has won 16 awards at Houston including the inaugural A World of Beauty and Master of Innovative Artistry.

Helen’s work is predominately pictorial, with strong design and exciting play with colour. She uses her painting and design skills and creates whole cloth painted surface and then with her sewing machine, adds movement and detail into the design with her free-motion machine quilting.

Helen literally draws with her sewing machine bringing her painted images to life. Combining her teaching degree and her Art experience, she teaches from a slightly different angle and enjoys helping even the most traditional of machine sewers to find new direction in free-motion machine quilting and opening up new avenues for their creative potential.

Helen has taught all over Australia and the world including Dubai, China, South Africa, UK, New Zealand, Canada and USA including teaching at the Houston Quilt Festival for the past 10 years.

During Covid with so much time at home, Helen created a 6.5 m long quilt which is all painted with dye and free- motion quilted whole cloth and is the longest quilt in the world made by 1 person and 1 piece of fabric. Since Covid Helen also teaches extensively online as well as enjoying face to face teaching.

https://helengodden.com/

https://www.sofst.org/

Sarah de Rousset-Hall is a hand embroidery artist and teacher, she works as a tutor for the Royal School of Needlework and runs her own embroidery business, Sarah Stitches.

Sarah came to embroidery as a second career, but has been embroidering as long as she can remember. Following on from a cancer diagnosis at 30, she returned to being a student a few years later to turn her hobby into a profession.

Sarah graduated from the RSN’s Future Tutor Programme in 2020, and has been working as a professional embroiderer ever since, teaching, developing kits and working on art pieces and commissions. In 2021 she became a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Broderers and a Freeman of the City of London.

In 2022 Sarah exhibited three art pieces at Broderers’ Exhibition: The Art of Embroidery at the Bankside Gallery in London, and she is currently working on pieces for their next exhibition in 2025.

In 2023, Sarah was honoured to be part of the Embroidery Studio team at the Royal School of Needlework who worked on a number of items for the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla, including The Queen’s Robe of Estate, the Anointing Screen and the Stole Royal.

Sarah lives in West Sussex with her husband and two cats (who occasionally make featured appearances in her online classes).

www.sarah-stitches.com

www.sofst.org

Scottish artist Jo Hamilton moved to Portland, Oregon in the early 1990s, after earning her BFA from the Glasgow School of Art. Her technique combines years of fine art practice with the craft of crochet which she learned as a child from her Gran, rendering traditional categories, which include portraiture, landscape and nudes in a contemporary light. Her work has been widely shown in the U.S. and Europe as well as in Beijing, Australia and South Korea, and belongs to museums and private collections in the US and worldwide.

You can view Jo work over on our website.

johamiltonart.com

facebook.com/johamilton4rt

instagram.com/johamiltonart

Jamie Chalmers, aka Mr X Stitch, aka the Kingpin of Contemporary Embroidery, took up cross stitching fifteen years ago and he’s never looked back.

Since establishing the Mr X Stitch website in 2008, he has been showcasing new talent in the world of needlework and textile art and has curated a number of stitch-based exhibitions in the UK and Ireland. He is the curator of PUSH Stitchery and the author of the Mr X Stitch Guide to Cross Stitch. He is the founder of XStitch, the game-changing cross stitch design magazine and the host of NeedleXChange, a podcast dedicated to conversations on the Art of Thread.

Jamie is a thought leader in the online stitch community and what he has dubbed ‘the new embroidery movement’ and is active on various social networking platforms. He loves introducing new people to the benefits of embroidery from a creative and wellbeing standpoint and is proud to be an ambassador for this ubiquitous craft.

https://www.mrxstitch.com/

www.sofst.org

Northern Yarn is an independent wool shop, situated in the historic city of Lancaster, with a stong focus on locally sourced British wool, including their own line produced from the fleeces of local flocks of sheep. Owner Kate Makin works together with local farmers, paying a higher price for good quality fleeces - then follows the process from sheep to skein creating a completely traceable product, using a renewable, local resource. The unique nature of the shop not only attracts visitors from all over the UK, but from visitors worldwide. Kate also organises local events promoting British wool and the women that work with it; shepherds, farmers and specialists, encouraging people to switch from acrylic - to natural fibres. 

www.northernyarn.co.uk

www.sofst.org 

IG - northern_yarn

FB - NorthernYarn

Zoë is a freelance artist, designer & illustrator based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

She has an honours degree in industrial design for textiles (print) and enjoyed a career in graphic design & the creative arts spanning over twenty years. Zoë now focuses on illustration commissions and personal work.

Zoë loves travelling, trying new foods and enjoys lifting weights in the gym. In her work, nature is Zoë's main source of inspiration and she uses a range of techniques in her work both traditional and digital.

Represented by her US agent, Lilla Rogers Studio, Zoë has happily been with the agency since 2013 when she won representation with her agent in a global competition.

You'll find Zoë's work on fabric, stationery, greeting cards, magazines, books and home décor products. Zoë is also the author of “Oh, My Gouache!” and “Drawing for the Soul” published by David and Charles.

http://www.zoeingram.com

http://www.instagram.com/zoeingram.illustration

http://www.instagram.com/zoeingramsplayground

www.sofst.org