Textile Talk

Cas Holmes is a British artist, author and tutor of Romani heritage specialising in textile work with found materials. She trained in fine art and is interested  in interdisciplinary  projects in community and gallery settings to demonstrate the accessibility of mixed media textile processes.  Her practice centres on the use of sustainable materials and themes surrounding issues of  identity and place. Research in traditional paper and textile crafts in Japan and India continue to inform her practice and writing  (Winston Churchill Fellowship, Japan Foundation Fellowship and Arts Council England Professional Development Award). 

She collaborates with organisations and projects on curatorial and community events including the Romani Cultural + Arts Company as a recipient of Gypsy Maker Award and with Craft Scotland on a collaborative exhibition Places, Spaces, Traces; an exploration of the concept of ‘place’ and our understanding of the importance of heritage; how our inherited traditions, monuments, objects, and culture can impact upon our identities and the space we call ‘home’.  This touring exhibition was launched on Light Vessel 21 in Gravesend and with Anna 3 in Antwerp 

Her work and projects are reflected in her publications for Batsford the most recent is Embroidering the Everyday (2021)

She is an exhibiting artist with Art Textiles Made in Britain and a member of the Embroiderers Guild UK and the Society for Embroidered Work. The stories and imagery to be found in the everyday and commonplace are a constant source of inspiration for projects and collaborations

Links:

http://www.casholmes.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/casholmestextiles/

https://www.sofst.org/

The Nettle Dress is a modern fairy tale about the healing power of nature and craft directed by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Dylan Howitt, released by Dartmouth Films in cinemas across the UK and Ireland from September 15.

Textile artist Allan Brown spends seven years making a dress from scratch, using 14,400 feet of thread made from the fibre of locally foraged stinging nettles. In doing so, he relearns ancient crafts of foraging, spinning, weaving, cutting and sewing. Making a dress this way becomes devotional, helping Allan to survive the death of his wife, which leaves him and their four children bereft.

@nettledressfilm

@hedgerow.couture (Allan’s Instagram)

https://www.nettledress.org/

https://www.contemporaryhempery.com/

https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowcouture/

http://www.nettlesfortextiles.org.uk/wp/ 

https://www.sofst.org/

Meredith Woolnough is a professional artist working out of her studio in Newcastle Australia. She is best known for her sculptural embroideries which are an exploration of art, science and nature. The embroideries are created using a unique freehand embroidery technique that utilises a domestic sewing machine and a fabric that dissolves in water.

The work explores the beauty and fragility of nature, sparking a sense of wonder and appreciation of the natural world. Meredith believes that the deeper our appreciation for the aesthetics of nature the more eager we are to immerse ourselves in it and conserve it.

Meredith holds a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) from the University of New South Wales, a Masters of Teaching from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Natural History illustration for the University of Newcastle. She has exhibited and sold her work worldwide, is the author of two books ‘Organic Embroidery’ (2018) and ‘The 100 Embroideries Project (2023) and teaches both in person and online classes.

Website www.meredithwoolnough.com.au

Blog: https://meredithwoolnough.com.au/blog 

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

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

Christen Brown was born in Manhattan Beach, California. She first became interested in fiber arts via making clothing for her dolls as a child. After graduating from high school, she continued her education at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, California, where she graduated with an associate in arts in fashion design. 

Christen began her career in the wearable art field in 1986. Her work has been shown in galleries and fashion shows all over the world. She has been invited to participate in both the Fairfield and BERNINA Fashion Shows. 

Christen began teaching and presenting her work in 1991, for quilt stores, and quilt and fiber art guilds on the West Coast. She has been invited to teach nationally for Road to California, American Quilter’s Society, and Quilt Festival Houston. 

Christen has written articles for Michael’s Arts & Crafts magazine, Threads Magazine, and Piecework Magazine. She began writing books for C&T Publishing in 2011. She has authored seven books, designed 3 sets of embroidery stencils, and 2 additional products.

Christen continues to be interested in craft and fine art. She experiments and learns all that she can, specifically concentrating on design and the techniques of embroidery, quilting, ribbonwork, mixed media, and beadwork. Her goal and wish through this journey, is to continually be surprised, inspired, creative, and necessary. 

Website https://christenbrown.com/ 

Blog: christenbrown.com/blog/

Facebook /christenjbrown

School of Stitched Textiles site is at www.sofst.org

Christen's books and products are listed below;

• Ribbonwork Gardens
• Embroidered and Embellished
• Ribbonwork Flowers
• The Embroidery Book
• Beaded Embroidery Stitching
• Hand Embroidery Dictionary
• Creative Embroidery, Mixing the Old
• with the New

• Embroidery Stencils: The Essential
• Collection
• Embroidery Stencils: The Darling Motif
• Collection
• Embroidery Stencils: Crazy Quilt Seam
• Design Collection
• Embroidery Stitching, Handy Pocket
• Guide
• Embellished Art Embroidery Project
• Planner

Joining Gail on this episode is Graham Stewart, who is an international textile and apparel production fibre specialist.

For the past two years, Graham has developed and patented a more sustainable process to bleach and dye cotton called Fibre 52.

Fibre52 is an environmentally kind and cost-conscious process for dyeing cotton. It is a simple, inexpensive replacement for traditional and outdated cotton preparation methods. It uses natural products instead of heavy chemicals, working at lower temperatures, with less energy, less water, and a shorter processing time. This makes Fibre52 a wonderfully cost-effective, eco-conscious and sustainable bleach and dye process.

All this means that consumers will soon be offered a more natural and ecologically sound choice of fabric. With Fibre52, the natural cotton is stronger, recyclable and biodegradable, making it a natural replacement for plastic.

You can find out more at Fiber52 and more about School of Stitched Textile's creative textile courses

Gail chats to Mistianne Guzman, who has been quilting since she was 25 years old and was going crazy for some color.  She then walked into a store that had fabric and the rest is history. 

Mistianne is mostly self-taught.  She not only creates quilts for the joy of it (the smaller the pieces the better), but also for competition, having had her quilts travel all over the world. One of her quilts was used in a yearly calendar for clients. She has completed a skill stage 4 programme with School of Stitched Textiles in patchwork and quilting and has gone on to tutor for them for the last couple of years.  She has owned her own online quilt store specializing in batiks, taught many classes, and is an avid hand quilter. Besides quilting she is a costume mistress and creates professional ballet costumes and crochets and embroiders in her spare time. 

[email protected]

insta- @thestraybobbin

etsy- thestraybobbin

SST Online Textile Courses

Ruth qualified as a Graphic Designer at Leeds Metropolitan University, specialising in illustration, in 1986. She then gained a teaching qualification at Manchester University.

She has spent many years as an Art teacher working in high schools and tertiary Colleges.

She now shares a studio with her partner Stuart Gray at Farfield Mill in Sedbergh, Cumbria, where they work, teach, and sell their paintings. You can find out more about Ruth or see her work on her website. Ruth also tutors an online video course for us on Drawing for Design.

Susan makes sculptural textile work combining mixed-media practices with fabric and embroidery across digital and manual platforms. She exploits the physics of light as it interacts with the structure of the triangular embroidery thread. The light scatters in multiple directions off the sides of the thread, creating different tones and saturations of the base color. She also exploits the science of optics, relying on our brain’s ability to optically mix spots of color in close physical proximity. Further relying on the principles of color as taught by Joseph Albers and Johannes Itten et al, she exploits the vibratory effects of complementary colors and close saturation split complements. All of this creates a changeable optical environment activated by the viewer’s movement from side to side as they view the artwork. The viewer experience is one of puzzling beauty, playfulness and sometimes awe.

Gail and Debbie are chatting about how Debbie became interested in crafts, her favourite techniques, teaching online versus in the classroom, tips for getting the best from your tutor and how the group zoom sessions work.

Dr Gail Cowley talking about School of Stitched Textiles and how their distance learning courses work.