Last week I took time out to play with some new materials and techniques at a workshop organised by Grassington Embroiderers' Guild.
Corrine Young, our tutor for the day, started her second career as a textile artist after completing a degree in Textile Design at Bradford College as a mature student (a similar path to my own). Her degree show included delicate Paper Moon flowers made by machine embroidery on handmade linen paper.
Corrine is a generous teacher, not just with her advice and guidance, but she had also made all the sheets of linen paper that we used in the workshop. The paper was delicately tinted with soft colours. I chose a blue/grey palette and then worked stitching in duck egg blue (left-over from the goose grass scarf in case you're wondering). I left both the linen yarn spines and the top stitching threads to give a loose, slightly messy effect. The flowers still looked a bit rigid but Corrine suggested burning small holes by using a glowing joss stick. The effect was transformational (and a pyromaniacs dream!)
I haven't quite finished - the flowers need to be stitched onto a background with perhaps a few beads at the centre. But this could take some time given my current "Do list" so here is my almost finished version. I'm off to write my talk for Grassington Festival now!
