the joy of stitch

Yesterday’s on-the-doorstep workshop was a joy.

We came, we drew, we painted, we stitched.

Everyone brought a vase of flowers to work from for ‘Still Life to Stitch’ and there was colour and variety in abundance. I think I counted over twenty different types of flower - we had ox-eye daisies, calendula, foxgloves, sweet peas and roses to name but a few.

We started the morning with super-quick drawing exercises in our swiftly made mini-sketchbooks, moved onto thinking about colour, all the time pondering how these marks on paper might translate into our stitched pieces in the afternoon.

We talked a lot in-between the bleeps of the timers about balancing the slowness of hand-stitching with the speed of drawing and sketching.

It is something I am doing more of myself. Working on paper first - sketching, collaging, colour-swatching and then translating elements of those processes into stitched pieces.

I am always amazed at how much work actually gets done when people come together for a workshop. Spending a few hours focused on drawing and stitching alongside other like-minded folk seems to create a certain kind of energy and productivity.

Everyone produced a goodly number of sketches, a couple of larger colour-washed drawings and the beginnings of a new fabric-collage piece. I was worried that there would be few, if any, finished pieces by the end of the day but happy that everyone went away with a real enthusiasm for their work and a new project to take them forward.

The more I teach, the more connections I see between different themes, groups and practices and (incidentally) the more I teach, the more I need to learn how to pack less STUFF.

My regular weekly Monday workshops are, on the whole, more technique based. We start each session by learning new stitches and then practice and refine any of particular interest or those that people want to use in their personal projects.

One-off day workshops, of which I run one or two a month now, fall into two main camps:

• workshops where I work with a gallery or in a hired space to bring a group of people together, often to kickstart their interest in creative textiles

• workshops where I work with an established group of textile artists and makers on a particular theme or process, sometimes to encourage ways of sustaining their practice or to make more time to develop their own work

Each kind of workshop brings its own challenges and opportunities - the weekly ones demand an element of newness, especially for people who have been attending for a while. I think this makes me a better tutor and, indeed, artist because it keeps my creative antennae working as I seek out new stitches, approaches and techniques to share.

One-off workshops allow me to tailor bespoke sessions and themes to the interests of a particular group. I’ve really enjoyed a couple of sessions recently where we’ve walked through the works in a gallery and brought some of the ideas from paintings, drawings or ceramics back into the workroom, translating ideas into stitch and fabric collage.

It’s something I would like to do more of and yesterday’s session looking at the history of still life painting as part of the introduction was an interesting way to think about how, as textile artists and makers, we can use other genres and disciplines to consider new ideas and approaches.

Working with established art and textile groups is always enriching because many members also have their own particular interests or specialisms.

I may be the tutor for the day, bringing my approach and way of working to the group but I always try to acknowledge the wealth of experience already in the room. These events are also inherently social and full of conversation. I always come away with snippets of ideas or techniques to follow up on in my own practice.

I’ve realised that there is nothing about running workshops that I don’t like - maybe I need to be stricter about the amount of stuff I load and unload, if only for the sake of my aching shoulders, perhaps I should have a more organised set of workshop materials, someone told me I should start collating some of my lesson plans into an online course. There’s always something that I could do, I suppose.

Where I am now is just right. I feel comfortable in what I’m offering to people and happy that I can spend time sharing what I love and learning even more along the way.

I’ve got a busy few weeks coming up but, like last year, am expecting a midsummer holiday lull - that will be the time I think to focus on my own work and to think about next year’s teaching.

I leave you this week with the stars of yesterday’s show. I can confidently say that it was a hyper-local affair - flowers, venue and tutor all within a two mile radius of each other!

Thank you for reading and welcome to those of you who have followed or subscribed recently - it’s great to meet you and I appreciate your time and support.

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Have a great week.

Janice x