100 Hearts War Stories: The Embroiderers Guild

Sacrifice
Felt, hand embroidery, beads and feathers. 2018

In a continuation of my series of posts about centenaries, this is a post about another participatory project commemorating the end of the First World War 100 years ago. This project is run by The Embroiderers Guild and will comprise of a series of exhibitions throughout the UK, each of 100 Hearts created by Guild members. As regular readers know I do like a good participatory project so I signed up earlier in the year to take part.

Closing up the heart with beaded blanket stitch

The project has two main aims, firstly to create a body of work for exhibitions commemorating individuals, events and stories from the first world war and secondly to raise the profile of textile art and the Embroiderers Guild. When registering you could chose which size heart to make (15 cm or 30 cm) and what colour (red, dark blue or light blue.) The Guild provided templates and fabric and some guidelines and ideas about how to decorate your heart but the emphasis was on creating something personal and something that showcased the breadth and scope of modern embroidery.

Pigeon feather detail

Hanging loop detail

As I knew I had a busy year coming up (when don't I?) I decided to go for the smaller size heart and although I would normally choose cool blue colours over reds I decided I would go for a red heart. I've been adding touches of red to my work for a while now to represent blood and life so it seemed like a good opportunity to further explore working with this colour. I sent off my registration form and eagerly awaited the arrival of my fabric.

Embroidery detail

Tassel detail

A few other people from Cumberland Embroiderers Guild (my local branch) have also been taking part in this project and at our meetings I was inspired by the work they'd done. Some had chosen to make their hearts for a particular individual from their family and it was lovely to see their stories embroidered onto the felt hearts. I wanted to create something a bit different that would be a more general memorial rather than about one person.

The back of my heart

Back detail

A couple of years ago Prism Arts were commissioned by Cumbria's Museum of Military Life to create a community quilt to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. For this commission I designed a project that we were able to make in stages, with each participating group creating patches which I then  joined together to create a 46 metre long 'roll call' quilt. To engage participants on this project many of the images we pulled together involved animals and I'd personally become particularly fascinated by the story of pigeons in WWI.

My pigeon patch for the Somme 100 Quilt

At the beginning of the war many homing and carrier pigeons were killed and their owners interrogated, as it was suspected they were being used to send messages abroad. Under the Defence of the Realm Act of 1914 you had to have a permit from the police to keep pigeons and the shooting of pigeons was actively encouraged. Later in the war, however, officials realised that these pigeons could in fact be quite useful and homing and carrier pigeons did go on to become an important part of the war effort. By 1916 the Defence of the Realm Act had been amended to make it illegal to shoot pigeons.

Tassel detail

I've called my heart 'Sacrifice' and incorporated pigeon feathers into my design as a homage to these birds. I wanted to recognise and remember these smaller lives and the human lives they were connected to. I've used feather stitch in different red threads to create texture and added gold thread embroidery, to represent value and the gold of the sun in the sky. It's been an interesting project to work on, particularly in connection to the other remembrance projects I've been involved in and I'm looking forward to seeing the hearts exhibited.

Happy Times

Wedding present commission

A while ago I was asked to create a pair of owls as a wedding present. I really enjoyed making them and, I am led to believe, the happy couple were very pleased with their owls, which had their names and special date embroidered on. So, I was very pleased to be asked to make another wedding present. This time I was asked to make a bird cushion in blacks and reds with the names and wedding date embroidered in silver.

Bird cushion with names and date

Head detail

I'm very pleased with how this guy has turned out, I played around with several different fabrics before settling on a heavy black cotton twill and some funky red cotton prints. I also enjoyed making the pattern for this cushion and I think it is one I will use again as I like the chunky shape.

Wing button

Stitch detail

I used buttons for the eyes and to affix the wings and I hand embroidered the name and date in chain stitch. I used a fine silver thread and after about three letters I remembered why I don't often use this kind of thread for embroidery; it snaps and uncoils frequently but I'm really pleased with the finished result and glad I persevered. I hope the happy couple are pleased with their present!

The Map Project

Detail of my Palm Map

Sometimes work just doesn't work. You have a great idea, you know how you want to do it but for some reason it's just not right. I had this problem whilst working on my piece for the Art House Co-op's Map Project. I had, it's true, left it a little to the last minute as life generally seems to have been insanely hectic recently. However, I had a pretty clear idea what I was going to do and how I wanted it to look. But it just wasn't happening, whatever I did it just didn't work which was very frustrating. I tried changing media and technique but to no avail. So, I left it alone which is sometimes the only option (well, that or complete insanity.)

Had I still had plenty of time to work on the project I wouldn't have been so bothered but as it was I only had a very small window to complete it if I was going to meet the postage deadline. As sometimes happens in these situations I rattled off a piece of work and ended up being far more pleased with the results than with all the other failed experiments. So, here is my completed piece. I had originally intended to do a large drawn and stitched map 'of experience' incorporating images of my hands and various layers of text, image and stitch. This piece would then have folded down to 4x6 inches, as stipulated in the brief. However, things did not go according to plan but I still wanted to keep the basic idea the same; to make a personal map of experience and what is more personal than your hands?

My Map 

Detail

I began by photocopying my hand as I liked the correlation between fingerprints and map contours and the palm readers ideas about love lines and life lines and being able to tell a lot about a person from their hand. I then added washes of white paint and ink and when that was dry I began writing my experiences over where the lines in my hand would be. Some of the stuff I wrote was positive, these are the lighter areas, and some was negative, the darker, more densely written areas. I then added some stitching and cut it down to 4x6 and got it posted. Although it is not how I envisaged it I am pleased with it as it is personal and I think visually it is quite interesting.

Stitch Detail

BOB and Birdy Tiles

Birds on Branches Coasters

I had a very exciting email yesterday inviting me to participate in a new Craft Festival in Derbyshire. It is called BOB: the Underground Craft Festival and is taking place in September in Bakewell, Derbyshire. I'm really looking forward to it, best get making! Which leads me onto my next topic...

We've recently redecorated our front room and one of the things we did was put some lovely red tiles on our bare concrete fireplace. They look really good and finish the room off. We had a few left over and not liking to see things go to waste I thought I'd do a little experimenting, as you know I'm mildly obsessed with birds so that seemed the obvious way to go.

I thought about using light colours but then decided silhouettes would be more dramatic so I used black ceramic paint. I worked from drawings and pictures of real birds and painted the silhouettes directly onto the tiles. I then baked them to fix the paint which was very stressful as I was sure they were going to crack (and we couldn't have dinner until they were done!) Luckily, it all worked out fine and I'm really pleased with the results. I finished the tiles off by backing them with felt so that they wouldn't scratch any surfaces. I think they're quite dramatic and a bit different from my usual stuff but that's no bad thing. If you like them they are for sale in my Folksy shop!

More Bird Coasters

Backed with felt

Felt Backing