Design ebook: The Embroidery of Ann Macbeth

The Embroidery of Ann Macbeth is one of a range of history of design and decoration books by John Hopper. This book in particular takes a look at the work of the embroidery style and teaching methods of Ann Macbeth, head of the embroidery department of the Glasgow School of Art between 1908 and 1920. The book comes with a wealth of original decorative work by Ann Macbeth as well as liberal quotes about her belief in the empowerment of women through creative independence.

The book is instantly available from the following link: https://payhip.com/b/UkEa

Book Review: Rosie James - Stitch Draw

Figurative stitch has taken great strides in the last few years. It has taken on both a popularity and a much needed contemporary feel. Embroidery in general today is much more relevant, much more topical, much more strident – stitch has become a home for protest, examination, observation, and for solutions. There seems no better time to release a book of where we are regarding contemporary figurative stitching, and how to help produce the drawing of stitch, than now.

Stitch Draw by Rosie James is a comprehensive guide to figurative stitching, giving techniques and tips regarding free style stitch – drawing with stitch.

Rosie guides the reader through a whole series of techniques and working methods, from setting up a sewing machine, through to drawing exercises that take you from pencil to stitch. This is a book that liberates the artist. There is no tight framework of the ‘right’ way of doing things, this is very much a book that expects the artist to liberate, to literally run with the stitch.

From the background of tradition to the forefront of contemporary art, stitch has made an extraordinary run through the last few years, in no small part due to the high profile artists who have pushed the limits of what can and should be achieved by stitch. These artists have taken stitch and placed it at the cutting edge of contemporary life, and often of contemporary protest. Artists who examine the world that we find ourselves in, and find aspects of that world wanting, are now firmly ensconced within the techniques of stitch, and particularly figurative stitching.

Rosie James gives voice to that element of contemporary figurative stitch in Stitch Draw. She celebrates the extraordinary depth of her own work, which liberally illustrates Stitch Draw, but also highlights the work of some of the best contemporary artists that are using stitch today. Artists such as: mags James, Maria Wigley, Hinke Schreuders, Nike Schroeder, Tucker Schwarz, Leigh Bowser, Sophie Strong and more.

This isn’t a book limited to textile artists, or those wanting to enter the textile art field. This is a book for artists – of any discipline, it is a book for artists who want to explore another way of expressing themselves. That is the important message of contemporary stitch, stitch is a drawing technique and can be experimented on and by any artist. It is a message stated loud and clear in Stitch Draw.

Rosie James is a textile artist with a fine art background. She studied textiles at Goldsmiths College London and runs workshops on her stitch-drawing techniques throughout the UK. Her works are exhibited in museums around the world.

Stitch Draw: Design and Techniques for Figurative Stitching by Rosie James, is published by Batsford and is available from October 4 2018.

SCREWED by Mary Mazziotti

Mary Mazziotti: Eagle, 2016 (hand embroidery and applique on vintage textile)

I make memento mori (remember you must die) primary in textiles. Notwithstanding the seriousness of the subject I try to lean more towards wit than morbidity. 

SCREWED is a response to the “election” of an unhinged con man with the connivance of a hostile foreign power.  And I’m appalled and disgusted that so many Americans fell for his misogynistic, xenophobic, racist blather. The path he’s leading us down will not make American Great Again. It’s a death sentence for the best principles of democracy. Nations can have life spans, just as people do. SCREWED is a memento mori for America.

SCREWED, can be found along with a range of other work by Mary, at her comprehensive website: http://www.mazziottiart.com/

Mary Mazziotti: George Washington, 2016 (hand embroidery and applique on vintage textile)

               Mary Mazziotti: Lincoln, 2016 (hand embroidery and applique on vintage textile)

Mary Mazziotti: Mt Rushmore, 2016 (hand embroidery and applique on vintage textile)

Mary Mazziotti: Statue of Liberty, 2016 (hand embroidery and applique on vintage textile)

Mary Mazziotti: Thomas Jefferson, 2016 (hand embroidery and applique on vintage textile)

Mary Mazziotti: Uncle Sam, 2016 (hand embroidery and applique on vintage textile)

Textile Artist and Designer Jennifer Gaye

Illustration: Jennifer Gaye. Ocean Current Series 1

Textiles as a medium, is broad and complex. It has a history that is domestic, as well as aesthetic, practical, as well as decorative, singularly one dimensional, as well as infinitely multi-dimensional. It is this dichotomy between textile as functional fabric, and textile as expressive artform, that helps to give broad expression to the textile world, but it can also, at the same time, make it difficult to understand what textile as art really is, and where it fits into the great complexity that is the creative arts.

Where textiles as art finds its eventual place, is still an ongoing one. That more and more artists and designers are turning towards the broadening of the scope of textile art as an expression of themselves and the world they both see and interact with, has changed the surface of textiles as art, literally.

Illustration: Jennifer Gaye. Ocean Hollow Series 1

Illustration: Jennifer Gaye. Ocean Hollow Series 2

The textile artist and designer Jennifer Gaye has a deep relationship with the discipline, in both her incarnations as artist and designer. It would be fair to say that Jennifer's work in both the art and design worlds helps to influence all aspects of her work. The line between art and design is often a thin and perforated one, much more so than is often imagined, it helps to make each aspect of her attention, whether art or design, the stronger for the understanding from the different aspect.

The  inspiration for her artwork often comes from the natural world, often from the wide scapes of ocean and sky. She is keen to represent the many tones and layers that help to make up these two scapes, ones that dominate not only our vistas, but the planet as a whole. Interestingly, Jennifer sees both scapes being intimately involved in our created urban landscapes, folding into the urbanity, blending and toning down the aggressiveness, the dysfunction that is so often found there. It is the calmness and innocence of ocean and sky, of their layers, levels, breezes and currents, that so often help to temper our artificial landscapes, but more importantly, help temper ourselves within those landscapes.

Illustration: Jennifer Gaye. Cool Breeze series 1

Illustration: Jennifer Gaye. Naturalised Urbanity Series

Jennifer creates the most beautiful of organic surfaces, each piece seeming to show the effortless drift of elements of sky and ocean. Currents of both realms are represented as careful layers of work, through layers of fabric and stitch. Almost ethereal in tone and feeling, her work shows no sharp edges and angles, no pressing urgency of direction, just the soft and gentle flowing of movement, seeming to both guide and glide along predetermined pathways, but pathways with only the gentlest hint of predetermination.

These beautiful surfaces show us that textile art is above all, one of feeling, of empathy, and of understanding. It is no coincidence that so many textile artists look to the natural world for inspiration. Nature has an affinity with the textile medium, as textiles have an affinity with nature. The two are so wrapt up with each other that it seems perfectly normal and expected when a textile artist projects an aspect of the natural world through their work. The textile art form has a sophistication of medium that is exemplified by the sensitivity of the artists that use the medium. Both are partners in their shared empathy with nature, and it is credit to Jennifer as a textile artist, that she exemplifies such a high standard of that shared empathy.

Illustration: Jennifer Gaye. Naturalised Urbanity Series

Illustration: Jennifer Gaye. Naturalised Urbanity Series

The work of Jennifer Gaye can be found at her comprehensive website: jennifergaye.com, as well as at facebook, and instagram.

Please be aware that the illustrations for this article were supplied by Jennifer herself. Please do not share any of these images without permission from the artist. Thanks!

Illustration: Jennifer Gaye. Bringing Home the Tartan

China Marks at the Owen James Gallery

Illustration: Flower Boy, 2015 (fabric, thread, screen-printing ink, fusible adhesive)

China Marks is an artist that was originally a sculptor, but over the years the artist has moved into textiles, and now produces a range of individualistic fabric-based compositions.

China is best known for her large format drawings, which take the form of fabric collages. Source materials for these collages often include an eclectic range, such as old commercial tapestry reproductions of historical paintings, pieces of found fabrics, various embroidery pieces, and general ephemera. 

Over long periods these eclectic raw materials are cut up by China, then formed, added to, removed from, and reformed, the process being repeated over and over, until both materials and process produce the desired effect that she wants to see within a composition. 

Illustration: All Kinds of Lost, 2015 (fabric, thread, fusible adhesive)

Illustration: Better Living Through Chemistry, 2013 (fabric, tea-dyed lace, thread, screen-printing ink, fusible adhesive)

The result of China's ongoing creative manipulation, eventually produces a range of surreal characters and creatures that inhabit equally surreal landscapes. With the addition of humorous and mocking text, which she also sews into the work, the resulting fabric drawings become a strange combination of collage, traditional needlework craft, surreal fantasy, and an almost Monty Python-like humour.

China's work, which has been brought together for her current exhibition, which runs at the Owen James Gallery, Brooklyn, New York from February 27 till March 27 2016, is a selection of the artist's work that has been chosen from both her “Broadsides” and “Short Subjects” series, ongoing projects which the artist has developed over the last three years. Although smaller in format than her larger pieces, these present drawings are not merely smaller versions, they differ considerably from the dense construction of her larger works. 

Illustration: God's Breath, 2014 (fabric, thread, fusible adhesive)

Illustration: So What!, 2015 (fabric, thread, screen-printing ink, old painty sweatpants, fusible adhesive, brass trim)

The "Short Subjects" are constructed on a clear plain white or off-white background. Initially intended by the artist as thought-pieces, or visual proverbs, they have developed into their own visual style. China begins each Short Subject with a scanned line drawing, the resulting digital file is then processed through CAD software.  A computerized embroidery machine sews out a rough guide of the drawing in running stitch onto fabric. The artist then builds on that guide, adding additional fabric pieces and embroidery. Sometimes parts of the original drawing will be covered over, sometimes it will be enhanced or transformed into a new character all together. 

As the artist forms and reforms the images, a story or situation develops in her mind, and phrases and conversations that arise from that development are also digitized through the computerized embroidery machine. These are then in turn sewn into the work, sometimes with the addition of found objects or trinkets, and the composition is then set. 

Illustration: Time Traveler, 2013, (fabric, thread, screen-printing ink, fusible adhesive)

Illustration: Winter Comet, 2016 (fabric, thread, lace, screen-printing ink, fusible adhesive)

China's text additions to her work, are integral and vital to the story, they can also be witty, ironic, and playful. Examples include: “I am going to Hell at a local motel. And I’ve packed accordingly” and “Heard about the psychotic squirrel who thought he was a washing machine?”

The title for each of China's compositions is purposely different from the text you read within it, the titles adding an interesting poetic dimension, so that titles such as “All Kinds of Lost”, “Winter Comet” and “Better Living Through Chemistry” give pause for thought when looking at the differing work.

In combination with the "Short Subjects" are a number of pieces from the "Broadsides" series. These are similar in scale to the other series, although the Broadsides differ in the respect that they are more streamlined and are primarily text-based with occasional illustrations.

Illustration: Clown Pants, 2014 (fabric, lace, thread, fusible adhesive)

Illustration: Wings for Arms, 2013 (fabric, thread, fusible adhesive)

Although the narrative image doesn't play as big a role in this second series, the effect of the compositions are equally witty, focused, and often poignantly observational. In one composition, a man wears clown pants and 4-inch heels to his mother’s funeral. In another, a woman has wings for arms but chooses to walk everywhere instead.

A third part of the exhibition derives from China's series of fabric-based artist books. These beautifully sculptural books contain much the same image density as the artist's larger tapestry-based drawings. In "A Book of Horses", there is a highly decorative landscape of traditional English fox hunting, which includes riders that have duck heads and horses that have tiger legs. Larger figures and insects hover over the landscape, producing a highly original metamorphic scene. 

This fascinating and entertaining exhibition is on at the Owen Jones Gallery from February 27 - March 27 2016.

Please be aware that all imagery of China's work, was supplied with kind permission by the gallery, and should not be reproduced without permission. Thanks.

Illustration: A Book of Horses, 2008 (fabric, thread, lace, screen-printing ink, latex, paint, industrial felt, fusible adhesive)

Roxanne Lasky and the Tide of Movement

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Migration. Hireath

So many creative individuals come to work with textiles, some briefly integrating the discipline within their larger mixed media work, others looking for some significance that they feel that textiles can bring them. Artists can drift into textiles through seeming coincidence, others with a more defined purpose. 

Fine artists in particular often seem drawn to textiles as a medium in which they feel comfortable. It seems to give them a means in which to express themselves more clearly, more empathically, it gives them a subtlety of colour and texture, and perhaps more importantly, it gives them a means to express themselves emotionally.

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 1

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 1 (detail)

The artist Roxanne Lasky came to textile art through fine art painting, she originally expressed herself through watercolour and oils. It is not hard to see elements of that fine art discipline in Roxanne's work, she has a light painterly touch to her compositions. However, it would be a mistake to see this artist as doing nothing more than replicating the early work she produced in paint, within textiles.

Roxanne has grown as a creative artist, as all artists must. She has learnt to understand and to appreciate both the limitations, as well as the freedoms that textiles can give to her as an artist. It is a discipline that can be complex, as well as simplistic. It has many layers of process, often literally, and these layers of process guide the exploration of the artist, they create parameters for work, narrative, and composition.

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 3

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 3 (detail)

Parameters are always useful to an artist. We talk a lot about the intellectual and creative freedom of an artist, and of course that is of paramount importance, but disciplines have their own rules, understandings, and limitations, and as an artist you can either fight against those seeming constraints, or you can flow with them, allowing them to cushion and guide your creative pathway.

Personal narrative is a driving force in Roxanne's work. Personal experience influences, colours, and reflects within her compositions, they emerge if you like, from the life of the artist. Roxanne is very much involved with the themes of place, cycles, movement, transformation, and migration. 

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 4

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 4 (detail)

Her work runs on major titled themes such as Tidal, Migration, Memory. These themes can easily be seen as belonging to the larger external world, the world of environment, and our place within it, and to an extent they are. However, Roxanne equally deals with these subject titles as an internal exploration and expression, and this is perhaps the most interesting aspect of her work, as it is where we all sit, internally looking out at the external.

Externally, we seem caught up in the web of life, trapped in the constraints of movement and cycles that are not necessarily of our choosing. However, internally our lives seem governed by our own sense of place, cycle, migration. We travel along the paths of our own purpose, often repeating elements of ourselves, travelling in circles and cycles of meaning that suit us. We are part of a tide of movement, not through the physical world, but through the world of our own meaning, our own perception. 

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. 27 Stages (detail)

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. 12 Moons (detail)

Perception is our tool of individuality, and individual perception is the most significant work tool of the artist. Roxanne's creative themes are her personal themes, they are her personal perspective. Her compositions are the product of her practical working process, as well as her deep internal process. Both drive the other along their twin paths towards completion, both are of equal significance, both are needed to complete the creative work, and both give us the continuing expression of the artist Roxanne Lasky.

More of Roxanne's work can be found at her website: www.roxannelasky.com, as well as at the social media sites of: twitter, facebook, instagram, pinterest.

All of the imagery used for this article was kindly supplied by the artist herself, and is therefore copyrighted to her. Please do not reuse the imagery unless you have permission from Roxanne herself.

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 2

The Profanity Embroidery Group

Illustration: Annie Taylor. Fucketyfucketyfuckfuckfuck

Most textile disciplines have been around for countless generations. They have a long history of relevance and tradition, they also have a long history of being connectors of individuals, groups and communities, very often using innovation, and subversion.

Embroidery is a textile discipline in particular that has had more than its fair share of relevance, continually reinventing itself within different contemporary eras, with each successive generation finding the means to reinvent, or at least add towards, the strong tradition that it has as part of its history.

Illustration: Alison Fizgerald Lucas. Beaver

There is always a risk that if a discipline does not reflect the contemporary generation that uses it, at least in part, then its fate could well be to become fossilised within its own history, within its own tradition. This is not to say that all practitioners have to reflect the society that they find themselves in, but as long as an element does, the discipline moves forward, and a new expression has been added to the mix.

The Profanity Embroidery Group is one of those elements that is adding a contemporary flavour to the discipline of embroidery. It has only been formed recently, but is full of vigour, fun, and creative energy.

Illustration: Allie Lee. Can't be Arsed

The story of the group is best told by one of its founders the embroiderer Annie Taylor:

About 25 years ago, I sent a Rina Piccolo cartoon to my mother.  18 months or so ago, it fell out of one of her embroidery books, and she returned it to me.  It made me laugh so hard when I saw it, that I promptly shared it to my Facebook page.  It struck a chord with so many friends that within a matter of hours, our first Profanity Embroidery Group meeting. 

The cartoon is of a sweet old lady embroidering hearts and flowers and 'fuck the world': the title was 'Mrs Winchester finds a positive outlet for frustrated negative energy'. 

The Profanity Embroidery Group is made up of around twenty practitioners of varying skills, some had never sewn before, some were self-taught, and some had studied textiles before. The group is based in kent, England, and they meet up every other week at the Duke of Cumberland pub in Whitstable.

Illustration: Bridget Carpenter. Silly Bitch

Their first group project is the Quilt of Profanity which will be unveiled at their first exhibition to be held at the Fishslab Gallery, Whitstable, from February 10-16. Also on show will be a range of Valentine inspired pieces of embroidery work.

If you are going to the exhibition, and I highly recommend it, please be aware that the embroidery work does contain a liberal supply of rude words, so is perhaps not suitable for the young, and the easily offended.

The Profanity Embroidery Group facebook page can be found here, and the Profanity Embroidery Group exhibition facebook page can be found here.

Please be aware that all the imagery used in this article belong to the artists, so please don't reproduce them without permission from the individual artists named.

Illustration: Sarah Jesset. Wanker

The Artist Mary Mazziotti - Laughter in the Face of Death

Mary Mazziotti. A Day in the Life of Mrs Death, 1 in a series of 12, embroidered panel

The artist Mary Mazziotti produces a range of witty memento mori in a variety of guises, from embroidered textiles to full-sized billboards. Her work centres around the intention of producing work that will encourage the observer of her work to understand the fleeting ephemeral aspect that is the life that we live.

Mary Mazziotti. Shopping for Groceries, A Day in the Life of Mrs Death, 5 in a series of 12, embroidered panel

Death, the end of our brief lives, is a subject that none of us can ever be immune to, it doesn't matter how much money you have, how much you think your status on the planet gives you more than others, we all end up at the same place. 

How we approach the subject of the demise of each and every one of us, is a matter that has been treated in an endless array of social niceties across the many generations that our species has walked the planet. We have embraced, grudgingly accepted, or ignored death, we have danced with it, tried to trick it, and even tried to engineer others to take our place, but of course death gives us its eternal grin and takes us all anyway, regardless of what we do during our lives.

Mary Mazziotti. From the Cradle to the Grave, hand embroidery of vintage textile

Mary Mazziotti. From the Cradle to the Grave, hand embroidery on vintage textile

That is perhaps part of the appeal of the work of Mary, her big grin in the face of death. Mary treats the end of our lives with the droll humour and wit that it should perhaps be accorded more often, it is after all just another natural part of life, and if we are all faced with the same, then perhaps we should be at least familiar with it, rather than as we tend to do now, pretend it never happens, or if it does, to others, not ourselves.  

Mary Mazziotti. The Rake's Progress: Tom Gets a Fortune, 1 in a series of 8, embroidered panel

Mary Mazziotti. The Rake's Progress: Tom Marries a B-List Celebrity, 5 in a series of 8, embroidered panel

Mary's take on memento mori, literally "remember you will die", is part of a very long tradition that dates back to the Romans, if not before. "Remember you will die" could also be termed "be prepared, you will die". There are so many sneaky ways that death can sidle up to you nowadays, from pointed political terrorism, to the nonchalance of a moment's distraction on the road, it can happen in an instant, and often does.

So why are we so ill-prepared for our end? We declare as a culture, a zest for life, a love of what it is to be living in the moment that we hope is eternal, but never is. If being born is a part of the rich tapestry of our lives, then so too is death. The two should be celebrated as equals, but in reality births are a projection of collective hope, whilst death is hidden away as an unseemly individual experience, too stressing for our culture to experience.

Mary Mazziotti. Death at the Opera: Carmen, embroidered panel

Mary Mazziotti. Death at the Opera: Tosca, embroidered panel

Mary is an artist that asks us, through humour, to look at the facts of our lives with clarity, and if we can, humour. I personally love the inclusion of death as a healthy subject of creative debate, we spend far too much our time burying our experience of death deep within the interiors of our hospitals and care homes, and not enough within our popular and contemporary culture.

Mary Mazziotti. American Memento Mori: Tango, applique and embroidery on vintage textile

Therefore, I encourage you to visit Mary's website, www.mazziottiart.com, and to perhaps take some time to laugh with her, and perhaps even a chuckle with death at the absurdity of life, death, the universe, and everything.

Mary Mazziotti. Obituary billboard