24th Nov 2016: 25th Anniversary Celebration to Chatsworth
In recognition of Chelford Guild's 25th Anniversary, 40 members joined the trip to Chatsworth, not just for the Christmas markets & tour of the house & its famed festive light display, but a lovely celebratory lunch. The house provided inspiration for next years Capability Brown exhibition but funniest of all was the fact we went all that way & most of us bought ribbon! You can't take ribbon out of a stitcher. Happy Birthday to us & to the next 25 years.

17th Nov: Alysn Midgelow- Marsden: Workshop
Our day workshop comprised creating embellished surfaces leading to the creation of 'petals' to make 'baubles' or similar. There is a bit more to the process than you might think, but delighted to report some of us have actually finished a piece of work &/or took the opportunity to use up 'those bits in the bottom drawer' to create the petals.

16 Nov 2016: Alysn Midgelow- Marsden: Talk & Workshop
Re-known textile artist Alysn joined us whilst on her annual return back to the UK from her new home in New Zealand.She enlightened us on her new native environment and some of the sculptural work she has been working on- the positives and drawbacks, together with showing us exhibits of her most recognised work.

19th October 2016- Jane McKeating- Assoc Head of Design Manchester School of Art
Another full house to welcome Jane McKeating who has taught at Manchester for 27 years running 8 design courses and educating thousands of students in her role. Having studied at Goldsmiths in London, her passion is sketch ' people within a setting' ( generally just everyday life) and then translating this in to workbooks, and sketchbooks with stitch by way of layering. She also likes to use repeat and sequence and building up the layers with organza and fraying.
We came away feeling very inspired if not inadequate, trying to keep up with Jane's experiences and how these worked through in to art. Loved it!

21st September 2016- Bee Weir- Weaving
Bee from Frodsham in Cheshire rescued our evening by stepping in at the last minute- we are very grateful. Little did we know, we would end up being models ourselves to display the lovely garments Bee develops, and what a great way to see the colours and textures used. Bee talked about her passion for wool ( she also creates with glass too) and the freestyle & mindful weaving she employs.She uses the weft & the warp to experiment with different textures and she showed work on the tri-looms and a few members tried and purchased some of her smaller looms.
www.cratftinthedungeon.com

Beware of Paypal/ Membership scam
We have been made aware of the following & here is a screenshot from EG HQ website

2016-17 Programme OUT NOW

20th July: Chloe Hamilton- Textile Artist
What an inspiring talk to finish off our 2015/16 season! Whilst Chloe had an art background following a BA in Embroidery at Manchester School of Art & a Scholarship to do an MA, her work in the charity/ refugee sector provided an inspiration & a mechanism for translating her passion whilst sharing stories & learning skills from different countries. Chloe told us of her commercial successes but her use of the 'bird' as a symbol for women's stories was fantastic. We would have all bought one of her bags on the night if they had been available ( you made the bag, & it had special cut outs of birds which could be made in to a separate item as a symbol- I know I am not telling this well!). Great evening.

18th May: Bev Elliot
Bev provided us with an informative talk & the journey she took to reach her textile ambitions via various careers. We were really fascinated by her flowers using wire, plastic & Japanese paper.

Exhibition Winners 2016

The award winning work by Sandra who won the public vote for best exhibit 'Owl & Pussycat' with Jean winning the designated title ' Pathways' competition 

 

Annual Exhibition 21st May 2016

Congratulations to all the exhibitors, helpers, tea makers & stall holders who made our exhibition a success. Well done to Sandra & Jean for their winning exhibits. Here is a selection of photographs for the work on show as well as some of our workshop pieces.

 

20th April: Pauline Barnes: 'Designing for Stitch'
Pauline's passion is as a patchworker & she encouraged us to be brave and try lots of new techniques to develop in our work. Look at shapes & colours, cut them up & try again!Think about balance, space etc. From her inspiration of Myan cities in central america, to the rainforest , her love of Venice to even 'doodling' on the telephone can lead to all sorts of  intriguing shapes for stitch.

16 March Armelle Hatch- 'Small Things'
Armelle used her french upbringing & style as inspiration for her work as well as nature. She developed an abstract pleat to lovely effect & we really liked her 'bobbin'. Her display culminated with her array of hat pins many of which she developed and combined to good effect with her french family history. Armelle is also a member of Textile 21.

21 January 2016 : Lynda Monk workshop
We are all of the same opinion that this was one of the best, most active & well organised workshops we have ever attended. Lynda could not have prepared more rigorously & our pre-purchased kits were perfect. We enjoyed making our vessels with the kumin felt & gesso. The thermofax machine was amazing & how much we could create in a few hours! Then there was the enjoyment of the heat gun & powders. There wasn't a spare minute. We went home very happy if not utterly exhausted!!!!

20 January 2016: Lynda Monk : Creative Surfaces
Our first talk of 2016 was a virtual sell out, as we were captivated by the skills of Lynda Monk & her techniques . We loved the vessels she created & how she painted them with just 3 stock colours. The thermo screen printing was popular & the versatility of lutrador & kumin felt left us to ponder many future projects. Luckily Lynda has written many books- much more eloquent than I can describe here.

18 November 2015 : Fiona Nisbet: Textile Artist

Fiona is a member of www.shropshireweavers.co.uk & she gave us a detailed insight into silk, & how the various processes create the products we use today, & as a dyer & spinner how she uses them. It was very interesting to learn the words used, as many of us had heard of them but never appreciated the origins. Even the silk worm diet created a different silk ranging from 'tatta' silk from eating mulberry leaves to oak silk moth creating wild 'tussah' silk. These silk cocoons can spin a massive amount of silk for the 'throster' to unravel & 'denier' is derived from the number of cocoons used for a thread. Then there is 'reel silk' & 'noil' which when stretched creates 'handkerchief' or 'silk cap'. I loved the fact you could buy a 'brick' of cone silk.