January 2014
Members Challenge 2014 – ready for display and judging (by
members as last year) at the AGM in September.
· Any topic or theme in shades of one colour, can include silver and/or gold also the
back ground fabric colour can be different from the shades of one colour
selected.
· Must include stitch
· Max size of piece A4 (excluding frame and
mount)
· For 3 D pieces max size an A4 cube
Travelling Books (2) January to July 2014
Travelling Books (2) January to July 2014
Travelling Books 2013
September 2013
Members Challenge - the theme for this was 'Water' (rivers, canals, rain, ice, puddles, sea, lakes anything associated with the water e.g. flowers, boats, fish, wildlife, people....) and the maximum size was A4.
There were 23 entries with each one being given a number to enable members to select their favourite to vote for. This was very difficult due to the wonderful variety and exceptional quality of the work exhibited. ( Lots of opportunity for mini workshops with such talented members).
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| 874 |
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| 692 |
The first prize was 1 years membership of the Embroiderers Guild with second and third prizes of books.
Once the votes were counted there was a tie for first prize so Terry Murphy CEO kindly contributed another 1 year free membership.
The joint winners were 673 (Rita Duncan) and 692(Sue Morgan) and the runner up 874 (Pam Jones).
Travelling Books Project
This 6 month project has reached its conclusion with a display of the books at the September AGM.
Throughout this has generated great interest and enthusiasm from those involved as well as other members who wished they had signed up. The books are great talking points with each new page being a surprise as well as a work of art.
Just a glimpse of some of the pages created
There will be another opportunity to look at the books at the members meeting in January.
Organisation of travelling books project
Groups of 6 individuals(Tricia
will allocate members to groups with the idea of being able to get to know more
members and their work)
Each member needs to provide
themselves with an A5 book, spiral bound for ease of use(Artist sketch pad 99p
from The Works)
Each month each person will
produce a piece of work/sample (small enough to fit on an A5 page), which can
be in any stitch medium of their choice.
This will then be attached to the
RHS page in the book by method of choice – glue, double sided taps, stitch
etc,( if stitched then the next page can be used to cover the back and the next
page used by following person)
On the LHS page facing the piece
of work the member should include the source of inspiration e.g. small photo,
picture, sketch and any other useful info about colours, stitches, techniques,
reasons for use etc.
Each month at the meeting the
book will be passed to the next person in the group of 6 and they will create a
piece of work to go on next page, this process will continue each month until
the book travels back to its owner.
By the end of 6 months you will
have your own book back with 5 other pieces of work in in addition to your
original piece.
If you are short of inspiration
or particularly partial to one technique you could repeat this each time as the
work is going into 6 different books in total.
This will start in February with
the aim of being completed by September in order to display at the AGM.
TRAVELLING BOOKS (Information from the Oxford Branch)
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| Examples of Travelling books from the Oxford Branch |
W call these Travelling Books because they
“travel” around a group – they are not diaries or journals but if you’re
suffering from a little creative block, need a reason to keep stitching, or
just want an excuse to try out new things on a small scale, then this fits the
bill. It’s a great way of getting to
know others in the branch, sharing inspiration and there’s a monthly tingle of
excitement and anticipation as you await the next book. It is a monthly commitment, but the fun
outweighs that small consideration.
This is how it works –
Everyone interested in joining in signs
up. They are committing to stay for a
“journey” and doing a piece of work each month.
From all those signed up, we then randomly divide these into equal
groups of no more than 6 people and list them person 1-6. Within the group, a person’s “place” on the
list does not change.
Each person has a spiral-bound book. We chose size of A5 landscape – this gave
participants enough room to be creative but was not a scary size. Everyone has a book the same size. IF they want to, a person can have 2
books. One is their “home” book which
stays with them and the other book is their “Travelling Book”. However, if they only want to do a Travelling
Book that is fine.
Each month, everyone creates a piece of
work (or two pieces of work if they have a Travelling and home book – one for
each book). The textile work can be of
any sort - there are no “instructions” or theme, it is entirely up to the
individual – it might be a left-over sample from something they’ve done before,
tried at a workshop, something new they wanted to try out, or a happy
accident. The piece doesn’t have to
be perfect or wonderful or even fit the whole page; it can be hand
stitched, machine stitched, printed, stencilled, collaged, fabric or papers, or
a combination of any of these. People
can be as timid or adventurous as they like.
The textile piece should fit on one page of the book, and on the opposite
page is something that is related to it in some way – a picture, photo,
drawing, poem, doodle, collage, –
whatever they like. Lots of people
create the textile piece first and then go looking for something to go with it,
but some start with the inspiration and then create the textile – there are no
rules to this. Note the two pieces go
side-by-side in the book (but always be aware of what’s on the other side –
particularly if people actually stitch into the page).
If they have a home book, it stays
with the individual and is then a record of all the work they have done for
others.
Each month, the Travelling Book is
passed to the next person on the list (ie person 1
passes to person 2, person 2 to 3 and so on, person 6 passes to person 1). We do this at our monthly meeting and
whichever Travelling Book you have, it is always passed to the same person. If someone can’t be at a meeting, they can
either ask a friend to pass the book on or contact the person they need to give
the book to and make some other arrangement.
Books should not be held on to or it ruins the flow throughout
the group.
Then everyone does the same thing again
(this is the commitment bit!) – a piece
of work for the book which they have just been given (or two pieces of work,
one for the “home” book and one for the Travelling Book if they have both) and
each month the Travelling Book is passed on.
When the Travelling Books have been passed
around everyone in the group they will eventually come back to their original
owners. This completes the “journey” and
everyone then has a book filled with pieces and ideas from everyone else (and
everyone gets excited when they get their book back – we all spend ages looking
through both ours and everyone else’s books !!).
After the first journey, you can start
again with people signing up (people don’t have to sign up to every
journey). You then mix the names up
again to create different groups of people and the Travelling Books start off
on another “journey”.
We are now on our sixth journey and still
have over 30 people participating !!
2 Members challenge
This is for those who like to work
at a different pace or in a slightly larger format than that required for the
travelling books. This piece will also be displayed at the AGM
Theme: Water- rivers, canals,
rain, ice, puddles, sea, lakes anything associated with the water e.g. flowers,
boats, fish, wildlife, people....
Size: Max A4 for 2D or A4 cube
for 3D work
NB the piece must include
stitching.
