Girl sewing

I am amazed at how many artists have portrayed ladies/girls sewing. This is by William Adolph Bougerea painted in 1898 and is called The Seamstress.

Others include Renoir, Van Gogh, Gwen John, Dali, Morisot, and Mary Cassatt.

Carla Mines

Stitch Challenge

This is a small piece I did for a monthly stitch challenge.

I was allowed 3 pieces of fabric, cut & arranged for background & then 20 minutes to stitch down using 3 different stitches. Some stencilling & dimensional paint were added along the way.

Corinne Renow-Clarke

Agnes Richter

I love words and they feature strongly in my work, mostly in the form of handwriting from old letters, recent lectures and quotations. The words are hand stitched or machined. A slow thoughtful process that leaves a permanent mark that may have been insignificant or almost forgotten. There is something so personal about leaving your mark with needle and thread.

Here, I was looking at Agnes Richter, a German seamstress (1844-1918), a patient at Heidelberg Psychiatric Clinic. She wrote on her day jacket, mostly in black and white with the odd piece of coloured thread, red, blue and yellow.

Words and sentences were stitched intensely all over, many indecipherable. There are visible perspiration stains that map the contours of the body.

Agnes rejected language, predominantly a male prerogative, and returned to the feminine and utilised needle and thread as a means of communication. I wanted to make a small piece to mark her life.

I used a piece of found embroidery to commemorate her life. I stitched her name, her occupation and the dates that she lived. 

Carla Mines

Towards Inhabit

The next exhibition of new work by Brunel Broderers is in the spring of 2021 at The Lansdown Gallery in Stroud, Gloucestershire, under the title Inhabit. 

This has set me off on an exploration of modern high rise buildings with their towering height, their reflections and their sense of eternal activity - and the dramatic change their sudden presence makes in the urban landscape.

Right now, I'm looking in detail at a building I photographed in Sydney, Australia, on a visit a few years ago. At the time I saw it, I was fascinated by its construction, its colours and the vertical shapes within it. A closer look has revealed much more. I have explored the image via cutting and enlarging to focus on areas of interest, and then drawing and stitching shapes and marks that catch my eye. These photos give a small sample of this early work.

This is just the beginning of exploration. Like so many beginnings, the images above may lead forward into work or may lead nowhere at all. Only time will tell. 

Margaret Robbie

Weaving and tiles in Marrakech

More images from Linda's recent visit to Marrakech.

This time, she visited a local textile business run by Faissal who took her to see his workshop in the city. He is the third generation of his family to carry on the family’s weaving business. 

The family weave a range of scarves and shawls in plain or twill weaves in wool or cotton. They use yarns in irresistable soft and subtle colours - and a few have been bought over Linda's visits!

Note the wonderful tiles and decoration on the walls and ceiling. The young man winding bobbins is sporting an amazing T-shirt which somehow compliments the traditional tiles behind him!!

Linda Babb

Prehistoric rock art

I'm using the opportunity of a mixed media sketchbook class at theyard:ARTspace in Cheltenham with Sue Brown to play with ideas for a future BBs exhibition on the theme of Inhabit.

Here, I’ve been looking at prehistoric British rock art and exploring the marks, possibly symbolic, to be found. 

The plan is to develop some of these into stitched samples & see where that leads.

Corrine Renow-Clarke

Visiting Marrakech

Wandering the souks of Marrakech (a favourite haunt of hers) yesterday afternoon, Linda found these exquisitely embroidered textiles.

A close look reveals the simplicity of the stitches used, cross stitch on one and chain stitch on the other - timeless and without boundaries both of them.

It just shows, you don't have to be complicated technically or break dramatically new ground to make an impact!

Linda Babb