CETG Meeting on Monday 9th December 2019

Our Speaker – Anne Griffiths

Her Subject - Stories in Stitch (different to the one advertised)

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Here is an overview of the talk on the night, along with some photos of her work, and of

members entering into the festive spirit!

 

Anne started her stitching life by making a hexagon patchwork quilt when she was 10 to 13

years old.  She always brings this quilt along to her talks as this is the only piece of patchwork

she has done. She taught City & Guilds classes covering most areas (except patchwork and quilting) including beading, hand embroidery, machine embroidery, and textile design.

 

Her talk this evening covered her community projects and projects for children.  She is very interested in books and the shapes of letters in pattern and this theme follows through in her work.  She thinks fabrics are like smells - very evocative. Anne showed a slide of an illuminated manuscript which was kept in her family whilst she was growing up -  she was always fascinated by this.

 

On taking Part 2 of the City & Guilds, her work was all about angels and messages.  Anne showed a piece inspired by the Rosetta Stone which reminded her of script; for this she used Arabic newspaper as her background “fabric”. One of her hangings on display was an angel piece.  She thinks angels are messengers. The background is machine embroidery with angel quotations from the Bible.  Another hanging used pressed flowers from her Mother’s garden (her Mother had died not long before this final piece). Anne uses image transfer and many other different techniques.

 

Another project Anne was a part of was The Big Draw “Banbury Hats in Literature”, a project with families, something that can be done with children or grandchildren. The Big Draw happens each year - its aim is to encourage people to draw, particularly focussing on children in schools and nurseries. She put packs together for making each hat and families then assembled them for dislpay in the library.   

 

Anne took an HNC in Stitched Textiles.  She is interested in Japanese art and Japanese craft.  She thinks that in Japan art and craft are appreciated much more than elsewhere. She showed her Kimono project; small sized kimonos for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.  They are about 18” long and made using her own dyed fabrics (often cotton dust sheets), beautifully hand painted and stencilled with flowers.

 

Anne had an exhibition of her work around the subject of Alice in Wonderland in the Lake District. The book has been illustrated by many artists and is one that everyone knows. She used the illustrations to make create pieces – she showed us a large hanging of bookshelves “Bookcase”. Cushions were also made using the images, some of which are in the Oxford reading library.

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Many pieces of her work were on display for us to enjoy after her talk:

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• “The White Rabbit” – used paper pattern pieces for a waistcoat then machine embroidered on silk organza.

• The large hanging “Bookcase” - all of the pieces were made separately and then put together.  The books on the shelves are all contemporary for the time that Alice in Wonderland was published. She also uses devore technique and also cutwork.

• The “Beautiful Garden” flowers created using the corsage technique.

• The “peacock jacket" - inspired by national dresses e.g. Indian/Asian using Angelina fibres. All of the writing in the piece was free machining - she writes the text first onto the fabric and machines over the top.

• The Mad Hatter's Tea Party" - here she painted the blue and white china onto the fabric

• The “Queen’s Rose Tree” – again, all pieces were made separately first then put together.

• Another two large panels shown to us were I Phones.  The icons were all part of the Alice in Wonderland story.  They were also then made into cushions, using four icons per cushion.

 

Anne took an MA in Fine Art last year and this year she is taking an MA in History with a focus on the history of sugar.