I had a fun day with the Guild of Needle Laces at Windsor yesterday, where I was the speaker for their AGM and gave a mini workshop where we made the sashiko panels for pincushions with the shippo (seven treasures) design. I didn't take any photos (it was a busy day) but you can see some of their work on the Guild website. The Guild's mission statement is to 'promote the interest, skills, teaching, conservation, history and exhibition of all needlemade laces' , so the membership has a wide range of interests and produces work in many different styles. I was impressed with their creativity and attention to detail.
Needle lace is something I'm not especially familiar with, although I once tried making a piece from instructions in a needlework book. Even a lot of the specialist tools (scroll down link) are unfamiliar, although they were beautifully crafted from attractive woods and a bit tempting to acquire! I settled for a needlelace 'dreamcatcher' from the sales table as a souvenir of my visit.
Their annual challenge was fasctinating, with the variety of panels all made from the one outline pattern. Click here to see previous years' challenges (I especially like the 2010 challenge). This year's design was abstract and very Art Deco (to me). Hopefully the 2011 challenge panels will be added to their website soon. There seems to be a lot of scope within needle lace for pursuing your individual style and interests, whether by adding colour or varying stitches and infills. Overall, the effect of many of these stitches is not unlike the lace-like effect of hitomezashi (one stitch sashiko - shown in progress on the border of the Denman Kannon below).
Thanks for a lovely day! It was also the first outing for the Denman Kannon after it's return from Japan.
1 comment:
Very interesting post :)
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