Jessie Chorley book giveaway!

Hello all! Once again we have a lovely guest post and giveaway from Karen Thiesen, of Woman With a Needle. Read on for her review of Jessie Chorley's latest book, and stay tuned at the end of the post for a giveaway!

I am a huge fan of Jessie Chorley, so I was very excited to find out that she was writing a book! Jessie Chorley: The Story of a Maker describes how Jessie became the artist that she is, as well as giving you a glimpse into her incredibly creative mind. I’ll just tell you some of my favorite things that I learned about Jessie from the book.

Jessie is a collector with a capital C! She loves rummaging through Paris flea markets and Welsh charity shops (usually with her mum, textile artist Primmy Chorley), and can often be found at Spitalfields market in London (sounds like fun to me!)

She displays her ever-changing collection at home, or incorporates it into her work and passes it on through her shop. She considers it her visual sketchbook. She is such a well-known collector that people leave her gifts of vintage items on the doorstep of her store!

I am a textile lover through and through, but when I took one of Jessie’s altered book workshops, I found a new passion. I love the story about how she started making them! When she was a student (in Fine Art Textiles at Goldsmiths College in London), she was required to create research books for her course work. She didn’t like using the usual white paged sketch books everybody else was using, so one day she passed a pile of books on the side of the road that someone had thrown out…..and that was the beginning of her altered journals!

This is a lovely description of Jessie by Louise Presley of Hope and Elvis workshops, where Jessie often teaches: “As a petite Edwardian-esque woman with a shy charm, she was utterly entrancing… Her clothes are so interesting and full of verve, with brooch-embellished jackets and hand-embroidered aprons covering her beautiful vintage frocks.”

If you are feeling inspired by all the beautiful pictures of her work, (and there are many more pictures in the book!) Jessie has included instructions for two of her signature pieces: a stitched bow and a covered button. She also talks about how her shop (on London’s famed Columbia Road) came to be, her process in making her stitched pieces and brooches, and how she tells a story with mended and embellished vintage clothing.

If you would like to read more about Jessie Chorley, there are two recent articles about her: the May/June 2015 issue of Somerset Studio Magazine and one in the upcoming Sept/Oct 2015 Embroidery Magazine. Jessie’s book can be purchased through her website www.jessiechorley.com. You can also follow Jessie on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Jessie will be teaching for the first time in the US, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, September 15-19, 2015. For details go to www.womanwithaneedle.com.

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Thank you, Karen, for this review of Jessie's book - and thank you for giving us the chance to give one copy of Jessie Chorley: The Story of a Maker to our readers!  This giveaway is open to all of our readers.

To win, leave a comment on this post by Monday, Aug 24, 9 PM US CST - please answer this question for us - Are you a collector of fabrics, notions, haberdashery, or stitching tools? If so, what do you collect? (Photos would also be wonderful!) We will choose 1 random winner after the comments are closed, and notify everyone soon after!

Fabric Pictures giveaway winner!

We have a winner in the Janet Bolton book giveaway!

feeling stitchy: Interview with Janet Bolton

LUGIRL • 2 days ago

My favourite artist is Kandinsky with franz Marc being a close second. Thank you

Enjoy your book, LUGIRL! Thank you again to Karen Thiesen from www.womanwithaneedle.com for sharing the inspiring interview of Janet Bolton with us, and sharing the book for our giveaway.

Interview with Janet Bolton and giveaway!

Today I have the pleasure to bring you another guest interview done by Karen Thiesen. Karen interviewed Janet Bolton, who will be teaching a workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico in September 2016. For more information on Janet's upcoming class, go to www.womanwithaneedle.com. Karen will also be giving away one copy of Janet's latest book to one lucky Feeling Stitchy reader!

Without further ado, let's meet Janet Bolton!

“The Kite Festival” by Janet Bolton

Who are your favorite artists?
This is a difficult question to answer but one that I am often asked. Recently I went to see a new exhibition of Eric Ravilious, an artist whose work I have loved for many years. His use of pattern and disregard of naturalistic perspective pleases me very much; maybe of course, because it relates to the way I compose my own pieces. But it is much more than this. There is a calmness and an Englishness that pleases me immensely, and I can remember seeing his work from my childhood. Another artist, not very well known, is Mary Newcomb. Mary lived in Norfolk and painted her surroundings in an idiosyncratic way. Often her starting point was a particular range of colours, for example, the colours of a misty morning. Painting a canvas to explore these observations, she would often keep them and decide what to place on them at a later date, another working method that I often use myself.

Winifred Nicholson is another favourite, her joy was to paint light. She often used flowers as her subjects to enable her to do this. I appreciate the way she worked in and appreciated a domestic setting.

Alfred Wallis, a retired sailor, painted, he said, in later life to keep himself company. I love the way he places the different elements of his images and his uncomplicated direct approach, painting with household paint on anything he had to hand.

I could go on and on but must mention Elizabeth Allen, a retired seamstress who also worked with the materials she had to hand. In this case fabric, and it was seeing her work, by chance, that confirmed my decision to work with fabric rather than paint. (Janet talks a bit more about Elizabeth Allen in her new book... see below).

Bits and pieces in the studio

Janet Bolton in her studio

What is the best part about working in your studio?
The best aspect of working in my studio is that I am surrounded by all the inspirational bits and pieces, not to mention the fabrics, that I have collected (knowing that I would use them sometime) over the years, Everything is to hand and sometimes chance 'sightings' and juxtapositions can change the direction of a piece that I am working on completely, very exciting. The room is light and airy so pleasant to be in. Having said this, I do use the whole house as a studio but love the knowledge that I am never far away from “the mother ship”.

Objects as starting points. “The Strange Plant” by Janet Bolton

Do you like working in other mediums besides needle and thread?
Drawing, sketching, making small watercolour and crayon studies, and making small objects from bits and pieces go hand in hand with my needlework. Very rarely do I relate these to my fabric compositions; just occasionally an object has become a starting point for a textile piece.

Janet’s latest work, “Cool Waters”

What is inspiring your current work?
This is another difficult question as I never know from day to day what will inspire me or how a piece of work will develop. I work around themes but these subject matters can be returned to years apart, some I think will go on for as long as I do. At this very moment it is very warm here and I am working on a very pale cool abstract piece. Maybe I am doing what the Japanese do, work on, or wear, cool colours when it is hot, and use a warmer palette when it is cool. Who knows, I have only just thought of this, and maybe it is just because the weather is unusually hot here at the moment.

Janet’s favorite work, “Barn on the Moors” by Janet Bolton

Do you have a favorite piece of work that you made?
My favourite piece is one I made many years ago, a landscape depicting a moorland scene. The fabrics used were dyed using plants from the area, and it brings back so many happy memories. (Janet talks about this piece in more detail in her new book... see below) I do have other favourites and one of the characteristics that they have in common is that they bring back good memories.

“Three Sheep Above the Mill” by Janet Bolton

You’ve taught and exhibited all over the world. What are your favorite places to visit?
It is a strange thing but having taught all over the world it becomes more and more obvious to me that is the people you meet in very diverse situations that are the important factor. As people travel all over the world from one venue to another, the groups are often made up of people from many different countries. It seems to me that textile enthusiasts are a great group of people and we often find that we have many things in common, no matter where we come from or what our personal backgrounds and circumstances are. This makes the world seem quite a small place. The venues that I go to are so diverse that it is impossible to select a particular one. I have been going for many years to Cowslip Workshops in Cornwall, a favourite destination; a beautiful venue, but also the owners have become firm friends of mine. West Dean College is another favourite place and yet quite different from Cowslip, so as you can imagine I find it almost impossible to compare places.

“Looking Up the Valley” by Janet Bolton

Thank you, Karen, for your wonderful interview with Janet Bolton! Janet will be teaching a workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico in September 2016. For more information visit www.womanwithaneedle.com For more information on Janet, go to www.JanetBolton.com.

In honor of Janet's upcoming workshop, Karen is giving away one copy of Janet's new book, Fabric Pictures: A Workshop with Janet Bolton - Creating a Textile Story today on Feeling Stitchy!

Karen says about Janet's book:
It’s the next best thing to being in a workshop with Janet. It’s full of beautiful pictures of her work. My favorite one is “Catherine and Ali’s Wedding Day” made by Janet for her son and daughter-in-law. She used a piece of fabric from her daughter-in-law’s wedding dress as well as fabric from her mother’s wedding headdress. It’s just gorgeous.

Janet walks you through where to begin, how to do it, and how to finish your work. Looking at all the pictures is inspiration enough for me to want to get started. If you don’t have any of Janet’s books, or if you have them all (like me!) you will love this book.


To win, leave a comment on this post by July 20, 9 PM US CST, and answer this simple (or difficult) question - who is YOUR favorite artist? They can be any artist - embroiderer, seamstress, designer, etc! This giveaway is open to all of our readers - including our international ones!

Interview with Jessie Chorley - and brooch giveaway!

Once again, I am so pleased to bring you an interview by Karen Thiesen from www.womanwithaneedle.com - today, Karen interviews London-based artist Jessie Chorley. Jessie will be teaching a workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico from September 15-19, 2015. Jessie also handcrafted a gorgeous brooch to giveaway today! 

Read on to learn more about Jessie Chorley, her art, her studio, and her inspiration.

You work with both paper and fabric. Do you prefer one over the other?
I would honestly say I find both incredibly inspiring to work with, I could not choose. I constantly work combining both together as I love the strength of the more robust fabric against fragile papers. I am an obsessive collector of both found paper and fabric but I do like to use my collections. I have a small selection that I refer back to for inspiration but a lot of what I collect I really do use up at quite a pace.

This is why I love having my shop as it gives me the opportunity to collect and pass these things on with a new life and a new beginning. To see some one walk away with one of my Altered Journals, for example, is like a completion to the story. My home is not crammed full of my collections but quite ordered. I love to display some things in my home for a certain amount of time and then they may head down to the shop or to the studio if needed for a particular commission.

What was the inspiration for your hand stitched souvenir hankies?
My current Souvenir Hankies were inspired by a workshop I was invited to run as part of the wedding dress exhibition here in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I was asked to base the workshop on one piece from the exhibition and I chose a hand printed paper souvenir napkin from the 1920’s.

I was so inspired by this particular piece from the exhibition, so have carried on making my own version of the souvenir hankie. I always use found and old hankies to re work into, adding simple scenes and words and sometimes incorporating simple block print. I have just created two for a couple for their wedding day.

How have you become the artist you are today?
Determination and a love for making! A lot of hard work and a passion for making. I love to make things so much and now that I teach others my skills as well I find this very rewarding. You need to be quite rounded as an individual to be a maker and shop owner, as running a shop and a business as a maker is very full time. You are constantly surrounded by your own world and the things you make. So having time out and being inspired constantly is also very important, otherwise the love for what you do will float away. I also have many friends who are makers, painters and artists who also have the same life style as me and will go to the end of the line for their own work. And these people are a great inspiration to me.

Being the maker I am today is a lifestyle that I have embraced. I have seen so many people that started in a similar way to me destroy their passion and love for making or being creative as they soon have tried to make things quicker and mass produce things. Then you just end up being behind a computer and your hands never get dirty or touch the "materials" again. I knew this was not a way that I wanted to go and always stayed well away from large wholesale orders and commissions and concentrated on smaller and more rewarding commissions and projects and also teaching my skills to like-minded others.

My workshops are now a large part of my business and always run just by me, which I think is important as a maker, as teaching others actually feeds back and inspires me as a maker. I feel so lucky for all the wonderful and inspiring people and friends that I have met from running my shop and from running my workshops and are now a large part of my world. My main passion still today after 10 years is "making" and I know deep down this will never change. But still one person can only make a certain amount, so over the last 3 years I have slowly developed a range of items that I get made locally either in London or in the UK. These items like my rubber stamps, screen printed tea towels and some greeting cards then come back to my studio and I finish them by packing them in my particular style.

I have never had any business training but I have always had a huge passion for that side of the business. Running the books and paperwork I really love doing as do I like the daily jobs at the shop and I guess it gives me a sense of control overall. When I give my years paper work to my accountant at the end of a year and she confirms all is well this is a great feeling. I am very practical as a person so I love the daily running of a shop and this also inspires my work. The two go hand in hand, and on Sundays, when my shop is full of customers appreciating my work, again, this is so rewarding and inspiring.

Since a very young age I was obsessed by having my own shop, but at the same time, I knew especially in London that would be a big jump. So since graduating from Goldsmiths College in 2005, I have worked alongside friend and fellow designer Buddug, and because there was the two of us we started the shop together. And now in July this year, after 10 years of our collaboration, I am taking over the shop on my own. For Buddug, her family and Wales has called her back but for me, London, especially Columbia Road and the shop is only just starting.

So this summer I am having a 10 years anniversary party on August the 15th and also on this date I will be launching my new book that I am currently working on "Jessie Chorley: Story of a maker". It will also be available online from August the 15th on my web site www.jessiechorley.com and will record mainly visually the last 10 years of my world as a maker.

My upcoming and newly laid out shop will also be the main hub for my London based workshops as I now do lots of one on one workshop sessions and also small groups here in London, so to have everything in one place, my shop and studio and workshops, will be great. Embracing social media and selling online has also really helped me become the maker I am today. Most of my online sales I send to the States and to Australia. My blog, www.jessiechorleyinspirations.com and my Instagram feed, not to mention my shop on Columbia Road, are my main source of advertising and I meet and work with so many other creative individuals because of these sources.

What is your favorite thing that you've ever made?
A salmon pink poem dress. I originally bought the dress from Spitafields antiques market here in East London and I hand embroidered a poem inspired by an Angela Carter novel around the neck. I kept the piece for about 6 years and exhibited it widely until it was bought by a store in Tokyo. I still have many photos of it and have since made a new version on a bright 1930s yellow dress.

What is your studio like? What's the most important tool you have there?
My studio is currently within a large old factory building out in Hackney Wick. So it is very tucked away and very organised but can also be quite messy, this is what I love about my studio. I often go. There is my work apron and I enjoy getting completely involved, painting, frames, paper mache are all things I enjoy doing here. The studio is quite isolating so I tend to make creative decisions here but then I prefer to do my Embroidery work when at my shop or at home. I get to my studio early in the morning and work fast and then often head to open the shop later on and finish work there. I only have 3 months left in my current studio as in July I am moving my studio to the back of my shop so my current studio is about to be packed up and lots of sorting to be completed before the move happens.

Do you have any special rituals while you're working?
Lots of tea and I love always to listen to music later in the day and Radio 4 first thing is a must. I never do any computer based work in my studio as this breaks my creativity and mood.

You have said you are very inspired by The Museum of Childhood in London. What is your favorite exhibit in there?
That is a hard one as there are many. But I am always drawn by a 1930 piece that is a collection of small dolls slightly squeezed into a glass fronted box. It was a personal piece from someone’s home. The box is covered in old green torn paper with a gold tint. What most inspires me about this piece is the way that the box is actually made from an old cupboard drawer with a glass frame attached to the front.

You were homeschooled in Wales by your mother, artist Primmy Chorley. What is the best thing you learned from her?
"Small is beautiful". This is how I run my business today, keeping things small but keeping the passion. Her love of collecting and making is deeply embedded in me as a maker not only in my work but also in the way I run my home.

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To follow Jessie's story, shop online, and view her upcoming workshop dates, visit www.jessiechorley.com.  Jessie will be teaching her first workshop ever in the US in Santa Fe, New Mexico, September 15-19, 2015 - details can be found at www.womanwithaneedle.com.

Thank you so much to Karen Thiesen, for providing this wonderful interview, and thank you to Jessie Chorley for a wonderful glimpse into your life as an artist, and your process!

Now, for an exciting giveaway - Jessie has created one of her signature brooches as a giveaway for one very lucky Feeling Stitchy reader! This giveaway is open to all of our readers.

To win Jessie's beautiful handmade brooch - simply leave a comment on this post by 9 PM US CST on Monday, April 13 - and answer this question: If you could have a studio to embroider, make art, and craft in - what would your dream studio look like?

Interview with Rosalind Wyatt - and giveaway!

I am delighted today to bring you an interview with artist Rosalind Wyatt by Karen Thiesen from www.womanwithaneedle.com. Rosalind will be teaching a workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico from May 11-17, 2015. Karen will also be giving away a copy of Leanne Prain's Strange Material: Storytelling through Textiles today to celebrate! 

Get comfortable, grap a cup of tea or coffee, and read on to learn more about the fascinating art of Rosalind Wyatt!

Hello, I am Karen Thiesen, and I have been admiring Rosalind Wyatt’s work for years... ever since the photos of her project The Stitch Lives of Others started appearing on the internet. I had the opportunity to take a workshop from her and was delighted to find that not only is she an amazing artist, but an extraordinary person and teacher.

You have a degree in calligraphy and bookbinding...what made you switch mediums from paper and pen to needle and thread?
It wasn't really a question of switching, more like progression; towards the end of the calligraphy & bookbinding degree, I'd taken a module called painted lettering, where we were to design letters for a medium. I had chosen a text which I felt lent itself to be applied onto textiles; the tutors loved the work and I guess saw my aptitude with textiles. One particularly astute tutor suggested a masters at The Royal College of art- mixed media specialism within Constructed Textiles. So I applied to a Textiles course with a purely calligraphy portfolio. My training at the RCA was a complete sea change in direction, learning and development. Moving from an entirely craft based coursed to an art/design education where everything was judged not on whether it was 'right' but whether it was authentic was challenging to the core. During this postgrad, I too questioned everything and had to dig deep to find my voice. I began to re assess how I made marks and my work became very abstract. My range of writing tools became broader, and gradually I discovered that it's the intention behind making a mark that gives it power and presence. One of the tools I picked up was a needle- I thought 'I wonder if you can write with this'. And so it was this simple process of discovery, that stitch by stitch you could form a letter... in thread!

One of the most amazing things about your work to me is that you can copy a person's handwriting in stitch without first tracing it out or making a pattern of any kind! How do you do that?
First of all you have to look and observe closely all the details of a written artifact. The more acutely this inspection takes place the better, and with all your senses! I think we've lost touch with the power of this form of communication. After the voice, an original document records a particular moment in time, a happening, an event! Who wrote it, the content, the thoughts and feelings and intention all come together in a physical manifestation. What is it telling you? Once you feel this connection, you can begin making. The choice of fabric and thread is informed by the original- so if the original handwriting is heavy, use a heavy thread! But don't labour over this, ordinary cotton and calico is fine. Then It's like sketching the contours of a face, mostly you look at the original handwriting, which I always keep as close as possible to the fabric. It does take concentration, but like anything, the more you practise, the easier it becomes. Above all, enjoy it and work with an sense of wonder- watching it all take place!

Tell me about your project "The Stitch Lives of London".
This came about from a body of work called 'the stitch lives of others'. People responded in such a personal way, giving me their textile heirlooms that I felt there was a bigger project waiting to be created. So the idea for SLL came about. It's an art textile installation telling the story of London through text and textile- a modern day Bayeaux Tapestry. People donate their stories in the form of a garment and handwritten document which then becomes an artwork. Eventually all the pieces will hang together, side by side, like on an imaginary washing line that forms the pattern of the River Thames. It is about and for the people of London. So far there are 10/5 garments including an athletic running top donated by Baroness Lawrence, celebrating the life of her son, the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence; the shirt actor Jude Law wore when he played Hamlet on the London stage and this year two garments- a historical piece based on 4 diaries of a stretcher bearer in the WW1 and a contemporary garment donated by Jonny Benjamin of the #findingmike campaign.

"A boy who loved to run" garment donated by Baroness Lawrence to The Stitch Lives of London

Shirt donated by Jude Law, worn in a 2009 production of Hamlet

What is your favorite piece that you have created?
Impossible to say! Like having to choose your favourite child.... But I might just concede that I thoroughly enjoyed the Fortnum & Mason commission of two stitched garments 'I wish I were with you' and 'Because it's there'.

You have studied Zen brushwork in Japan, and now you have just come back from a 3 week artist's residency in India. How do those experiences influence your art?
I never set out to travel to either Japan or India! They seem to have come about from a need or question. After a very formal training in western calligraphy I was always looking at oriental calligraphy and enjoying the freedom and flow of it. My question was how can those zen masters seem to pack so much into a single brush stroke. Even though I didn't understand Japanese script, the marks spoke to me and conveyed a freshness and immediacy that jumped off the page. Then I went to an exhibition of zen scrolls at Oxford university and that was a real lightbulb moment- it took me right to the feet of a living zen master. I felt compelled to make contact and soon after I was invited to visit. Zen brushwork has become part of my artistic practise ever since. This system continues to challenge me about how to make a mark without 'doing anything', and furthermore about the true source of creativity. It is a lifelong study.

India has always played a part in my life- albeit remotely. I grew up with the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta and the practise of meditation alongside a simple knowledge of the great epic poems and Sanskrit texts. These great teachers and cultures change you from the inside- you can tap into a well spring of knowledge, freedom, understanding and happiness. This recent residency was my first visit to India to stay as part of a community in rural Gujarat. It was extraordinary and challenging at the same time. I'm still working on a new series of collages based on my time there and digesting it all.

What is your favorite inspirational quote?
The one I always come back to again and again ends with the simple yet profound sentence 'you are a note in a world song'. It's very practical- you have to come out of what you are not, those thoughts and feelings that go round and round, the decisions you take, the separate sense of self....and listen. The world song is happening right here and now.... and you are in everything!

“If Shoes Could Talk”

What is the best thing about working in your studio?
I think a certain atmosphere is created in a space that accumulates over time. It's impossibly small and crammed with all my materials, tools, books and work; sometimes when I've been away for a while, I'll return and just feel so grateful that there is a space where I can be and create. Even though it's physically small, it's light, bright and clean away from the house- at the bottom of the garden. Then of course, it's in the best city in the world- London!

Rosalind will be teaching a workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 11-17, 2015, her first time teaching in the US! Details at www.womanwithaneedle.com.

To celebrate, I am giving away a copy of Leanne Prain’s excellent book, Strange Material: Storytelling through Textiles, featuring Rosalind’s stunning work on the cover!

Thank you Karen and Rosalind, for the wonderful interview and giveaway!

To win, leave a comment on this post, and merely answer this question - have you ever taken part in an embroidery workshop? If so, what did you think of it? Comments will be open until Monday, March 16, 9 PM CST - one random winner will be drawn and announced soon after!