Author Archives: Ann

Vermeer – Suzanne Newton

At New Year, eldest son, Tim, took me to The Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge to an exhibition, “Vermeer’s Women: Secrets and Silence”.  As you can imagine depicted were many domestic paintings of the 17th Century by Vermeer and his contemporaries. We were given an insight into daily life of this period.  Several pictures by Vermeer [...]

Crossing Barriers – Marion Cayless, followed by Jackie Martin

Carole Waddle, Gwen Hedley, Jenny Black The speaker at our Christmas meeting was Gwen Hedley, the well-known embroiderer and author, who spoke on Collaborative Art Exchanges. After suffering a major health scare for two years, her recovery produced a surge of creative energy (manifesting itself in an exchange project with four friends – two textile [...]

David Hockney Exhibition – Liz Holliday

I have been following David Hockney’s Yorkshire chalk wold landscape work for some years now, following a Salts Mill visit one summer. I have been enthralled by landscape since childhood, have studied it and taught it.  I am still a passionate walker, and the regular landscape doses I absorb with this exercise, give me great [...]

Chairman’s Letter February 2012 – Liz Ashurst

Dear Members, It was encouraging to see such a large number of you at our Christmas meeting filling the room at the Artworkers’ Guild to capacity. Gwen Headley’s lecture on ‘Collaborative Exchanges’ was very well received and gave us something to consider as a future possibility for our own group. The afternoon session ‘Creative Consequences’ [...]

Buttons at the Museum of London – Thelma Cooper and Kathie Small

  We were met by Hilary Davidson, the Curator of Fashion and Textiles.  What followed showed us that here was a Museum to rival the V&A.  The Museum had started life in Kensington Palace and has now risen to being one of the top five in Britain. In theory items have to be connected to [...]

Or Nué Experiment – Alison Hird

Having enjoyed Anthea Godfrey’s talk on her mother Margaret Nicholson’s wonderful or nué work, I was pleased to be able to do a sample based on the technique but doing it in a very different way using unconventional materials. I wanted to explore transparency and translucency, incorporating diffraction and refraction of light. I found a [...]

Blackwell, an Arts and Crafts House – Glenys Grimwood

There are houses throughout the UK built for people of modest means but with artistic aspirations influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement of the late C19th and early C20th. Many Dulwich houses feature stained glass door panels with linear plant forms, ceramic tiles in fireplaces and porches and wrought iron window handles. Possibly some [...]

August Studio Day in St. Albans – Alison Hird

Our day started as we gathered at St. Albans station and seventeen of us made our way to Liz Holliday’s home on the other side of the city centre. We went up to her amazing Billiard Room studio and all sixteen of us gathered round the grouped tables in the middle. Liz led us into [...]

Ramster Embroidery and Textile Art Exhibition (8 – 21 April 2011) – Carole Waddle

For those of you who haven’t been before, a day out at Ramster (nr Chiddingfold, Surrey) is a delight with some beautiful and inspiring pieces of work on show in a lovely old barn-like building.  For partners who don’t want to look at embroideries there are beautiful wild gardens to wander through and, at the [...]

Springtime in Poland – Linda Litchfield Illustrations by Glenys Grimwood

Liz Ashurst is not only a gifted artist and teacher, Chairman of the New Embroidery Group and regular contributor to this newsletter, she is also an idiosyncratic tour organiser. If you are prepared to rise in time to check-in at Gatwick at 4.15am, brave the free-for-all that is Easyjet and not mind travelling around Poland [...]