A maximum size limit of 10cm x 10 cm x 1 cm ( 4” x 4” x 3/8” )

A related script of 100 words maximum focusing on the chosen sample materials, design source and/or reflections on the finished piece.

September 2011

A number of the group will be looking at some of the archive collection of embroidered buttons at the Museum of London in October.  The challenge with a submission date of 31.12.11 is to create a sample incorporating buttons.

Sally Ann Douglass

Buttons on cards

I thought about using pearl buttons, but could not think of a way of integrating them with the background. I thought about making Dorset buttons, but again could not find a way to make them grow out of the background. Then I found this sample from a printing workshop and it reminded me of displays of buttons in haberdashery shops when I was a child.

Christine Mead

Dorset Crosswheels

The Dorset Crosswheel Buttonwas the only survivor in 1860, when Ashton’s Button Machine was invented and the hand made button cottage industry died overnight. East Dorset was the centre of the button-making trade from 1700 – 1860 when it supplied most of the high-class buttons, mainly for ladies dresses and had a thriving export trade too.

The making of a Dorset Crosswheel Button is done on a brass ring in four stages: Casting, Slicking, Laying and Rounding and these methods are thoroughly explained in a book written by Olivia Pass called Dorset Feather Stitchery.

Liz Holliday

Salmon silver

I made a silk evening bag as an examination piece. It was inspired by drawings I had of a piece of salmon. The decoration was in blanket stitch and buttonhole stitch needlelace. I made a little voile purse to put inside with tiny Dorset buttons representing coins, worked over plumbers washers. The bag and purse have since been in a drawer.

This challenge was a way for me to feature the hidden purse and coins by working them into another format.

Margaret Mary Griffiths

Dorset buttons and others

As soon as we talked about buttons, I was reminded of a sunny summer’s day when a friend Anna and myself, visited Doreen Bibby. She taught us to make Dorset cartwheel buttons, bird’s eye and others. In the 18thC and 19thC these buttons were made often at home in east Dorset and merchants sold them all over the empire. You need a ring to start with and I only had a rather large clumsy one but I still had a go.

Pat Cove

Undercover buttons

I inherited buttons like these lovely little calico covered ones, stitched in sets to card. My mother used to make all our clothes and buttons like these were used on underwear.

I did not think they needed any further embellishment.

Veronika Chambers

Red buttons
My inspiration: the costumes of the Pearly Kings and Queens, who used buttons to great decorative effect and added another dimension to the possibility of embellishment.

Kate Davis

Button variations

I have been in the habit of collecting small buttons for many years. When looking at them in detail it is surprising to see how many small differences there are.

They vary in colour, thickness, type of plastic or shell, the number of holes and the edge details. These can be chamfered, square or rounded and with or without a rim.

The buttons have been stitched on in different ways in a random design but is reminiscent of the outfits of the pearly kings and queens and the version of the Dorset button represents the English tradition of making buttons with thread.

Barbara Jeremiah

Button brooch

This button is made from seed and bi-cone beads. It is suitable for evening or day wear, jacket or dress, and also for male jacket or cuff link.

The over all effect depends upon the colour, which may be discreet or flamboyant depending on the garment.

May 2011

The challenge from now, with a submission date of 31.08.11, is to create a sample including Pekin knots.  This follows the group visit to the Chinese textiles at the V & A in February but is not in any way dependany on having been there.

Pekin Knot

Margaret-Mary Griffiths – Litter Please

In 1996 I went on a three week garden tour of China and fell in love with the guarding lions.  These lions could be very large and imposing or quite small and exquisitely crafted.  One lion is the male, with a paw on a globe (representing China): the other is female, resting a paw on her cub.  These figures were made of stone, bronze, stoneware and porcelain.

In the parks, litter bins were sometimes made of earthenware and crowned with open mouthed animals, hence my title.

Sally-Ann Douglass – Knotted collage

In my last experimental piece, incorporating machine embroidery, I bragged that I only used stitches to join fabrics.  In this piece I have tried to make good that boast.  The background is linen painted with dye.  The applied bits are of silk, lace and cotton which I have held in place with Pekin knots, in threads of different thickness.

Christine Mead – Knot filling

The Pekin knot is a free embroidery stitch where a loop is made around the needle and tightened after the needle has entered the fabric, but before it is pulled through completely.  These knots are characteristic of the rich silk embroideries of China, where they are often worked closely over large areas.  The design here is from part of the embroidery on a Chinese robe, held in store at the Victoria & Albert Museum. I have worked my sample with six strands of DMC stranded thread on a cotton base.  It was extremely time consuming to do, but I felt the end result was worth the effort.

Liz Holliday – Marbled White butterfly

The imaginary butterflies on the Chinese textiles reminded me that I have taken a number of photographs of butterflies in the wild. I have therefore experimented here with transferring one such image on to fabric and adding Pekin knots to further embellish the result. I decided to back it with six layers of muslin and cut out the part with the butterfly on to try to create a delicate three dimensional look.  I then applied this to a second, similar fabric image to create the background.

Kathie Small – Box Hill Beetle

I thought I would combine Pekin knot stitching with my photograph of a beetle on a Box Hill grassland flower. The densely stitched piece creates a very tactile surface, though it took a very long time to work.

Kate Davis – Knot variations

The intriguing shapes of Chinese embroidered butterflies inspired this design. I used Pekin knots in a linear way and even gave some of them tails. Couched lines, running stitch and straight stitch were added to complete the piece. The fabric is antung silk which has been hand dyed and printed.

January 2011

Karen Nicol, who spoke at our December 2010 meeting, uses contemporary machine techniques inspired by traditional hand stitching, so this is the challenge for the New Year, with a submission date of 30.04.11.  Chose a traditional hand worked stitch technique and then create a similar stitch effect using a sewing machine.

September 2010

The new challenge is to incorporate silk in an experimental sample, linked with, but not dependant on, the group visit to the V & A early in September.  The end date for submitting work on this second theme is 31.12.10

Sally Ann Douglass

As my work mainly uses silk fabrics stitched with silk threads, the idea of “incorporating silk” posed a problem. The rule when one is stuck for an idea is to go back to a tried and tested technique, in this case using stylised letter shapes to make the design. This piece is worked as patchwork over papers, ten different silk fabrics stitched with silk thread.  The design uses the letter shapes S.I.L.K.

Cathy Griffiths

This piece was created with a Christmas card in mind. I used silk fabric scraps I have had around for years. The appliqué design is embellished with silk thread stitching. A festive piece of fluff!

Liz Holliday

In the V & A Stein Collection there is a silk fragment with a half drop repeat, heart shaped petal design which is hundreds of years old. I have recreated the motif using an American glue gel as a resist, on a favourite silk/cotton mix fabric. The hues in my sample evoke those in the original and the brilliance of silk itself upon which colour can sing.

Glenys Grimwood

I created this sample for a commission for a church Festal stole in silk dupion. The cross design is repeated down the length of the stole with a gradation in both size and colour.

Kate Davis

A visit to the V&A to see ‘Fragments from the Silk Route’ inspired this sample.

One exhibit reminded me of some silk which I had dyed years ago.  I had always loved the quality of this crumpled fabric, and here was a treasure with a similar feel, hundreds of years old and decorated with exquisite embroidery, but disintegrating in part showing smooth and mesh fabric. The flowers and leaves were worked in satin and long and short stitch with floss thread in cream, pale green, yellow and tones of blue. I tried to evoke the atmosphere contained in the original.

Suzanne Newton

I was introduced to Silk paper by Judith Pinnell, in Perth Australia in 1994. She had been collaborating with Nancy Ballesteros to investigate the most suitable binders for silk floss.  This changed my life!

Ever since, I have made silk paper and used it to create many different items.  It is strong when thick or thin, flexible and versatile.  It dyes well, but I buy most ready dyed from Nancy or one of her agents in UK. I now live by the sea which inspired this little piece. Every day the colours of the sea are different and a joy.

Margaret Mary Griffiths

Firstly I picked out all my small pieces of silk and formed a pattern. Eventually I realised a landscape had formed and changed all the pieces to being folded.  The Silk Road had appeared.  I checked my silk threads and limited the colours.  I thought of imposing a carpet design but changed it to a camel train and yurts found in my Jon Thompson book, “Silk, Carpets and the Silk Road”.  The boat I found in a drawing of the period: the birds of prey and stars were added as part of the route’s constant presence. All silk except the stars.

June 2010

Following the March 2010 AGM talk by Anthea Godfrey, on the Or Nué work of her mother Margaret Nicholson, some of our members are experimenting with this ancient couching technique.  The English were world famous for it in the Middle Ages as it was used in the fabulous gold clerical embroidery known as Opus Anglicanum.  Selected samples will be regularly posted below.  The end date for submitting work on the following theme is 31.08.10

‘Incorporating Or Nué’

Liz Holliday

This experiment revolved around couching plastic covered gold wire washing line, rather than fine rolled gold thread. Only rug canvas was tough enough to support the washing line, but it looked good when painted gold. Instead of traditional fine silk threads, I couched with torn strips of silk fabric. I experimented with close couching (every canvas hole), spaced couching (every other hole) and spaced alternate hole couching (every other hole but changing the hole positions in each row). I liked the abstract image I created and the varied character of the silk couching but cutting the wire was painful!

Cathy Griffiths

Sample  inspired by a fragment of Coptic embroidery in the V & A. I chose to work it traditionally, to try to represent the close linen weave of the original fabric.  I laid the gold thread down and created the design with single silk threads of different colours. The original piece had been damaged by time so to try to convey this I made a background of small bits of thread, floss and wire, which I embellished onto a piece of old velvet curtain. I could do more work to create a damaged and faded look in the centre too.

Linda LItchfield

“Or Nue”: Or what?

Googling provided enlightenment and pages of information, including many warnings for my mind to incubate. I attended a workshop on Soft Textile Basketry.  Six months earlier, I had bought a ball bearing the label “Yummy yarns, Jelly yarn, for knitting and crochet (Yarn not edible)”. Incubation period over: time to create. Coiled “Honey Gold” vinyl Jelly Yarn, wrapped and stitched in medium weight silk threads from “Mulberry Silks” in colours selected just because I liked them. I have achieved an undulating 3D effect and the glitter of the vinyl sparkles through the silk.  I rather prefer it free-standing.

Sally-Ann Douglass

This is a tale of a piece of fabric. I had a small piece of silk tweed.  I felt it ought to be used but I could not think how.  I dared not put it away in a safe place because I knew I would never find it again.  So it floated around my workroom, being moved from one surface to another, but always in sight, that is until I read about this challenge. I have used Markel Paint Stick, gold thread and silk threads.  It feels very strange to be hand-stitching again, but thank you.

Liz Holliday

This experiment uses different materials on a larger scale than used with the original stitch technique of Or Nué.I have worked on gold sprayed canvas, with dyed cotton piping cord couched down with a richly variegated knitting yarn. I created a character edge with the couched cord rather than take the ends to the back of the work. The beech nut design has been created by leaving the cord clear of couching in places.Bone beads and contemporary gold threads of varying thickness, embellish the finished piece.

Phyllida Lewis-Bowen

Anthea Godfrey visited the West Midlands in February this year, as part of the Embroiderer’s Guild initiative to establish more contact with the regions.  Eighteen of us spent two days at her Or Nuéworkshop and most started beautiful large pieces. However, I was keen to explore the possibility of making Or Nuéjewellery, and the result was this little brooch (4 cm in diameter).  I am making a few more for an exhibition in Ledbury.

Maureen Wade

I used this piece to experimentally add sequins to reflect light. I decided to couch down coloured silk with metallic thread onto metallic nylon net, to see how the different reflective surfaces would react. From my viewpoint when I finished, I felt the net was a mistake, but it does create a lovely fragile looking surface.

Veronika Chambers

My inspiration was a Japanese heraldic family crest design, taken from Japanese Design Motifs, published by Dover. I completed the blue parts in a ‘basket stitch’, using a heavier thread, in the hope that this would give added texture and interest to the rather plain design.

Margaret Gibberd

I succeeded in working this design by couching gold stretchy cord down with coloured silk threads. I crocheted with knitting yarn to create a border to cover the edges of the cord.

Alison Hird

My sample is based on modern architecture.  I wanted to explore translucency and transparency so would not use colour at all.  I used plastic tubes, gel threads clear beads, and silver florist wire passed through some of the tubes.  Each of these media reflected, refracted and diffracted light in different ways.  The finished piece could look quite dull in some lights but the fun came in photographing it in sunlight.  It completely changed when holding at various angles, and again with the light shining through.  The photography is an integral part of the project for me.

Kate Davis

My design developed from an interest in Anglo Saxon artefacts, renewed by the finding of the Staffordshire Hoard. Members of my family lived near the area where it was found, though I am not sure that they were there twelve hundred years ago. The design was built on the ‘stepping motif ’ on painted canvas and the or nue is represented by stitching over stitches in the manner of couching. The colour reflects the richness which obviously existed in the Dark Ages. Circular washers have been added to create contrast and the cord represents the ‘snake’ designs so characteristic of that period.