Morning talk: 'Textile Nature' - Anne Kelly
A truly inspiring international artist and tutor, Anne Kelly arrived with all her wonderful textiles packed into beautiful textile art covered suitcases. Her exquisite textile display of work included wall hangings inspired by her world travels, lovely folded mixed media books on nature, sketchbooks, cards, books and a wonderful jacket Anne had covered in beautiful patches, pieced, free machined and then appliquéd.
Her unique and exquisite designs also cover objects large and small, an actual shed, a dolls house, suitcases, boxes, tables, bags and books, all of them both inside the object and the complete outside of it!
Anne uses found textiles, antique fabrics, aprons, tablecloths, table napkins, waistcoats, needlepoint, old linen, liberty prints, cotton and natural fabrics. These are strategically placed after much thought, once cut into shapes or used as a background to work upon. Small screen prints, wooden stamps, transfer prints, hand drawn birds, bugs, butterflies, flowers, vines, trees and leaves, all the beauty of the natural world of nature then find their way onto her collages.
What makes Anne’s work so individual is how she completes her work with free machining zig-zag stitches using pale thread. This gives the cohesiveness to the whole piece. The shapes will have had both hand and free machining in dark threads first so they show through the top paler threads.
Afternoon workshop: 'Creating Stitched Postcards' - Anne Kelly
After Anne Kelly’s lovely slideshow she took members through her method of making a postcard. Crested grebes, kingfishers, sparrows and lapwings were some of the birds flying along with butterflies and dragonflies. These images were drawn on to fabric, appliqued and embellished with stitchery each growing its own colourful personality. Before winging their way home, the creatures were laid out together in a gorgeous giant patchwork for all to enjoy.
