Kickstart Workshop

As part of the Kickstart programme the East Midlands Region of the Embroiderers Guild provides an inspirational day and two workshops. I went on the first one which was mixed-media. We were to take some photos of Snibston with us along with papers, sheers, threads and anything else we wanted within the colour scheme. People who had been on the inspirational day had been given instructions on how to make fabric paper and were to take any they had made with them. Although I hadn't been on that day, I had made some fabric paper beforehand albeit just one layer of paper (a patchwork of several different papers) on scrim, so I took that with me. I'm glad I did as there wasn't the facilities or time for paper made in the morning to dry to work on. I cut my fabric paper in half and covered one piece with tissue paper and metallic acrylic paint and left it to dry. The other half I covered with small pieces of sheers, as an alternative to tissue paper, to soften the colours of my fabric paper. I also made some silk paper from gummy waste and fused some angelina fibres. Instead of taking 4x6 sized photos with me I had put about 12 photos into a collage which was A4 size. This gave me different sized photos to choose from which were a better size for this project. I tore out several that I liked out and arranged them with the silk paper, angelina fibres and small pieces of paper until I was happy. Next step was to sew using the automatic stitches on my sewing machine. I added some buttons and was pleased with my design. However, the tutor suggested adding some handstitiching in brighter colours to pick out the red in one of the photos. I had only taken browns, browny yellows and browny oranges with me so I waited until I went home to add the handstitching. I agree with the tutor that the red has given it a bit of life.


I'm so pleased with it that I had it framed (thanks Dad) and have put it in the exhibtion at Snibston which is on now.

It was while I was at the workshop that I saw a copy of Beryl Taylor's book Mixed Media Explorations. The pictures in it are just so lovely to look at but I resisted temptation to go out and buy a copy. I enjoyed the workshop, using papers, fabrics, photos and buttons and Beryl's book expands on what we learnt, introducing more products to make embellishments, but I wasn't sure if it was really for me. However, I used the mixed media technique for my local Guild's competition (more on that another time) and again enjoyed it. I recently saw Beryl's book again and just had to have it this time.

Life after college

After four years at college studying for City and Guilds what do you do? None of us wanted to go into business immediately so our tutor suggested joining Kickstart which is the tutored development programme of the East Midlands Region of The Embroiderers' Guild. This year the inspiration has come from the Snibston Discovery Centre which is set on the site of a former colliery and includes an interactive museum and old colliery buildings - lots of variery for inspiration. I took over 200 photos from the different galleries, the playground and the colliery tour. Within the fashion gallery the corsets hanging from the ceiling caught my eye but I didn't want to discard everything else that I had already seen. While I was playing with designs in my head I came up with the idea of using my favourite photos as the design for the corset so I would have the corset shape but still utilise the other things Snibston has to offer. My piece is called Snibston Corsetry.

I started using different techniques to make the corsets but felt that there was no cohesion apart from the fact that they all came from Snibston. I was really pleased with my first corset which is taken from a piece of colliery machinery. I'd only had my embellisher for a few weeks and was having a play. I embellished small scraps of fabric onto a cotton base and incorporated some merino fibres and other yarns. I then added some hand embroidery. My sample has turned out to be the actual piece.

For my second corset of the plasma ball in the science gallery, I embellished a dark purple organza onto cotton and added a pale pink and green to finish the design I embroidered again by hand. However, I was not happy, I had been so pleased with my first corset and by comparison my second one looked so amateurish. I know I am not a professional embroiderer but there was such a stark contrast to the first that I was ashamed to put my name to it. I put it to one side whilst I decided what to do. After making the other corsets, I took the plunge and started again with purple and pink/red cottons, a multi-pink yarn for the cirle and green and black merino fibres, then added some hand embroidery. I was much happier this time round.

My third corset was originally tubes of material taken from my stash of fat quarters sewn onto the base fabric which were then embroidered. Although I liked it, a few weeks later I added a tiny amount of merino fibres and embellished them onto the corset to soften the look and to give all the corsets a similar look. The design for this one came from another old piece of colliery machinery.

As with the other corsets, I started the fourth one with a different technique. This time it was applique. The design for this one was taken from an old typewriter with white circles, embroidered around the edge, as the keys. Again when I was revamping the corsets, I embellished merino and other fleece fibres to soften the look and followed it by some hand stitching on the background.

The last design came from the children's interactive gallery where you had to put the cogs onto the correct pegs so that they would all turn when you turned the handle. The background is fleece embellished onto cotton and the cogs are commercial felt bonded on, then added some hand embroidery. However, once again it was too stark so I embellished some dark grey fleece fibres onto the black cogs.

Although I'd had ideas from the start for the background it wasn't until I'd finished all the corsets that the way I made it came to mind. My embellisher was used once more, with a base of calico followed by merino fibres in browns and black and words associated with Snibston on paper, covered by scrim.

I am happy with the end piece. It took a few months to complete as I put it to one side on several occasions whilst I worked out how to overcome the areas I wasn't happy with. It will shortly be on display at Snibston with the other pieces from all the Kickstart participants. Next year's inspiration will come from canals and I am sure I will take part again.