New Year & New Work

This piece entitled "Snow on Snow" is inspired by the poem In The Bleak Mid Winter by Christina Rossetti.
I made many sketches after a walk in the snow over the fields near us, which then led to a painting.
The work above measuring 45cm x 63cm  has taken hours of stitching and includes many different threads with fibres.

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

I will be exhibiting this work at The Fashion Embroidery Stitch Show in March as part of my British Romantic Landscape display.
You can find more details about the event here http://www.ichf.co.uk/fashion/

My sketch book is filling up with new ideas and figures which are growing out of my landscapes, you can see more of these here http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaylacoo/

Best Wishes for The New Year!

Michala

More Workshops Planned!

If you are interested in translating your paintings, drawings or photograph's into textiles I am running the following additional workshops, encouraged by filling my first machine embroidery one!



The first one will be on Saturday 14th of April 2012, 10am until 3.30 pm  Sketchbook, Needle felting & Embroidery
You will learn how to develop your landscape ideas in your sketchbook using mixed media techniques, paint, ink, tissue paper, pastels etc..
From these sketches you will experiment with needle felting and hand stitching.
Cost £45.00 materials  £5
You will need to bring a sketchbook, needles and scissors and some images to work from.

Saturday 28th of April I will be running Freehand Machining with Needle Felting
This workshop will focus on needle felting and free hand machine embroidery to create a landscape.
You will play with beautiful fibres and threads!
Please bring your own images to work from.
Cost £45.00 materials £5.00
You will need to bring a working sewing machine which will adapt to freehand machine stitching, also scissors, needles & spare bobbins
The great news is that if you don't have a sewing machine, there will be the option to hire one for £5 a day. (please let me know as there is a limited number of machines available)

The workshops include tea and coffee.
We will take a half an hour break for lunch ( please bring your own lunch  )

Spaces are limited to 6 to 8 people per course
If you are interested in booking a workshop or require anymore details please email me.

I'm still busy stitching away as I'm trying to get work organised for the Fashion, Embroidery Stich show at the NEC which opens on the 22nd of March.
I hope to see you there if you can make it!
M x

Christmas Threads & Wishes

This is just a quick post to wish you a merry Christmas and to say thank you for your visits or comments on my blog.
It has been a very busy, exciting, challenging year and I have been stitching more than I have been blogging!
Next year I have workshops at The Herbert which will be exciting as I have a huge array of beautiful threads from Madeira to experiment with. 
I will share my workshops here on my blog in the New Year
Enjoy your festivities.

Michala x

Final Preparations!

Only a few weeks until my exhibition opens and you can now find more information on The Herbert Art Gallery website here.
I will also be giving a free tour and talk about my work at the exhibition, you can find out about booking a place by looking here .
I'm also very excited to say I will be running two workshops at the gallery entitled" Landscapes In Threads" starting on Saturday 7th of January.
 This will be an opportunity to develop your own drawings through experimentation in your sketch book, learning how to translate it into stitch by using hand and machine work.
You will be able to play with many different colours, textures, fibres and threads, exploring there endless possibilities!
Booking is essential as places are limited, click here for details on how to book.
Looking forward to seeing you there if you can make it.
Michala x

Colourful Landscape

We are off on holiday soon to Italy, so before we go, I thought I would share with you my latest stitching.
I wanted to continue with a large piece again as my mark making is far more gestural on this scale.
The abstraction has developed from an earlier painting, I find it exciting to continue to play with the balance of colour, stitching colour over colour, varying density of threads and leaving areas of loose fine fibers.
This is going to take a very long time so this piece may not make the exhibition, which means I will have to find another place to display it!

It's Framed!

If you have been following my blog, you will know I have been working for months on a very large embroidery.

At last it is completed and I picked it up from the framers this week.

I felt very nervous because it was so difficult to choose the right colour mount and frame and I knew this was crucial to the piece.

When I saw the frame and deep box mount I was delighted, but then shock as I realized they had framed it back to front!!

All that work and I thought it had been ruined and how could they think the back was the front?

Luckily it was all sorted out but I did have to go back and collect it the next day.

I was very relieved to see that no damage had been done.

Another small textile brooch to show you with a mix of applique and stitch, I am enjoying using different fabric prints.

Have a great weekend and happy creating.x

A Winters Day

Hi,

I just wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas, anyone who has ever had time to view my blog and of course for any comments, which are much appreciated.

We have managed to escape the worst of the snow here in the Midlands, just a light dusting, but it is still very cold and icy.

This morning we took our dog for a walk across the white frosted fields.

I found so much inspiration for my art work, this field with long grass frosted in wave shapes, the patterns in the headgrow and the pale colours in the sky.

Now I just need the time to sketch !