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Left, a detail of one of Packwood's original tapestries, and, above, our re-creation using vegetable dyes.

Record and reports of past meetings


Stratford Guild Programme for 2016

January 15th, Friday, 7.30pm: AGM
February 20th, Saturday, 10.00am to 4.00pm: Skill sharing
March 11th, Friday, 7.30pm: Speakers Karen & David Griffiths of Griffiths Mill
April 16th, Saturday, 10.00am to 4.00pm: Skill sharing
April 24th, Sunday: Coach Outing to Wonderwool Wales
May 21st, Saturday, 10.00am to 4.00pm: Birthday meeting
June 17th, Friday, 7.30pm: Speaker Sue Christian, Weaver
July 18th, Saturday: at Abigail's home
September 17th, Saturday, 10.00am to 4.00pm: Skill Sharing
October 1st: Six Guilds meeting at King's Sutton
October 21st, Friday, 7.30pm: Speaker Jane Eborall on Tatting
November 26th, Saturday, 12.30 to 5.30pm: Skill sharing
December 10th, Saturday, 10.00am to 4.00pm: Christmas Party

Stratford Guild Programme for 2011
21 Jan      AGM
18 Feb      Workshop with an emphasis on spinning
18 Mar       Bernie Cope "Three Centuries of Craftsmanship, the history and current work of Toye, Kenning and Spencer". This firm was started by a family of Huguenot lace-makers in 1685 that moved to Bedworth for ribbon making and developed producing a wide range of identity products for civil and military markets. They now use weaving, gold and silver-smithing, enamelling and embroidery (www.toye.com/products/uniforms-medals)
08 Apr       Workshop meeting (NB this is a week earlier than usual due to the Easter holiday)
20 May      Birthday meeting
17 June      Alison Daykin "Design for the Terrified"
18 June      Follow-up Spinning workshop with Alison Daykin (www.spinningandweaving.weebly.com)
16 July       Members' meeting
August       No meeting
16 Sep       Workshop
21 Oct       Michala Gyetvai "Felt Art"
18 Nov       Hedgehog Equipment - a talk and demonstration of carding, spinning and weaving equipment  (www.hedgehog-equipment.co.uk)
09 Dec       Christmas Party

Spinning workshop with Alison Daykin - 18 June 2011

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WSD-Stratford spinning workshop - June 2011
Thirteen Guild members and two visitors from Birmingham Guild met at the College armed with our wheels, big bags of all sorts of yarn, beads and threads and with a photo to give us inspiration.

Alison encouraged us to write a short piece about why we chose that one and then gave us ideas as to how we could give a feeling of it in our spun yarn. She showed us how to make slubs and give texture and how to introduce small cut pieces of interesting colour into our spun yarn. There was a lot of to’ing and fro’ing as we helped ourselves from one another’s stashes. The room buzzed with enthusiasm and we were all delighted and surprised with our results. It was a wonderfully sociable day and Alison was a superb and inspirational teacher and encouraged us to think 'outside the box'. 
More photos of the spinning workshop – Click here!

Mary Jeffries 90th Birthday - November 2009

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18 July 2009 - Dyeing workshop - Teresinha Roberts

The weather was kind ensuring another magic day at the home of Mark and Angela Tilley.
 
Teresinha was busy with both cochineal and woad vats and good results were achieved following her written instructions.
 
Most of us went home with skeins, fleece and other items which had been transformed by the process involving natural dyes.
 
Those of us who were at Mark and Angela's a few months ago may remember hearing a cuckoo, this time the special effects were provided by a vintage aircraft which flew fairly low over their garden where we were sitting enjoying the sunshine.
 
A truly lovely day
 
Chris
 

19 June 2009 - Experimental Knitting - Sarah Cage

Lots of Guild members came and we had an exciting and inspiring evening. Sarah has been knitting for a long time, often starting with a basic pattern but using different yarn, different size needles, creating her own designs along the way and ending up with something unique. She showed us a whole range of garments, hats, scarves and shawls dyed with natural dyes which she had designed and made over a number of years. There was something to inspire us all to try something different. The skiing hat with the dreadlocks has certainly made my fingers itch to start knitting. We all had a super evening.
 
Angela
 

20 March 2009 - From Nettles to Cashmere - Teresinha Roberts

Teresinha started by describing to us how plant fibres had been used since ancient times to produce many items including textiles, baskets, ropes and paper. She showed us examples of the commonly used fibres such as flax, cotton and hemp and explained how the fibres were produced and used. Teresinha also told us about a range of more unusual fibres used to make cloth such as nettle, abaca (a type of banana) and pina (pineapple). She had experimented with nettles and showed us the results of the experiments. Towards the end of her talk she showed us examples of some of the newer plant fibres available for spinning and other textile work. Her talk was well illustrated with lots of samples of the fibres and with articles made from them.
 
Jane
 

27 February 2009 - Members Workshop

Good turn out for the Guild last night. Zarena came. Jane Lucas and Sue both showed their spinning. Luckily Jane had just brought back the guild wheel or we wouldn't have had one there. We had peglooms, drop spindles, needle felting and Ann and Ros were doing very clever things with tablet weaving.
 
Angela
 

16 January 2009 - AGM

We appoint officers and committee to run the Guild at the AGM. If you are new to the guild, do think about joining the committee. We aim not to have meetings just for the sake of it. In 2008 we only had three committee meetings and still managed to get everything done.
 
Our AGMs are always fun and if you have anything you have made or an interesting Xmas present to do with our crafts, do bring it along to show. If you have any finished coiled baskets, it would be nice to see them.
 

NEW! Photos of the Coiled Baskets & Xmas Party - click here! 

16 December 2008 - Christmas party

Angela led a workshop making fluffy balls or pompoms. This is part of a worldwide scheme developed by Amy Larne from Northern Ireland to help towards world peace. 
The pompoms will go on to take part of the world’s biggest collection of pompoms for peace.

See photos of the party here

21 November 2008 - Tapestry & Digital Design - Jane Freear-Wyld

Tapestry, Print Weaves and Digital Design:

Jane showed us some slides of her early work from the 1970’s to show how her tapestries have developed over the decades. She then talked about the impact of digital cameras and computers had on her work. She brought some examples of her tapestry for members to touch and several sketchbooks.
www.janefreear-wyld.com/ 


17 October 2008 - Coiled Baskets - Teresinha Roberts

Workshop making coiled baskets with wool:

We had a lovely time sharing out our washing lines for the core of the baskets, sorting the wool and then finding the right needle to sew with.

Some people were very quick to learn how to hold the line and to wind the wool with a threaded needle, others took much longer, but I think everyone managed to learn the basics. It was certainly a very enjoyable evening.
 

NEW! Photos from the Paper-making Day - 19 July - click here! 

19 July 2008 - Paper-making day - Teresinha Roberts

Angela Tilley and her husband Mark were our hosts and we enjoyed the use of their home and garden, as well as a generous supply of cups of tea and coffee. The day started with the sad news that our dear friend Betty Davies had passed away the previous evening.

A lot of preparatory work had been done, e.g. shredded paper had been put through a liquidiser and the remains of a previous dyeing session provided some of the colours. There were thirteen guild members present and Teresinha soon had us all enthusiastically making paper.

There were several bowls of murky looking liquid into which we dipped frames and scooped up some goo. Draining the frames only took a minute or two and then the contents were pressed between J-cloths; the end results were sheets of attractive paper. Some members had brought along petals, coloured thread and silk, all of which helped to make each sheet of paper unique.


We really do owe Teresinha a huge debt of gratitude; she not only shares her knowledge with us but also gives us encouragement and advice. After lunch Teresinha’s husband Mike arrived and took photographs of several members who were dipping frames, pressing the water out of their work or hammering cooked iris leaves which turned into a pulp and which we all used to make even more paper.


In my book, days don’t come much happier than this and I am sure that if Betty was with us in spirit she would agree.


Chris Suddick
 

NEW! Photos from the Paper-making Day - 19 July - click here! 
 

NEW! Photos from the Hatton Demonstration Days - 14 June - click here! 

15 Feb 2008 - The Magic Carpet - Melvyn Thompson
 

Melvyn Thompson from the Carpet Museum Trust in Kidderminster came to speak about oriental pile carpets. As well as an outline of the history of carpets in the Middle East, India and China and a description of the knots used, he entertained us with stories of his holidays searching for contemporary carpet makers. After many years in the weaving factories of Kidderminster he had decided to try hand-knotting a rug himself and brought it, still on the loom, for us to see and try out a knot ourselves if we wished. It is a long term project particularly as he in now very involved in setting up the new Museum in Kidderminster, working on the fund-raising and demonstrating at the temporary museum which is open in the summer. Several of us are planning a visit one Saturday.
 
To check on current opening times - www.CarpetMuseum.co.uk
 

14 Dec 2007 - Christmas Meeting


We made some very elaborate Xmas decorations, similar to Japanese temari, using folded cardboard, yarns, pins and glue. It was interesting to see how they all looked quite different, from colourful decorations using hairy thread to delicate pastel ones made with fine embroidery thread. Many thanks to Audrey for making all the templates.

The food was just as varied and good, we ate sweetcorn fritters, grapes, bakewell tart and much more, accompanied by Ann’s delicious fruit punch.


Photos:-
[above] The group after the meal
[top right] Sue holding an Xmas decoration
[bottom right] Deciphering the instructions

Summary of 2008 meetings

15 Feb
 
14 Mar
18 Apr
16 May
20 Jun

19 Jul

“The Magic Carpet” – Hand knotted carpets from the Orient by Melvyn Thompson of the Carpet Museum Trust, Kidderminster (see Past Meetings)
“A True Blue – Woad and Indigo” by Teresinha Roberts of
www.woad.org.uk
Members Workshop (skills day) - bring your own work
Guild Birthday
Using Soluble Film and Machine Embroidery without Tears and Tantrums (will include Needle Felting) Felicity Howatson
Saturday meeting at Angela Tilley's house. We plan to make paper with shreddings dyed with the exhaust baths from the dyeing we did last year.

August
19 Sep
17 Oct

21 Nov
16 Dec

No meeting
Members Workshop (skills day) - bring your own work
Workshop Making Coiled Baskets with Wool by Teresinha Roberts - workshop requirements (
click here)
Tapestry, Print Weaves and Digital Design Jane Freear-Wyld
Christmas Party


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Last updated on 09 December 2011
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