Hazy shades of Autumn!

A Distant Shore - Tina Francis

So the Autumn shows are upon us, not sure where this year has gone but tapestry waits for no one!

I will be at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace from 8th until 12th October - that's right 5 whole days this year! As well as being on my stand I will also be running two workshops at 1pm on Wednesday and Friday so if you come by my stand and it is not me there then I will be back within the hour!  There are some fantastic exhibitors on the same aisle as me this year, I am a relative new comer to this aisle with this only being my second time many of the exhibitors have been stalwarts of this row for many a year!

My stand is TGC5 (TG stands for Textile Gallery) and to my left is the blaze of colour that is The Thread Studio, what an amazing mix of colour and texture.  All the way from Australia each year they bring so many silks and yarns that it is hard to know where to start.  My favourite are their hand dyed threads which are based around different themes currently I love "Cottage Garden".  

To my right are the fabulous Thermofax Screens, printing is a real love of mine that I continue to be part of with my printed canvas designs.  Thermofax have hundreds of designs for printing on to fabric but can also make you your own screen from your own design!! Think of the possibilities! Along with the screen the range of inks is just delicious.

So so far on our row you have drooled over the fantastic threads and silks, said hi to me and ordered your bespoke screen what you need now is some fabric to put them on!  Committed to Cloth have been running courses and educating people for a long time in the art of fabric manipulation and design.  They run some fantastic courses and alwys have interesting books to inspire and delight you.  Make sure you spend a while there.

As you turn away from the Committed to Cloth stand look behind you and see the fantastic knits of Sophies Wild Woollens a real trail blazer of the woollen world, what I particuarly like about Sophies business is that she uses local people to create and finish the clothes.  It's the finishing for me that makes these garments stand apart, just look at the buttons!

The warmth of wool turns to the warmth of the sun as next to Sophies Wild Woollens is The African Fabric Shop but it's not just fabric that makes a colourful explosion their range of baskets  is a joy to see.  There's no manufacture here, handmade and hand picked they really have a place in every home and oh yes they are fairly traded too! Really knowledgeable about their products its great to learn from this stand.

There's more knowledge to be had on the next stand belonging to Kate Haxell who has no less than 14 books under her belt! I am hoping that there will be some lavender hearts on her stand to make us all feel happy and relaxed! With a wide range of yarn ideas from Kate where better to stop next than her next door neighbour Habu Textiles who stock Japanese yarns and textiles.  At the start of the fair it is amazing to see just how many people make a bee line for this stand having waited for their chance to re-stock from this supplier who resides in New York!

So phew!  There you have it the people I will be sharing the days with at Ally Pally, I hope that you will be amongst them too!

Happy Stitching!

Tina

Weaving along the queue

Tina Francis Tapestry copyright 2014

Over the past few blogs I have been looking at the blogs and work of other makers that will be either exhibiting alongside me at The Handmade Fair or whose blogs I go to time and again for an inspirational tea break.  I will be writing a blog soon regarding all the fantastic exhibitors who will be in the Textile Gallery at the Knitting and Stitching Show Alexandra Palace rows c and d! But this time I want to tell you about a little adventure that I had at the weekend.

Saturday 30th August was Liberty Call 2014, where Libertys flings open their doors to makers and designers and gives them the opportunity to meet the head buyers for their particular products.  It is a long old day with queues of designers and makers snaking around Libertys from the early morning.  In order to take part you have to apply and register and then turn up on the day, this is meant to keep numbers to a manageable amount but I met quite a few people who had just turned up on the day.  Not really cricket because it just makes more work for everyone involved.

When you are a small business and working closely with your designs it is always good to come up for air and really review the products and designs you have been working so hard on.  I took a range of tapestry kits for printed canvases and also for counted canvases. You have 3 minutes to discuss your work and listen to the advice, so it is pretty intense!  I received some great advice and feedback about my designs and a lot of food for thought about the direction my work could take. I would really recommend it.

As you know I really want people to "Use their Stash" and my weave pattern for this is very popular with many of you having stitched unique designs with your stash of wools. The weave kits are popular at shows and can be tailored for your own homes, I love creating a bespoke weave design probably best of all!

You'll see an example at the top of the page of my Rainbow Weave kit which looks even brighter in "the flesh" and which will be coming along with me to The Handmade Fair and returning to The Knitting and Stitching Shows later in the year where it always brightens up the dark Autumn days!

I met some great people in the queue at the Liberty call and will be following them on their next ventures. It really is fantastic to see so many people following their hearts and making beautiful products, there is so much talent out there.  The whole event was filmed and so maybe you will see a clip of me on the next Libertys TV series, if I only make it to the cutting room floor then do please come and visit me in the Autumn at the retail shows.

Oh yes and if you are in Cumbria please do go and visit Farfield Mill in Sedbergh where my work is being exhibited next to some fantastic makers who all use good old wool! (More next time about this exhibition)

Happy Stitching!

Tina

Handmade legacy!

All images copyright the artist (listed below)

Montage created by Tina Francis from Web images

Those of you who read this blog on regular basis (thanks pals!) will know that my bespoke stitching only uses second hand wool, I am as much interested in the story behind who owned the wool as I am in the new piece I create.  Some of my second hand stitching has been used to create the tapestry needlepoint kits that I sell but of course these kits contain new wool! Taking a look at my stand neighbours at The Handmade Fair there seems to be a common theme of tradition and memory woven into our practices, lets take a look at the people that will surround me at the end of September.

Firstly The Littlecote Soap Co. founded by Elaine Stavert 12 years ago after a life-changing move from a London television career to a farm in the heart of the Buckinghamshire countryside. Inspired by the surrounding countryside and her favourite things in life, each ethical range is made from traditional recipes with exclusively designed perfumes that are quintessentially English with contemporary twists. This all sounds a bit like the good-life and yes it seems that it is because one of the ranges is based on gin and tonic!

Bobo Stitch has a very special piece of history in the making as the company is named after their daughter Olive, see their site for the full story. Whilst the kits used traditional cross stitch the patterns created are really something quite special and heirlooms in the making.

Speaking of tradition the work by Chachoulie concentrates on recycling the rich embroidery of Palestine, a country that has a rich heritage in cross stitch. The national dress of the region is defined by its embroidery and each dress tells a story with its colours, patterns and shapes, revealing not only which village the wearer is from but also her marital status.

Rima set up her company to showcase her creativity through the cultural identity of Palestine and to keep the folk craft of the region at the front end of fashion. 

Onward! How will you have the time to visit us all! The powerhouse that is Puntobelle design all their own fabrics and then use them to create really useful products, I am particuarly looking forward to the Travel Wallet which will set anyone,s holiday off to a great start. Some of these patterns are already design classics and so will be around for a long time!

Whilst Puntobelle use their own fabrics for their designs Creative Quilting bring you fantastic fabrics for all your quilting needs. Set up with just 5 bolts of fabric in 1989 the shop now boasts 2000 bolts! Hopefully a good selection of them will be making their way to the fair. A huge amount of quilting knowledge will be there for the taking on this stand, don't miss out on asking for advice if you want to start working with fabric.

There is a Norwegian saying about if you want to sing you will always find your song which I was reminded of when I read how printer Sarah Hamilton describes her work which revolves around colour for her the colours must sing which I can appreciate being a tapestry artist! Sarahs prints have a Scandinavian feel but are also based on her love of 1950's fabrics and among others Eric Ravilious and Georges Braque (a Tina Francis favourite). Sharing a stand with Sarah will be another print maker called Gabriela Szulman whose work is inspired by the nature of memories, over the years she has saved family photographs and printed ephemera from the 1940s and 1950s to create beautiful collages which are now being used for a new range of scarves that will be launched at the fair.

Using family memorabilia is taken to the next level by The Hutton Emporium who will be exhibiting work from members of the Hutton Family. This exciting mix of styles and practices will be great to see, I will be trying to find a link in the styles! Emma Hutton is a jeweller who adds history to her pieces by giving them a worn and cherished look with different pattination techniques.

After a long day at a show I like to sit down and look at something really beautiful for a while before I start to pack away and this time I will be looking at the fantastic hand painted and naturally dyed wools of Watercolours and Lace. I am very interested in the way that a naturally dyed wool can bring immediate texture to any piece especially as some of the dyes are from right here in the UK.

Phew!!

So there we go just a few of the stands in the West Tent that I will be sharing my time with from 19th to 21st September. I will be blogging more soon about other stand holders that I know whose work is nothing less than fantastic.

Happy Stitching!

Tina

Learning as we go

Tina Francis Tapestry 2014

Being a lover of a well designed brochure it is a joy for me at this time of year to sit back and look at all the night school classes that are available, it reminds me of my night school days in London making a stained glass window for a chip shop and completing my City and Guilds in technical drawing amongst other things! Living in the Jewellery Quarter I am thinking that a jewellery class of some description really must be on the cards this Autumn. 

I wouldn't really be here without the night classes I attended in Brighton where Cath Bristow taught me how to print and Kim Thittichai taught me how to develop an idea. So now it's my turn to run some workshops which I am very excited about, I hope to have more in the future so watch this space!

Firstly I am running a workshop at Farfield Mill in Sedburgh on 5th October.  It's a day long class as we will be creating two samples using my old favourite second hand wool! The morning will see us stitching a small sample using all the random wool's in my stash and in the afternoon we will print onto tapestry canvas and use stitch to highlight, take a look at the image at the top of this blog. 

Secondly at Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace I will be running a short one hour session yet again using the wool from my ever growing stash to create tapestry stitched brooches.

Tina Francis 2014

I love how second hand wool is always a bit knobbly creating it's own texture!

I have other workshops closer to home in the Autumn which I will put up on the blog and my website soon.

Finally if you have caught the learning bug then why not come along to The Handmade Fair where a full price ticket includes a choice of workshops, talks and makes.  There are some great names running workshops and seminars, if anyone goes to Kaffe Fassets can they please come along to my stand in the Marquee afterwards and tell me all about it it would be fantastic to learn from him.

Off now to look at the courses available here in Birmingham!

Happy Stitching!

Tina

Having a good look around!

Tina Francis Tapestry 2014

I've been concentrating on my Autumn designs over the last week and it seems crazy how fast this year is going, i seem to have almost kept to my blog schedule and have been thinking about the artists and makers who's blogs and sites I really look forward to reading and thought I would share them with you.

First off Kim Thittichai her blog can reached via her website and is a delightful mix of fantastic inspirational images and tales of her teaching travels.  There is a lot of inspiration here with colour and cake featuring in equal measure!  if you are thinking of taking one of Kims courses read through some of the blog posts to get a flavour of what they entail.

Carrying on with colourful inspiration Colouricious is a fantastic site to see what is new in the textile world and a great site for instructional "videos".  Whenever you have a wet Sunday afternoon take a trip to this site and watch quality artists showing you the latest techniques. Actually you don't really need a wet Sunday but I was just helping you out there!

The blog of my tapestry mentor Wendy Hope-Falkner of One Off Needlework always provides me with a sniff of country air and makes me smile.  Her kits are great especially if you want to start your kids young as she has a great range of small kits.

Staying with the Wendy theme, Wendy Ward of MIY Workshop writes about the classes she teaches at her workshop in Brighton and also fantastic sewing tips.  If you are just getting into sewing then a look at this site will leave you ready to buy the equipment needed and still have enough to buy the fabric to make a garment with.

I love a splash of colour on a Monday and so Bright Bazaar is a must visit for me. Always colourful, always inspirational and for me as a nosey parker always very interesting to see what people get up o at the weekend!

Finally a new site that has caught my eye this month is GD UK Style who pioneer eco interiors, I love the mix of style and artisan on this site its a great place to find something unusual and new.

I will write more about my fave shops in a few weeks which you may be able to go to now the summer is here.

Happy Stitching!   

Loving all your work

Tina Francis Tapestry - Images courtesy "Purple Heather"

I love to meet up with fellow textile artists and se what they have been doing so it was with a happy heart that I set off to meet Birmingham Embroiderers Guild on Saturday 5th July at the Birmingham Library where they hold a regular stitching session on the first Saturday of each month for anyone interested in coming along and stitching.

The wealth of experience and expertise around that one table was fantastic from new comers to genuine experts in their field.  The atmosphere was one of sharing and I loved being able to watch people stitch and get some tips!

In March I was invited by Kim Thittichai to run a daily workshop on the Freudenburg Vilene education stand at Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch at the NEC.  The class took bubble wrap, waste tapestry canvas, Pelmet Vilene S80/239 and Bondaweb 902 to create a printed background that could be stitched into or further embellished at a later date. It was only a one hour workshop and the work produced in that time was rather stunning see here for the full round up.  

I always wonder what people will do with their workshop pieces and so I was really happy to meet Heather at the embroiderers group as she had brought along her finished pieces which were fantastic, there are some sections of her work at the top of this blog.  I really liked how Heather had used line so sympathetically which had given the pieces a pleasing rhythm, take a bit of time to look at the before and after shots of her work, just smashing.

Tina Francis Tapestry, copyright Purple Heather

Tina Francis Tapestry, copyright Purple Heather

As you can probably tell I was so very happy to see this work and am looking forward to meeting up with Birmingham Embroiderers Guild again at their Summer Party on 14th July. 

Now back to the tapestry stitching ready for The Handmade Fair all too soon on the horizon!

Happy Stitching!

More Connections - Flax Triangle!

Tina Francis Tapestry copyright 2014

So last time I was talking about the craft leyline that seems to be forming in London over the weekend 19th - 22nd September in London and this time more connections!!

I am a member of The Slow Textiles Group and last Friday we launched a pop up shop focussing on geometrics, the shop is part of the current programme which ends with the launch of the latest geometrics book.  It was a great way to meet other members of the group and also to speak to people who love textiles and especially geometrics. I use only second hand wool in my art work and wherever possible all kits components are sourced here in the UK, I am trying to do my bit but after meeting Zoe Mill Burt or Seeds of Fashion I think I need to try harder!

Seeds of Fashion aims to plant the seed, grow the seed, harvest the seed, process the crop and finally use the resulting fabric to create garments.  All well and good I hear you cry but this process is not happening far away it is happening here in the UK more precisley in and around the allotments and spare spaces of London town!  We no longer grow Flax here in the UK on a commercial level but it used to be everywhere now I am not sure of the history but its production seems to have petered out when we needed land for food in 1950s but hey read the blog and find out the facts.  It is a fantastic idea lets cut out the airmiles and grow the clothes we need here in the UK!  The crazy connection here is that the seeds used for the project came from Wild Fibres whose studio is right opposite mine in the Custard Factory Birmingham.  I am hoping to work with Wild Fibres in the future to create a tapestry from UK grown fibres more soon!

So with my head filled with Flax and its uses I struck up a conversation with Vicky Putler from Thorody.  Thorody make the most fantastic screen printed linen homewares and accessories, their linen is woven in the UK.  We talked about provenance of the fabric and Vicky explained that she had wanted to try and grow her own flax to make the linen they print on, hold on a minute grow your own flax (?) you can see where I am going here with connection number two!  A smaller link is that Thorody live where I used to in London!

So I travelled from Birmingham to London, met someone who lived where I used to live she prints onto linen but hankers after producing her own fabric from the seed she met someone who does just that in London who got the ball rolling with seeds and advice from a woman in Birmingham - that is a full triangle of connections!

Phew!

Happy Stitching!