Our June 2024 newsletter is in the multi-page PDF below. You can read it here on this page by clicking within the frame below and then scrolling, or you can download it by clicking the ‘Download’ button below the cover image.
HIGHLIGHTS
The two-day embroidery conference, Ighali Gauteng 2024, has unfortunately had to be cancelled.
The next outing is taking place on 29 June. It is to Spinnerin in Benoni – a fabulous sewing, knitting and embroidery shop, that caters for a multitude of other handcrafts.
Beginners’ workshops will be run on request, so if you are interested, please email the Guild. Let us know if there is something in which you are particularly interested.
The upcoming workshops are:
A very large group took part in the Chicken Scratch workshop (also known as Broderie Suisse, Australian Cross Stitch, and Depression Lace). This workshop will be continuing at the next meeting on 22nd June.
July: Smocking Balls (“Christmas in July”)
August: Shadow Stitch
October: Slow Stitch
December: Year End Craft
The cost of each workshop will depend on the cost of the materials, but the minimum charge for 2024 is R50.
I must begin this month’s newsletter by remembering our dear friend Fatima Bhabha who died at the end of last month. She was the Chair when I re-joined the Guild after 20 years’ absence, and I could not have been made to feel more welcome. She took an interest in everyone’s work, and always had a bit of practical philosophy to share when the creative process became a bit frustrating as happens, even with embroidery! We had some lovely chats, and her work was always beautiful. She will be sorely missed, and we are grateful for all that she did for the Guild and its members. RIP Fatti, and our condolences to her family and numerous friends.
A selection of Fatima’s work from the Guild’s 2016 exhibition.
Further information about our “Eye of the Needle” project – the backing material has arrived and is waiting to be used to mount our efforts. Two of the working group are on a well-deserved holiday at the moment, but no doubt over the December period there will be some progress. We look forward to seeing the end result.
Last month Jenni Langford took a lot of trouble to collate a list of all available suppliers of embroidery materials. There is a new shop which has just moved to the Jan Smuts Avenue area. It is called “Moon and Son” and as yet has small amounts of wool, embroidery thread (mostly Chameleon) and quilting material. The delightful young lady who runs it is offering classes in knitting, crochet, quilting and embroidery – she did tell me the name of the teacher, and it sounded familiar, but I’m not going to write it here and get it wrong. Since the shop is new to the area, the dominant offering will ultimately be according to whatever the demands are. The shop is situated in the Valley Shopping centre, and if you come out of Clicks, turn RIGHT and it is tucked into the northern most corner of the centre. Go and have a look. The phone number is 082 728 8103, and I’m sure she would source anything you needed.
While we are talking about lessons, Colleen Goy is teaching again, at Ribbon Fields and at Buttons and Bows. Phone the shops concerned to get days and times if you or anyone you know is interested in upping their skills.
Danny has been in touch with the Roosevelt Park Recreation Centre to find out about re-opening again, but it seems as though the re-furbishment is nowhere near ready. We really don’t want to wait forever to begin again, and the committee is considering other venues. If any of you know of a possible meeting place which is within about 10 Kms of Roosevelt Park, has secure parking and also is big enough to allow for Covid protocols (and the WHO says we are only about halfway through the pandemic. We still need distancing, masks etc), please let one of the committee members know, or reply to this email and I’ll make sure it is passed on. Even if we meet only in temporary accommodation from the beginning of next year, it will be good to see everyone again.
A couple of years ago I was looking for embroidery groups around the country and I happened upon the South African artist Sally Scott, who does the most magnificent paintings of the country around the Eastern Cape. She also calls herself a “Fibre Artist,” which is like post-graduate embroidery and quilting, and some magnificent creative things are done by those groups of Fibre Artists or (Textile Artists, which is the better-known name), who create these things. At the moment there is an exhibition being held in Gqeberha (the old PE) and I asked for the brochure to be sent to me so you can see what sort of work is done. It has links with the Keiskamma project – you remember that project where a number of concerned people went to the area around Hamburg and taught the indigent women art work of various kinds. That excellent outreach is still going on, and you will see some outstanding samples of what they are producing as well. Apparently there are fibre art groups all over the country, and I am sure we can only benefit by seeing a slightly different approach to our craft. This is the link: https://gfiartgallery.com/current/.
Other than that, I hope you are finding that the heat, the exhaustion from Covid – (is it ever going to go away?) and the general winding down towards the end of the year is not stopping you. Perhaps now is the time to be a bit embroidery mad. Let’s see if you can be REALLY crazy and different. Who knows – you might be South Africa’s next great world-renown artist! We look forward to seeing your creations and bragging about you to all our friends.
I would like to begin this month by saying thank you to all of you for being such wonderful, supportive people. The Instagram page is looking lovely – quite festive – with all the super things you have been making over the years. We really did celebrate International Embroidery Day. Now to think of something special to do next year ;-). Thank you too, for your support, virtual and actual of one another. I know there is a lot of building up and helping those of our members who are struggling one way or another, and you have really done what you could under the limitations we are living with at present. You are a lovely group of people.
A few of us have been meeting every fortnight on Zoom and we were thinking that actually, living through this pandemic with its new demands and challenges is something of a once in a lifetime event. Even if we will have other pandemics, (and there are plenty of pessimists who seem to think so), this is the first time in 100 years that we have lived through something which has affected us as globally as this one. Values have completely changed, and our perception of strong nations and weak nations has been turned upside down. Weaknesses in our society have been exposed, and the strength and endurance of the human spirit has been expressed in some wonderful ways. We felt that living through this needs to be given some sort of expression, and that we need to mark it in some way. Accordingly, we have come up with the following:
Lockdown Project — open to all
We would like everyone who does embroidery (and we are not limiting it to this group only) to contribute to creating a small piece of embroidery which our Zoom group will put together in a frieze which will be exhibited at Ighali, when we hold it next year. We will then look for other places to exhibit it, and hopefully find a permanent home for it where it will speak to those who have lived through it, or to those who come after us, for some time. Eventually the “pandemic” character will fade from memory, but then, we want a piece of art which will speak of our craft for years to come. I hope you can catch the vision too, and will want to be part of this.
This is what we are looking for:
The General heading – at the moment– we can tweak this later: “2020 – The View From the Inside. Experiencing Pandemic”
Each member produce one piece of embroidery which expresses her experiences of this period in our lives.
The material should be a light coloured even weave (white is preferred, but we are aware that people may not have this in their stash).
It can be either linen or cotton as long as it is of fairly good, durable quality. “Threads” have some good quality stuff, (open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 10h00 – 12h00) some of it still old stock at a reasonable price, but you don’t have to buy anything if you already have something that will do. Should anyone have absolutely nothing in their stash, Danny has said her son and/or husband are willing to buy what you need and deliver it to you if you are unwilling to travel (thank you so much Danny!). However, ordinary fabric is absolutely fine. We cannot use canvas of any sort, and Aida is difficult to fold and attach to something else, so PLEASE don’t use those. They are also too heavy in comparison with most other material.
Each piece needs to be 25 centimetres high by as long as you want it, up to 80 cm long, with an extra 2 cm border all round so we can sew it onto the holding fabric. You can make it a small square, or you could make it anything up to 0.8 metre in length. The HEIGHT is important (25 cm), because it needs to match its neighbours. You may also fit in more than one piece – like four bookmarks in a row, or six miniatures on your piece if you want to, as long as the finished product is within 25 cm in height. You are asked to mark the boundaries of your picture, either as an embroidered frame around your work, or to tack where the picture ends so we can centre it properly when mounting it. The frieze will look something like this:
Each block represents one piece of work. We hope to have enough pieces to need three rows of frieze, so please join in this project if you can.
Any depiction of your experiences of this pandemic is valid. Any embroidery stitch or technique, any subject matter, internal and abstract, or a picture of a scene, or a tribute to medical staff, any additions such as sequins or beads, ANYTHING that expresses your experience and conveys it to the public. You may submit up to five pieces, and each piece must have your name (or artistic identity) and the initials of your organisation embroidered in small letters at the bottom right of your piece. You want to your admirers to know where your work is, and for this to be recognised by those who come after you! As they come in, we will display them on our Instagram page.
We would love it if Thusani or any other upliftment group can be included. It’s important that all sectors of the population can be represented. Any other embroidery group you belong to would be very welcome to participate, and if your great-great granny is keen, or your great granddaughter’s Brownie group would like to be part of this, please let them!
The time limit for this is by the 15thJanuary next year. That allows us to work at piecing it together while it’s summer and we can work in the open air with suitable distancing if we are still in lockdown. Hopefully, by then things will be a little more under control.
When you finish your piece(s), since we are not meeting at the moment, you can submit them in one of three ways.
Deliver it to “Ribbon Fields” embroidery shop, which is situated at 14 Pierre Road, Bordeaux in Randburg. At the moment hours are 10h00 – 12h00 on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but Sue Clegg says she is considering opening on Saturdays too. Give her a call 082 338 4312.
Deliver it to “Buttons and Bows” at shop 31B Cramerview village, 277 Main Road, Bryanston. They are open Monday to Friday 09h00 to 14h00, and Saturday 09h00 to 13h00 (the shop is at the back of the centre).
Send it to Postnet Victory Park, and make sure the recipient is marked “Margaret 082 880 9229” and they will phone me and I can pick it up. (Just make sure the Postnet you send it FROM is reliable. I have had very mixed experiences, which is why Victory Park is the one I use.)
Advertise this to everyone you can think of. I will be sending something that can be printed out as a flyer so you can advertise it along with these instructions to your WhatsApp group, your local Spar or wherever Lockdown allows you to go. And START SEWING!
We are really looking forward to what you will produce, and we hope to have something really special!
Our embroidery exhibition in 2016 was another fine display of awe-inspiring work. The Workshops Table below shows a tiny variety thereof. Please have a look at some of the other pieces on display by visiting our Exhibition 2016 page.
The committee is working hard to put together the upcoming Witwatersrand Embroiderer’s Guild Exhibition which will be showcasing work done by Guild members over the past two years.
The piece started by Dolly Willowstone sometime in the early 20th Century (we believe), hidden for many years in a garage, and completed this year by Veronica Talbot will also be on display — see the image at the top of the page.
Our Guild members produce the most magnificent and inspirational work. Even husbands and sons have been awed when they’ve visited in previous years. Bring them along, and tell your friends, family, and strangers you meet in the shops to pop in too.
It is being held at the Roosevelt Park Recreation Centre, Preller Drive, on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October from 10am-5pm. There will be prizes to be won, completed items (Christmas gifts?) and embroidery supplies will be on sale, and your ticket entitles you to delicious tea and cake in our tea room.
