I adore Toast and much of my wardrobe is made up of pieces from their collections, one or two garments a year are all you need because they last so long and they repair them for free!
So what better place than my local Toast store in Cheltenham to exhibit my work as part of Cheltenham Open Studios. The exhibition runs from the 10-18th June 2023 and I will be in the store, with my sewing machine, on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday 18th from 11-3 pm.
In case Gloucestershire is just a little too far, I am sharing photographs of the work here. I have also included details about their Fabric Recipes – Ingredients and stories beneath each picture…
I have recently been immersed in my family history and discovered that my great-great-grandmother was a glove maker (gloveress). These geometric shapes were originally damaged, vintage glove cuffs. I have reimagined them as abstract art with an imperfectly machine-embroidered check on top. I love the abstract nature of this piece and the energy of the imperfect stitches, it truly encompasses vintage-made-modern!
Top artwork
It’s rare to find vintage lace in my favourite black-and-cream colour scheme. This lace had been wrapped around a duck egg blue card for as long as I can remember, waiting for it’s time to be used in an artwork. I got really interested in modern interpretations of passementerie and wanted to create my own versions using floating stitches. This paring is simple but so effective, I love the space in the framing and the shadows it creates.
Bottom artwork
Often I find the back of an embroidery far more exciting than the front. Hidden underneath the ‘almost drawn’ lines of threads is a perfectly executed floral hand embroidery with added yellow flowers! I much prefer it sitting in reverse on top of a deconstructed triple cloth that was once a pair of Jaeger trousers. I used magical water-soluble fabric to create floating embroidery stitches that mimic another warp and weft.
I’ve always been fascinated by vintage hexagonal weaves. I read somewhere that soldiers would make them in the trenches to send home to their loved ones. I decided to see how the piece would look if I wove pleated ribbons into it. The constriction and reshaping so interesting, but it needed more. I started dreaming about creating a gelli-print but not daring to cover it in ink! After a day in the studio with some members of the No Rules Textile Society, I felt brave enough. I love the prints ( pictures coming soon) and I love how the ink accentuated the threads in the weave. Framed it reminds me of a beautiful story-filled hay bale!
A few years ago I discovered a roll of bias-cut, twill-woven, scallop-edged silk. The middle of which had a clearly unpicked stitch line, that had originally gathered the silk. I knew it had huge potential and its use would come to me at some point! So it sat on the shelf waiting… until one day I took it and cut it into unexpected strips, a scallop at each end. The geometric patterns that I could then format entirely changed it from its original use, which I discovered was to trim the hems of Victorian dresses.
A nature collage, filled with intricate deconstruction and beauty. Real leaves and ferns combine with deconstructed cotton on velvet. Water-soluble lace traps the leaves and reclaimed print and net add to the complexity of the textures.
Top artwork
I have been so inspired by abstract expressionism and love the idea of taking this idea into textiles. This piece came together completely intuitively- I had left a squiggle of a stripe sitting on top of neutral ground and kept walking past it and admiring the contrast. Eventually, I decided to stitch it in place, but the stitches also became another abstract pattern. I love these layers together and am excited to create more work in this way.
Bottom artwork
This blue-green tweed frays beautifully, simultaneously revealing both its structure and completely changing its original design. In this piece, I was playing with the idea of Seminole patchwork but breaking all the rules. Mixing up an unmade fabric with a usually precise form of patchwork, and then placing it on a reclaimed furnishing sample creates a Fabric Recipe full of movement and rebellion!
*There are clearer pictures of both these artworks over in A Day at Toast
This frame within a frame is the happy accident result of a ‘let’s see what this looks like’ experiment! I love the mix of deconstructed vintage and the clean white frame. Inside is a cut-out vintage embroidery frame, and vintage ribbon that I have partially pleated on my Princess Pleater. Stories within stories, stitches within stitches and some printed marks that look purposeful but were perhaps mistakes!
I hope you have enjoyed this journey through textiles. If it has inspired you to play do head over to the No Rules Textile Society where there is more inspiration and a wonderful community of like-minded creative rebels.
If you have any enquiries about purchasing or commissioning work do feel free to call me on 07809 142088 or email me at Jayne@jayneemerson.co.uk