November 2015 - Dayschool - LICHENS AND ENCRUSTATIONS with Sandra Kendal

There was a real sense of expectation as eager embroiderers gathered for November’s Day School. As soon as the title appeared in the programme many of us knew we just had to do it. Those who attended the North-West Region Embroiderers’ Guild AGM in Garstang had already met our tutor, Sandra Kendal. She ran an afternoon, after the AGM business meeting, which only heightened our anticipation of Sandra’s upcoming Day School for PEG.

Sandra began the day by describing the delights of lichens which are soon realised once they are made a focus of our attention. Lichens present such a variety of types and, often intense, colour. Historically, lichens have been a source of food and a means of dyeing fabrics. They have also featured in folk medicine and may have resulted in a few women being tried as witches! Lichens can often be found on textured old stone and tree bark. Their very structure simply invites embroiderers to interpret them with stitches, such as French and bullion knots, as well as woven wheels.

Many examples of Sandra’s work were available for inspiration, as shown above, not to mention all the beautiful threads and fabrics she generously made available. These goodies included felted samples, dyed fleece, silk waste, calico and muslin, as well as kunin felt which had been backed with synthetic lining, puff paint applied, then heated and painted.

Sandra went on to explain two methods for recreating lichens in stitch. The first involves mounting cotton fabric in an embroidery hoop, then choosing fibres as the background for stitch. These are placed centrally on the fabric with the curly bits teased out to the edge to form a rough circular shape, and held in place with stab stitches. Fly stitches with long tails are then applied inside the curly edge, leaving the centre of the shape bare. Pistil stitch and bullion knots, amongst many stitches, are then added, with the centre being filled with beads, French knots, etc.

A second approach is to apply similar types of stitching to double layered muslin held in a hoop. Texture can be added by fixing a small piece of felt to the centre of the muslin to support heavy stitching. A small ring, covered with buttonhole stitch, also adds texture. Using a skewer to make a hole in the muslin and stitching through the hole into the background, can add further interest.

On completion, the work is cut out, leaving a quarter inch of bare muslin round the shape. The edges are turned under when the shape is embroidered onto a background of choice, e.g. a felted pebble or bark. The chosen support can be embellished with similar stitching to that on the muslin in order to meld muslin and background.

Here are some images of members working hard on their individual pieces.............

Of course, no meeting of PEG would be complete if we did not mention the ladies in ‘the back room’ who stitched away the day, whilst enjoying each others company and sharing expertise.  Indeed we have a brilliant mentoring group, who will sit with individual members and show them how to do a particular stitch they might be interested in, at our monthly meetings.

Here are the results of the days work..........

At the end of the Day School, warm thanks were given to Sandra for a day which had lived up to, and exceeded, our expectations.

Our thanks to Helen Forshaw who kindly wrote the blog for us this month.