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FROM THE EDITOR ■ SUMMER IS HERE and all eyes (and TV screens) will be focused on France as it deliver s the Paris 2024 Olympics, 26 July–11 August. Creating ar t and sprinting on the athletics track may seem to be poles apar t, but did you know the Olympics once awarded medals in ar tistic disciplines? The Olympics star ted in Ancient Greece 3,000 year s ago, but centuries elapsed before Frenchman Baron de Couber tin revived the modern games in 1896. He’d been a visitor to the ‘Cotswold Olimpicks’, a quir ky historic event held near Chipping Campden, but sought to organise a more decorous contest – ‘Cotswold Olimpicks’ famously features the spor t of shin-kicking. The Baron was after a more cultured slant. From 1912 to 1948, the Olympics awarded medals in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature and music – but, sadly, not in textile ar t. Ar ts medals ceased over complaints of ar tists’ professional status at a time when the Olympics were for amateurs. ‘Combining ar t and spor t – or “muscles and mind” as Pierre de Couber tin put it – is one of Olympism’s cornerstones. Ar t and spor t interact and enrich one another,’ says the official Olympics website. In Paris, Olympians past and present have been encouraged to make and show ar t as par t of the Cultural Olympiad which sees a host of free ar ts events all summer. Meanwhile, an official commission saw Marjane Satrapi unveil a tapestr y of Olympians in action in bright primar y colour s. Ninemetres long, the wool triptych weighs 60kg and took three year s to make. At the cultural hotspot of Versailles, once the epicentre of French royalty, you’ll find the equestrian three-day eventing and pentathlon. But, on show in the Oranger y, Eva Jospin’s 105-metre-long work, Chambre de soie, is surely a contender for best – or most lengthy – tapestr y. The work was inspired by the Palazzo Colonna in Rome and Virginia Woolf ’s A Room of One’s Own, with craftsmen at Chanakya workshop in Mumbai recreating each stroke of the ar tist’s drawing in thread, using over 400 shades of silk, cotton and jute to create an installation like a 19th-centur y panorama. Eva Jospin’s work dwarfs The Bayeux Tapestr y (68-metres) and is one metre longer than the Battle of Prestonpans Tapestr y. However, if the panels of the recent Great Tapestr y of Scotland, originated by author Alexander McCall Smith, were laid end to end it would measure 143-metres. The contest for marathon tapestries aside, Paris aims to be the most sustainable games yet – its waste-not-want-not ethic familiar to stitcher s ever ywhere. For example, material used to engulf the Arc de Triomphe, by ar tists Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 2021, will be re-used as sun-shades and tents. Putting the ar ts and spor t side-by-side is never a mistake. Striving for excellence, for pure gold, is something that ar tists and spor tspeople share alike. Claire Waring EDITOR Embroidery magazine 28 34 14 embroidery Embroidery is published six times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November by Embroiderers’ Guild Enterprises Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Embroiderers’ Guild. The magazine was first published in 1932 and is read today by textile professionals and enthusiasts around the world. The Embroiderers’ Guild is a registered charity (No. 234239), which organises an annual programme of events and awards. The Guild’s Museum Collection of embroidered items is held at Bucks County Museum. EMBROIDERYMAGAZINE.CO.UK EDITOR Claire Waring 07769 397790 embroideryeditorial@ warnersgroup.co.uk DESIGNER Melanie Smith embroidery.mag.design@gmail.com PUBLISHER The Embroiderers’ Guild Bucks County Museum Church St, Aylesbury HP20 2QP embroiderersguild.com SALES Media-Shed Limited, 1st Floor, West Wing, Beater House, Turkey Mill, Ashford Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 5PP 020 3137 8582 EMBROIDERY 4 July August 2024 SUBSCRIPTIONS DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS pocketmags.com/embroidery-magazine Single digital issue £6.99 Annual digital subscription £34.99 PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS mymagazinesub.co.uk/embroidery Six monthly Direct Debit £18.75 Annual Direct Debit £36.99 Credit/Debit card annual payments UK £39.99. EU/ROW £54.99 PRINT PLUS ARCHIVE SUBSCRIPTIONS https://bit.ly/embroiderypd Annual Direct Debit UK £51.99 Credit/Debit card annual payments UK £54.99. EU/ROW £69.99 For renewals, back issues, change of address,or single print copies +44 (0)1778 392 468 embroidery@warnersgroup.co.uk DEADLINES ISSUE . . . . . . . . EDITORIAL . . .ADS Nov/Dec . . . . . . 19 Aug. . . . . . 4 Oct Jan/Feb 25. . . . 14 Oct . . . . . . 29 Nov Mar/Apr . . . . . . 16 Dec . . . . . 3 Mar Embroidery magazine ISSN 1477-3724 is published by Embroiderers’ Guild Enterprises Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Embroiderers’ Guild. Registered office: Bucks County Museum, Church St, Aylesbury HP20 2QP. Printer & distributor: Warners Midlands, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. Embroidery does not accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or images. The Editor reserves the right to edit all contributions. The views expressed in Embroidery are not necessarily those of the Editor or The Embroiderers’ Guild.
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front 07 EMBROIDERY LOVES Gentle campaigner Sarah P Corbett’s new book, The Craftivist Collective Handbook 08 NEWS Some stories and events to take note of, including news of The Gardener King 13 OUT & ABOUT Meet like-minded embroiderers on a course at a summer school 14 Q&A FEATURE: SALAD DAYS Based in Tokyo, Noriko Kouike recreates lifelike veg that look good enough to eat regulars 10 FRESH TALENT Discover the vivid long-arm embroidery of US-based Kaylie Kaitschuck 16 OPEN BOOK Monika Auch writes about a book inspired by her Stitch Your Brain project on the brain-dexterity-craft relationship 18 OFFBEAT ARTIST Kent Henricksen seeks to both satisfy and unsettle the viewer of his art, using masked figures on bucolic prints 20 THE SEWING ROOM Vanessa Marr has few needs but a good light to sew by is one of them – and woe betide you if you sit in her ‘stitching seat’ 22 PREVIEW: HAREWOOD BIENNIAL An event hosted by Harewood House near Leeds, the biennial seeks to portray contemporary art in a historic setting 26 OPEN BOOK Megan Zaniewski’s nature-inspired book on stumpwork helps readers recreate stunning 3D flora and fauna 52 MEET THE GROUP Textile Art Group Suffolk, or TAGS, are inspired by the county they call home 26 38 10 c o n t e nt s 46 J U L Y A U G U S T 2 0 2 4 22 features 34 SEWING WITH SAND Capucine Bourcart is a French artist based in New York, who collects unusual things to use in her art, including lint, fur and sand 38 TRIBUTE TO LOU GARDINER Lou Gardiner was an exceptionally gifted artist who has left behind a rich legacy of commissioned pieces and warm memories 42 THE BIGGER PICTURE With retro photography as her canvas, Julie Cockburn makes thread interventions that elevate her final pictures 46 FESTIVAL OF QUILTS: THE LATE CHRISTINE CHESTER Friends of Christine Chester have organised what promises to be a wonderful and thoughtprovoking exhibition of her work at FoQ 49 IN PRAISE OF GRAN Alison Baxter highlights the women who went before us and their skills in art and craft 50 BROTHER WINNERS UPDATE A final update from the winners of our Machine Made competition, sponsored by Brother [Sewing Machines] 54 HANGING BY A THREAD Angela Knapp explores the UK’s Red List of endangered birds in her evocative art cover story 30 BEACH BODIES In her research on ‘orts’, Jane Colquhoun tapped a rich seam of inspiration that has fed into several of her more recent artworks ON THE COVER: Started Early Took My Dog by Jane Colquhoun, whose work changed dramatically on joining seam collective Take out a subscription to Embroidery magazine and get each issue delivered free to your door. See page 37 for our summer subscriber offer! 8 reviews 25 TAKE 5 BOOKS & COMPETITION Previews of some ‘must-buy books’ or should that read ‘must-win titles’? 29 BETWEEN THE COVERS Cloth Stories by Ali Ferguson Kantha by Ekta Kaul 57 EXHIBITION Nature’s Tapestry by Olga Prinku at Hidcote 58 WHAT’S ON A look at the months ahead July August 2024 EMBROIDERY 5 5

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FROM THE EDITOR

■ SUMMER IS HERE and all eyes (and TV screens) will be focused on France as it deliver s the Paris 2024 Olympics, 26 July–11 August. Creating ar t and sprinting on the athletics track may seem to be poles apar t, but did you know the Olympics once awarded medals in ar tistic disciplines? The Olympics star ted in Ancient Greece 3,000 year s ago, but centuries elapsed before Frenchman Baron de Couber tin revived the modern games in 1896. He’d been a visitor to the ‘Cotswold Olimpicks’, a quir ky historic event held near Chipping Campden, but sought to organise a more decorous contest – ‘Cotswold Olimpicks’ famously features the spor t of shin-kicking. The Baron was after a more cultured slant. From 1912 to 1948, the Olympics awarded medals in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature and music – but, sadly, not in textile ar t. Ar ts medals ceased over complaints of ar tists’ professional status at a time when the Olympics were for amateurs. ‘Combining ar t and spor t – or “muscles and mind” as Pierre de Couber tin put it – is one of Olympism’s cornerstones. Ar t and spor t interact and enrich one another,’ says the official Olympics website. In Paris, Olympians past and present have been encouraged to make and show ar t as par t of the Cultural Olympiad which sees a host of free ar ts events all summer. Meanwhile, an official commission saw Marjane Satrapi unveil a tapestr y of Olympians in action in bright primar y colour s. Ninemetres long, the wool triptych weighs 60kg and took three year s to make. At the cultural hotspot of Versailles, once the epicentre of French royalty, you’ll find the equestrian three-day eventing and pentathlon. But, on show in the Oranger y, Eva Jospin’s 105-metre-long work, Chambre de soie, is surely a contender for best – or most lengthy – tapestr y. The work was inspired by the Palazzo Colonna in Rome and Virginia Woolf ’s A Room of One’s Own, with craftsmen at Chanakya workshop in Mumbai recreating each stroke of the ar tist’s drawing in thread, using over 400 shades of silk, cotton and jute to create an installation like a 19th-centur y panorama. Eva Jospin’s work dwarfs The Bayeux Tapestr y (68-metres) and is one metre longer than the Battle of Prestonpans Tapestr y. However, if the panels of the recent Great Tapestr y of Scotland, originated by author Alexander McCall Smith, were laid end to end it would measure 143-metres. The contest for marathon tapestries aside, Paris aims to be the most sustainable games yet – its waste-not-want-not ethic familiar to stitcher s ever ywhere. For example, material used to engulf the Arc de Triomphe, by ar tists Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 2021, will be re-used as sun-shades and tents. Putting the ar ts and spor t side-by-side is never a mistake. Striving for excellence, for pure gold, is something that ar tists and spor tspeople share alike. Claire Waring EDITOR

Embroidery magazine

28

34

14

embroidery

Embroidery is published six times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November by Embroiderers’ Guild Enterprises Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Embroiderers’ Guild. The magazine was first published in 1932 and is read today by textile professionals and enthusiasts around the world. The Embroiderers’ Guild is a registered charity (No. 234239), which organises an annual programme of events and awards. The Guild’s Museum Collection of embroidered items is held at Bucks County Museum.

EMBROIDERYMAGAZINE.CO.UK

EDITOR Claire Waring 07769 397790 embroideryeditorial@ warnersgroup.co.uk DESIGNER Melanie Smith embroidery.mag.design@gmail.com PUBLISHER The Embroiderers’ Guild Bucks County Museum Church St, Aylesbury HP20 2QP embroiderersguild.com SALES Media-Shed Limited, 1st Floor, West Wing, Beater House, Turkey Mill, Ashford Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 5PP 020 3137 8582

EMBROIDERY 4

July August 2024

SUBSCRIPTIONS DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS pocketmags.com/embroidery-magazine Single digital issue £6.99 Annual digital subscription £34.99 PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS mymagazinesub.co.uk/embroidery Six monthly Direct Debit £18.75 Annual Direct Debit £36.99 Credit/Debit card annual payments UK £39.99. EU/ROW £54.99 PRINT PLUS ARCHIVE SUBSCRIPTIONS https://bit.ly/embroiderypd Annual Direct Debit UK £51.99 Credit/Debit card annual payments UK £54.99. EU/ROW £69.99 For renewals, back issues, change of address,or single print copies +44 (0)1778 392 468 embroidery@warnersgroup.co.uk

DEADLINES ISSUE . . . . . . . . EDITORIAL . . .ADS Nov/Dec . . . . . . 19 Aug. . . . . . 4 Oct Jan/Feb 25. . . . 14 Oct . . . . . . 29 Nov Mar/Apr . . . . . . 16 Dec . . . . . 3 Mar

Embroidery magazine ISSN 1477-3724 is published by Embroiderers’ Guild Enterprises Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Embroiderers’ Guild. Registered office: Bucks County Museum, Church St, Aylesbury HP20 2QP. Printer & distributor: Warners Midlands, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. Embroidery does not accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or images. The Editor reserves the right to edit all contributions. The views expressed in Embroidery are not necessarily those of the Editor or The Embroiderers’ Guild.

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