The Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts Show

On 15th September a lovely friend of mine invited me along to the Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts show at EventCity in Manchester.

Apart from the catwalk most of the show was based in stalls so you could view and buy the artists' work. It was mostly textiles-based but there were a lot of workshops and demonstrations going on with stuff like jewellery making, and you could wander around and talk to practitioners about their art. All of the people we spoke to were lovely and happy to let you get up close to their work to take photos, which was really nice.

My friend is currently studying Costuming at Edinburgh, so she focused mainly on the textiles throughout the day. Here is a lady we spoke to who was making lace and talked us through her work. She made it sound very easy although in reality it looks incredibly complicated :I

This was Margaret Beal's stall, who is a well-known textile artist and a pioneer of the arty soldering iron. Her husband also works with textile art and gave us a free demonstration talking us through the whole process, which was great. I can't seem to find their website but they have written several books which are currently available on Amazon.

 My friend treated me to a paper-crafting session with Jonathan Korejko, a printmaking artist who gave us a demonstration and then helped us make our own paper. He uses a wide variety of materials to blend into a paper pulp slushie (I forget the technical term), which is then set out flat to dry into new sheets of paper. He uses professional and quite intimidating equipment to make his work but I think I could probably give it a go at home if I can get hold of a blender. Mr Korejko was very interesting to listen to and you could tell he was really passionate about his work.

 There was a whole stall just for glitter. I'm not joking. It looked like they were selling fairy dust, it was magnificent.

They also had really gorgeous dresses on display which were all costumes from certain films, such as Uma Thurman's from The Golden Bowl (pictured) and Minnie Driver's from the Phantom of the Opera.

We also came across Jeudis, a group of textiles artists from the East Midlands who create everything from felted garments to fabric installations and wall hangings. They were very friendly and informative; the work they had on display at the show was based around the house and gardens in a novel, and each artist had a different take on the theme. Have a look through their website if you want something to pore over, the detail and quality in each piece is incredible.

Helen McKenna went out of her way to let us get up close to her work and take photographs, and talked through her art and how she started out as a practitioner. She was absolutely lovely and I wanted to buy everything on the stall. My photos really don't do the colours justice, but there are some great ones on her website.

And of course they had haberdashery and fabric stalls which were just full of beads, buttons and pretty things, so I bought more than I could carry as well as the paper we made which I had to keep flat all the way home so it would dry properly. -u-; It was a really great day, it's lovely to be surrounded by creative people and masses of colours. There's something alluring about textile art, I don't know what it is.

A card by Helen McKenna, entirely handcrafted.

More cards (the one on the right was given to me by one of the lovely Jeudis ladies), and the ingredients for a bracelet which I'll get round to making when I have more time. We had a demonstration on how to put it together by a lovely Australian chap from Bead Spider, except the moment we walked away I got distracted and forgot everything he told me. :I

On the left you can see my weakness for elephants, and on the right one of a pair of handmade beads that glass artisan Ray Skene gave to me and my friend. Very chuffed :3

And finally the papers I purchased from Jonathan Korejko. The far left is the one I made; you can't really see in the photo but it was made from recycled shirts, and has tiny strands of cotton which apparently cannot be broken down in the process, so are still visible when the pulp dries and becomes part of the paper. The centre one is made out of banana skins, and the one on the far right used to be an old road map from 1928 I believe. As an art student and therefore paper-enthusiast, handmade paper has a much nicer texture than factory-made I think. :3

All in all it was a lovely day, many thanks to my friend Izzy who somehow thought I'd enjoy it. She knows me so well o3o And I shall update with uni work and maybe some jewellery making soon. I think I'm more or less up to date now! Have a good day, and thanks for dropping by~ <3