What a delight to welcome Claire Ketteman as a speaker to our Grassington Embroiderers’ Guild September zoom meeting. She is a prolific and inspirational needle worker. Claire has a science background but took the opportunity to explore her creative side by studying for an HNC in Textile Design with Bradford College in 2009. Her work has been exhibited in local galleries across Lancashire and Yorkshire. Claire is now the Chairman of the Skipton Embroiderers’ Guild, and her recent work, “The Strawberry Thief”, won her first prize in the Aurafil competition, and a first prize for the Jo Quinn award for creativity.
The “Strawberry Thief” was her 3D version of William Morris’s
naughty song thrush. Claire stitched onto vintage linen, red woven picots,
satin stitch, seed stitch and button stitch, to create her final 3D piece.
Claire talked us through her love of 3D work, and her
introduction to stump work using Kelley Aldridge’s book on raised embroidery
for technique advice and inspiration. I was not familiar with this book, but
having had a peep at it on Amazon, I have put it on my Christmas list!
Claire’s work, from tiny fabric embellished
shoes, to dragon flies, to embroidery on crystal organza and fabric cacti
terrarium, was stunning. She explained how much she had learnt from tutors such
as Nicola Jarvis and her crewel work, Liz Cooksey with her intricate wire and
thread work, Hannah Lamb’s technique of seeing stitching from both sides, and
Serena Partridge’s intricate stitching.
Claire gave a big Thank You to the Embroiderers’ Guild for
helping her to find like minded people to share and learn from. It has been a
big influence in her development as a Textile Artist.
Claire is a member of the group Textilia and they will be
exhibiting at Farfield Mill, Sedburgh, Nov 4th until January. This
will be well worth a visit.
Thank you, Claire, for spending time preparing and sharing this
wonderfully illustrated display of your work at our Zoom meeting. We do appreciate all the
hard work that you had put into this new approach to giving talks.
The following photos have all been kindly provided by Claire.
We will be having a Zoom meeting on Wednesday, September 16th. The Topic for discussion will be "Threads". This will be the chance to share your knowledge of your experiences , likes and dislikes, retail outlets, prices of all things threads.
October 7th - Guest Speaker Amanda Hislop
November 4th - Guest Speaker Deborah Mullins
December 2nd - Guest Speaker Zara Day
