Bowls, Bugs and Bags at Embroiderers

With the memories of our successful '21stAnniversary Exhibition' fast fading, our members are now looking forward to another year's programme of exciting, colourful and inspiring talks, which got off to a fine start on Thursday when Kath Danswan presented her talk on "Bowls, Bugs and Bags".

Kath's love of sewing started at the very early age of five when she remembers being let loose with her Mum's embroidery threads and, encouraged by her Grandmother, she was never restricted by what the end result looked like.

She had brought along her very first piece of embroidered stitches on gingham fabric, which brought back memories of "school sewing" to many of our members. 

Having brought up a family where her needlework skills were put to good use making clothes for all her children, she was then ready for a challenge.

Her local college gave her the opportunity to do the City & Guilds Embroidery course and despite an unsatisfactory start when she tried felt making with wool, once she started using silk fibres, Kath never looked back and she started producing the most exquisite silk bowls.

Her main inspiration has come from the natural world and her embroidered decoration creates scenes of landscapes, coral reefs and more than a few different bugs lurking in the folds of her wonderful pieces.

One particular piece consisted of six separate nesting bowls interspersed with the caterpillars, butterflies and beetles that make up the world of the everyday garden cabbage! Her love of all kinds of "bugs" is evident in her more recent work and to the delight of her 3-year old Grandson, who not only loves to pick up these textile creatures, also gets told the stories of what they get up to.

Kath Danswan already has a book published on the technical side of her work, but we all felt that with her imaginative mind, there is another book of children's stories which could be beautifully illustrated with her textiles, just waiting to happen – and we can't wait to see it!

Our next meeting will be 17th November, when June Corner will be presenting "Snippets from the 1930's".

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