Embroiderers and recycled Textiles

For the past months our members have enjoyed talks from well known established practitioners in their chosen field, so our final speaker before the Summer break was like a “breath of fresh air” when Amy Senogles spoke to us on “Recycled Textiles”.

Amy completed her degree at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2008, she has exhibited in London and Paris, and was showcased by the Embroiderers’ Guild, for their Graduate Students Show.

She is currently working at Salford Museum & Art Gallery, focusing on the retail aspect of the Museum shop.

The title of her dissertation was a real mouthful, “The Implications of Changing Attitudes towards Mass Produced Fashion from 1950 to the Present”, where she questioned the reasons for cheapness, the current disregard for the value of textiles and the huge desire to keep in step with magazine images of celebrities that results in the production of cheap clothing that may only be worn once.

For her years of studies, 2002 – 2007, she discovered that, on average, people in the UK bought 50 items of clothing per year, 25% of ALL retail (including food and household goods) was spent on clothing and 1,000,000 tons of clothing was sent to landfill each year.

Definitely food for thought, but enough of the statistics – we are embroiderers after all – and although it was interesting that this meeting probably raised the most discussion and questions between members, we were there to hear about and look at Amy’s work.

And what imaginative and innovative work it was. Amy admitted that she’d been collecting old textiles from childhood and chose pieces for their pattern or colour. This became a fabulous resource for her studies, when garments would be taken apart to learn about their construction and the reverse side of old embroideries would be just as useful as the “right” side.

Her early work focused on using masculine and feminine fabrics together and her aim was to try and use only second-hand materials. She was pleased that she nearly managed to achieve this, even using second-hand threads, but one of the main features of her work, Covered Buttons, resulted in her having to buy some new buttons!

Amy’s degree show consisted of 14 Jacket Front samples, 14 Sleeve samples and one finished garment, which were produced from a mixture of suiting fabrics, digitally printed images of vintage embroideries, furnishing fabrics and the tea-tray and antimacassar embroideries that many of us remember being lovingly stitched in most homes during the 1950’s.

Amy challenged herself that when she added her own stitching or embellishment there would still be a clear distinction between her addition and the original decoration, as she did not want to disguise, only enhance.

It was a credit to her talent for combining such disparate fabrics and her skills at couture standard needlework, that the items she had produced from her “rag-bag” resource were extremely beautiful and covetable.

There is no meeting in August and our next diary dates are for our AGM on the 15thSeptember and our “21stBirthday Exhibition” which starts on 22ndSeptember, 2011. Please check out our website for more photos and information – click on the link below the photos.

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