Next Meeting: Wednesday 1st February, talk with Leah Higgins "My Road to Ruin and Beyond"

Our next session will be a stitch morning followed by a talk at 1:30. The raffle colour is VIOLET The Travel Page is JANUARY. We will be starting our "Backgrounds for Stitching Project", this month to be STRAIGHT STITCH.

Leah Higgins will be our guest on Wednesday and says "My art has developed from a life-long love of working with textile and stitch. The tactile nature of cloth envelopes me in feelings of wellbeing and brings with it memories of people long gone. I can trace my path from making clothes to making bed quilts, from buying printed fabrics to dyeing and printing my own. From following others to developing my own ideas. From craft to art."

January 18th, Sissix Machine and dies

Our first mini workshop involved getting familiar with a sissix machine and various dies. Die-cutting is a process whereby a die is used to cut through materials such as paper, fabric and card on a die press. The process allows you to make an identical cut into material numerous times. For each job, a die, which is a very sharp shaped blade, and can be purchased at various outlets, is used with the machine.

While some members were working on their own textile art projects a good number experimented with the sissex machine. The cut fabrics were an inspiration to be incorporated with other textile processes and gave much food for thought. This new programme of mini workshops is superb for introducing members to new techniques and for a reminder for those familiar with the processes. It is a day for bouncing ideas off one another and adding to our portfolio new and refreshed techniques.

Next Meeting: Wednesday 18th January :

We have a new format for our 2023 Stitch Days which occur on the third Wednesday of the month. Members are welcome to stitch on their own pieces of work, or partake in small workshops to broaden their knowledge of textile techniques. This Wednesday we will be using the Sissix machine and dies.

January 4th - Maria Wigley "My work and Process"

The splendid new electronic equipment at Grassington Town Hall enables GTAG to host quality zoom meetings with speakers much further afield.Today we were joined by Maria Wigley giving a wonderful zoom presentation lecture "My work and Process". Maria graduated in 1999 with a BA in fashion, specialising in textiles. She felt that the textile pieces she produced didn't need a function, but were rather pieces of Fine Art complete in themselves. Maria explained that her early work developed as a colaboration between a mother and her daughter. Her young daughter was allowed to play with paint uninhibited by constraints that maturity brings. She then embroidered onto this abstract art.

Maria then became interested in "writing" and in particular with asemic writing which she felt communicated the emotion she wanted to express.

Maria's "process" starts with sketch books and she had incorporated a video of these in her presentation. She freely shared her textile techniques with us and I am sure has stimulated many of us to rethink our own work and process. Whilst outside the rain was torrential, inside, Maria enabled us to forget the cold, wet, January day and concentrate on our love for textile art.