Congratulations Mary Shirley, Rowena Reid and Linda Murphy, you have all won a pair of tickets to visit the Dublin Knitting & Stitching Show! Because the physical ones haven’t actually arrived the organisers will have your tickets ready for you to collect on either Thursday, Friday or Sunday at the box office in the RDS, you are not able to use them on Saturday. Enjoy………… and do let us know how you get on!
That time of year has returned at last, next weekend sees the return of the Knitting & Stitching Show in the RDS, Dublin, from October 30th – November 2nd. More than 25,000 visitors are expected to attend the show, which will feature a unique combination of inspirational galleries, workshops and exhibitors selling everything from stunning fabrics, wools and threads, through to sewing machines, patterns and books.
Sea Slug II (photographed by Rob Lamb)
Some of you may remember my Seaslug on exhibition several years ago at the event, others may have participated in the felting taster session I facilitated with Clodagh McDonald via Feltmakers Ireland, you can actually get a link to Holly’s felt brooch tutorial which we were teaching on that occasion by clicking here!
Learning Curve at the Knitting and Stitching Show 2011
Thanks to the organisers I’m delighted to offer blog readers the opportunity to claim three pairs of tickets to the Dublin show, they need to be used on either Thursday (if you can pick them up from me), Friday or Sunday and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to post them out to you in time, I think that Friday or Sunday would be the best days time wise! Sooooooo, if you live in Ireland (or will be travelling to Dublin for the show!) and would like to enter the draw for a pair of tickets please just comment on this post and let me know what you are most looking forward to checking out at the Knit and Stitch, the exhibitions, the vendors, the taster sessions, the PicKnit, the artists in action??? You get the idea so please leave your comments now and email me your postal address, I’ll make the draw first thing on Wednesday morning (hence the email address, no email = no tickets) and post the tickets out asap. Here’s a taster from the organisers of what will be happening at this years event…………..
A new attraction will be The PicKnit, brought to Dublin by the UK Hand Knitting Association. Under the theme of ‘Knit One, Hook One and Pass it On’, visitors to The Picknit can learn, create and share their knitting and crochet skills with other visitors. There will be free one- to-one knitting and crochet tuition for beginners, and a chance for the more adventurous to experiment with some exciting new designs.
Helen Marriott, The Knitting & Stitching Show, said: “For decades, knitting has been a sociable pastime with knitters happily chatting over coffee and yarn. PicKnits takes that idea to the next level, combining a love of food with a love of knitting, stitching and craft. Knitting PicKnits don’t have to be big formal occasions though – all you need are needles, some snacks, a few friends and some space. Importantly, Knitting PicKnits, like the one coming up in the RDS, help keep the traditional skills of knitting and stitching alive.”
Thanks to celebrity knitters such as Cara Delevingne, Ryan Gosling, Kate Moss and Lily Allen, organisers have noticed a huge increase in interest in knitting and sewing. “Knitting and sewing have both been around for centuries, but celebrity knitters and sewers are helping to bring the hobby and craft to a whole new audience.” added Helen Marriott.
Visitors to the show, which is Ireland’s largest textile and craft event, can also look forward to:
Unveiling Irish Designers and Tailors of the Future – Student Designer Showcase announced for the Knitting and Stitching Show (#knitnstitch), October 30th – November 2nd at the RDS
Up-and-coming Irish textile designers and tailors will be unveiling their talent at the Knitting and Stitching Show in the RDS, Dublin, at the end of the month.
The talented designers will be showcasing spectacular creations – including a steel-boned bodice red dress, a 60 metre-long braiding coil and a zipped patchwork armchair – at the show which takes place from October 30th – November 2nd.
This year’s show is expected to attract a record number of knitting and hand craft enthusiasts, with 25,000 expected to pass through the doors of the RDS over the four days of the show.
The student creations will be displayed at various curated galleries during the show. “A Room of One’s Own” is the theme of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin gallery, featuring one-of-a-kind artefacts like chairs, wall hangings and screens for a contemporary interior space.
Sixteen students from CIT Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork will be making their show debut with works such as “Big Bad Braid”, involving 60 metres of braiding coil and “A Journey Through Emotion”, highlighting the traditional Korean technique of Bojagi.
And students from the National Tailoring Academy at Louis Copeland will be demonstrating their bespoke tailoring skills with garments such as a 1930s-style frock coat, a steel-boned red bodice dress, and a tailcoat with a hidden tail pocket.
Meanwhile, the Graduate Showcase gallery, which will challenge notions of stitching and surface embroidery, is set to feature the work of students from the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and the NCAD.
Student Mary Brady, from the National Tailoring Academy at Louis Copeland, created a hand-sewn fairytale ballgown with a steel bone corset, inspired by dresses worn at Masquerade Balls in Vienna.
“The dress took me three weeks to finish. I started with the steel bone corset and then I draped raw silk over it and finished by sewing the skirt by hand. This was an amazing experience and really helped me develop and hone my hand tailoring and corsetry skills,” said Mary from Co. Meath.
“We have invited some of Ireland’s most promising young textile designers and tailors to showcase their skills and creations at this year’s Knitting and Stitching Show, which is expected to attract 25,000 visitors,” said Helen Marriott, the show’s organiser. “Through the Student Designer Showcase, we want to put Ireland’s young designer and tailors at the very heart of the show and into the national spotlight.”
I'd like to extend an invitation to everyone within striking distance of Clasheen, please come along on the afternoon of Saturday 4th October and help celebrate FeltUnited Day 2014 in style. My plan is for us to felt a collaborative wall hanging, swap tips and stories, show and tell, enjoy a pot luck supper and for those that want, it's an open opportunity to set up a selling or swapping table and stash bust!!! Check out the invitation flyer for more details https://www.smore.com/app/pages/preview/0xzhg and don't forget that total beginners are very welcome to attend too, the only prerequisite is a love of felt and fibre plus I would appreciate if people stick to the time plan and RSVP prior to the day!
Stag's horn sumac
On the felting side of things I'm busy preparing new work to bring to my first seasonal event of the festive season, the annual Glucksman Craft and Design Fair which is taking place in Cork from 7th to 9th November inclusive.
Side A - eucalyptus bark
In the mornings I'm trying to felt two wraps and then either printing them in the afternoon or tryng to keep things progressing in advance of Creative Island (@Showcase in January), there's a lot of work to do!
Side B - eucalyptus bark and leaves
This week I was particularly happy with the two wraps pictured in this post, both were printed at the same time in the same pot. It's always fascinating to see how incredibly different the end results may be, differing vegetation (and sometimes pre-treatment) makes such a big contribution to the end result.
Although I don't have a store devoted to selling my work online please don't hesitate to contact me if you've seen a piece you like at a show or anywhere here on the web! I'll happily package gifts and post worldwide. Here's a picture of how I presented my scarves and wraps at the Glucksman, Kraft boxes, a hand printed gift tag and tied up with natural coloured linen or twine.
As a guideline, gift boxed naturally printed silk chiffon or ponge/habatoi scarves cost €45 each, etamine (finely woven merino) or silk/wool blend scarves cost €65 and large printed nuno felt wraps are priced at €120 upwards depending on size, all excluding postage. Simple nuno felt scarves start from €40, simple saree silk nuno scarves from €80 and more complex mosaic nuno scarves and wraps start from €120, again all prices excluding postage. Hopefully the SumUp attachment for my phone and iPad will arrive this week (similar to Square in the US) enabling me to take credit card payments over the phone or in person, I can also bill via PayPal for those who prefer.
Anyway, I'm now debating taking the rest of today off! Emma and I arrived home from Cork at lunchtime and I'm definitely a little tired now. I'll collect some sloes while out walking Rex (for sloe gin), then I'm going to put a stew in the oven, while that's cooking I'll have a bath and wash my hair. I had been planning to felt another saree silk scarf this afternoon, at this stage I think I might leave that until tomorrow!
Thanks to Carlow Enterprise Board for the opportunity to film a short video explaining what I do to the world!
I’ve had a late booking for a felt flower workshop tomorrow afternoon (Saturday 20th) between 2 and approx 4pm at Duckett’s Grove. The cost is €25 per person including all materials and participants can expect to make three beautiful flowers each to take home with them. Please let me know if you’d like to join us as I have a couple of places available, it should be FUN and I have some gorgeous new colours of both silk and merino for everyone to work with!!!
Louise and her mum with the beautiful flowers they felted at Duckett’s Grove during one of my workshops!
Apologies that I haven’t managed another blog post this week. I’m frantically trying to move furniture (in preparation for mum’s house move), finish the large wall hanging with the Gaelscoil and will be felting with a new group of women tomorrow, I’ll be back to speed shortly I hope!!!
A very brief post today…… I'm busy working on my project with the Gaelscoil and unfortunately an essential connection to my modem has broken, NO Internet at home for a few days. Thanks Dawn for putting a message on Facebook saying I was out of cover, I've just logged in for a minute to upload this picture via a hotel's connection, cheeky! This gives a good idea of the scale of the wall hanging I and the pupils are working on, it's huge!!!
Happy New Year! It’s evening time here in Ireland, unfortunately my cold appears to have got a little worse but I just wanted to check in and wish everyone the very best for 2013!!!
Posted by Nicola Brown – I feel, I find, I felt
Nicola Brown Fine Art Textiles 