The Edinburgh branch of the Embroiderer’s Guild is 60 years old this year, last weekend we held a celebration day and were lucky enough to be joined by renowned textile artist Maggie Grey and her husband Clive.
Maggie is also the editor of Workshop on the Web; this is an online textile journal that is produced 4 times a year with workshops by world renowned textile artists and tutors, http://www.workshopontheweb.com/. As a dedicated ‘WoWie’, having subscribed since the very beginning, I was particularly delighted to have the opportunity to meet and learn from Maggie directly.
The day started with a fascinating look at the history of goldwork embroidery. We were shown a slideshow of beautiful examples, from the earliest pieces using real gold, to modern day work incorporating a much wider range of metals and metal products.
Maggie gave us a wealth of information talking us through the pieces and how the work was achieved with Clive providing historical context keeping us right with dates. We were then treated to an in-depth look at Maggie’s own work, not just through slides but with many examples that we were encouraged to look at and handle.
The following images are shown with Maggie’s kind permission, please respect copyright.
Maggie very generously allowed us to take photographs and gave permission for them to be posted here, please take a look at her blog http://www.magstitch.blogspot.co.uk/ where you will find lots more examples.
After a lovely lunch organised by the committee we split into 2 groups and each group had the opportunity to work with Maggie and Clive. Maggie demonstrated a number of techniques for creating small patches and embossing and colouring metal, whilst Clive showed us a variety of ways to make ‘wiggly wonders’ from 
coiled and twisted wires. Materials were provided so that we all had the chance to work on a small sample and have something to take home, here’s my completed sample.
Our chairperson and committee did a wonderful job organising and setting up this very successful event; it was a great way to celebrate this milestone and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the day.
Thank you Maggie and Clive, I hope you enjoyed your time in Scotland as much as we did!
Do check out the free taster edition of Workshop on the Web; as someone without an art background who loves to learn new techniques and get inspiration from professionals I’m an ardent fan. http://www.workshopontheweb.com/july2001/tasterop.htm
Stitched Notions 