Author: janethaigh

A vase of Tulips

| janethaigh

The classic 17th century Dutch paintings of fabulous flowers, but this arrangement probably did not really exist. The modest bunch above, features early spring Daffodils, with mid to late spring Tulips and Irises, and yes they can all grow in the same season, but the give away is the fully formed damask rose seen only in mid summer. It demonstrates how the artists worked: each flower was a sample of horticultural expertise, painted when it came into season, then there was a wait for the next bloom to come to perfection.

So last year when I was commissioned to embroider ” a vase of colourful tulips” during my Hidcote exhibition, and I realised that tulips would not be in season in October when I could start working on it. I decided to find tulips within my own work and remembered a very old sketch book with a vase of drooping purple tulips ( circa 1980). Always keep your sketch books!

Above is the inspiration behind my latest commission. Below shows my studio wall with earlier flowers against stitched Kantha skies…with a sample of different fabrics to act as the background

Now I needed to choose some colourful tulips to put in a vase. I started with my sketch, below, of some striped tulips that I have used many times for different projects. It was at this point that I sent images of ideas and sampled fabrics to the buyer – for any feedback then with her agreement I went ahead and started on the actual panel. But with the stipulation of no other sighting until the piece is finished !!!!!!!!

Here is the drawing used again for the front cover of one of my embroidery books, and on a detail of Tulipomania now used for a print in my shop,

Below, designs for counted thread canvas work woollen embroideries – a good drawing goes a long way!

Now to flower arrangement – I am not good at arranging flowers and I really have to work hard at this aspect of my flower embroideries. I edited the tulips from the original early drawing as I did not have the time or space to stitch 10 flower heads in different colours and shapes. Below are 2 of many early drawings graphed for transference to the stitched ground.

And to colour, the tulips need to work with the sky, and the sky is all organised, tacked ready for quilting between stitching the tulips.

To enable me to gauge the placement of colours against the already glowing sky, I wrapped some silk ribbons to act as flower heads, found the silk threads to match them and took colour notifications – if only things work out so simply in reality – but I was starting this bouquet from scratch.

Drawing, redrawing, sampling and stitching one by one each tulip head is made,

Below show older drawings in my current sketch book; plus my friend Lizzie Butler’s birthday card to me – I just copied it straight onto silk organza – with her permission of course!

When enough heads are made I start to arrange them on the background….and then the leaves. I just love to draw tulip leaves and their colours are so soft and gentle. I start with cut linen shapes from my original drawing in order to stitch over them to give definition; getting there.

And last the vase – which is another story – believe me!

I truly enjoyed this work, creating spring flowers in the depth of winter, but it was a challenge as you can see. It is now safely framed and given straight into the hands of the son of the person who commissioned me; he had seen my work at the exhibition and talked about it…..and he has promised to send me a photo of the framed work in situ in the new house.

Dog quilt continued: the Portraits

| janethaigh

This is the next instalment of the dog quilt. I decided to stitch proper portraits, close up and personal of 3 dogs belonging to the designer who had originally commissioned the quilt. These dog embroideries were obviously really important to the success of the whole project, so I gave them the centre stage in the compositition. Luckily I was provided with several images of each chosen dog.

For the first one that I stitched (as the trial sample), the photograph was so clear that I could start to draw directly onto the linen fabric using water soluble pen (one that does not disappear after a few hours – these small fine embroideries can take days, even weeks to complete).

Using Derwent Inktense pencils I applied the basic colours of the coat, wet it to blend and intensify the colours then pressed it to fix the dyes. I continued to draw with the water soluble pen to give me the stitch directions for the coat.

When I started the quilt I was sent images of a very young and nervous looking puppy, so decided to wait a while to see how it looked when it had gained its character. Above is my sketch book page with several drawings based on a number of images of a wiser but amusing dog…I used woollen felt and threads to stitch the rich curly coat.

Meanwhile I was working on the remaining dogs that now had to fit into the whole quilt design. One of the first dogs I had chosen to use was Maisie, I had taken many pictures of her over several years as she was one of the elegant greyhounds/lurchers that are regularly rescued by my family. These long legged hounds are the most wonderful dogs to draw, it was hard to choose which position to use.

And there were a few others to make a late appearance; deciding I wanted some extra humour I chose to embroider my toy felt dog that had its back leg chewed off by my first dog, the Fox Terrier Archie. I also included one of my pet hates for dogs, those all-in-one coats with 4 leggings…..so shaming. I chose Kevin, a friends’ Beagle – sorry Kevin but you do have a good range of expressions.

And the last portrait is the German Shepard – I was sent an image of an utterly beautiful dog with a yearning expression – probably wanting a biscuit! I decided to make this the centre piece as it was such a dramatic full-on face. I again worked directly from the photograph( which is rare for me) onto a very rich blue shot-cotton, using my favourite Inktense pigment crayons to draw and dye the cloth prior to stitching.

So slowly, and then very quickly with a deadline looming, the quilt finally started to come together and shown below on my studio table is the final arrangement complete with machine stitched sashing. Eventually I took it to expert quilter, Julie Harvey, who measured, layered and trimmed it, and together we both hand quilted it.

Eventually I posted it to be framed, in some style, by Marcus Wells who had commissioned me to make the work: and here is the finished piece.

And the best outcome of all – I have received commissions for 3 more single dog portraits; what a joyful set of work to start the new year.

dog quilt: SERENDIPITY

| janethaigh

Strange how sometimes things come together: I was contacted, out of the blue, by Marcus Wells at Havilland Designs to see if I undertook commissions? He had framed some of my earlier work (embroidered portraits of women designers) for one of his clients, the interior designer Kit Kemp, who, to my amazement, had spotlighted my work on her blog, showing the perfectly placed Clarice Cliff portrait and lots more. Now read on……

Marcus had a client who wanted a quilt depicting dogs. I am not a quilt maker but I was intrigued and asked him to send me details, sizes, preferred imagery etc. and an overview of the space where the quilt would hang. It was to be framed by Marcus and – no pressure – his client was another interior designer….He sent several images of the room that the quilt was to be hung in and I noticed a small dog’s head on one of them, I asked for pictures of any other dogs belonging to the client.

I then made several design sheets for a colour scheme and fabrication, with drawings and 2 embroidered samples using of a range of techniques that I could offer: from the simplest applique design for a spotty Dalmation to a hand-stitched portrait of the small dog in the original photograph. I was given the commission:- a quilted hanging with patchwork blocks of stitched dogs using the different techniques.

So now to find the extra dogs; my first set of drawings showed typical positions taken by each breed above. I do love dogs and am fascinated by their shapes, specially when totally relaxed. I had started with basic stance like the Dalmation, and just had to include a French poodle and terriers, so an Irish terrier, a Fox terrier and a Border terrier. And hounds, a Schnauzer Leo and even a Siberian husky Twyla, all in easy reach as they belong to friends, family and the local dog-walkers.

For most of the embroideries I drew the dogs to scale from photographs sent to me by the various owners, to decide which technique used for each dog but sometimes I just copied the photograph! Below are working drawings for the relaxed hound Rodney, and the oh-so-tired Sydney.

But how to assemble them into a quilt? I had been putting everything onto the quilt wall in my studio as I made it – constantly adjusting the arrangement to fit within the required measurement. Not how quilts are usually made I know, but this was created by the love of dogs, not the discipline of the patchwork quilt. The first scribbled design for the quilt shown below and the reality that surrounds it….

The design chops and changes as each new embroidery is completed and not every dog makes the final cut, but a design finally emerges. There were a few more dogs needed to complete the design, but how to highlight the family dogs (which are actual portraits) and stitch it together as a proper quilt…is the next instalment.

commission revisited

| janethaigh

I was invited to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin recently, to discuss the making of the stitched silk covering for the sculpture “Primate”( above) by Daphne Wright. The gallery had recently acquired the sculpture for its permanent collection, and Jessica O’Donnell, the head of the Education and Outreach department, had asked Daphne, who had commissioned me to make this in 2009, if I would be willing to talk to the conservation department to give them any insights into the process. I was so delighted to be asked for this because, I not only could explain the ways of making it, I had kept all the materials and stitching samples, and there is a blog that explains the whole 3 month long process.

We all first viewed Primate in the gallery where he was lying alone in the middle of a large darkened room within a spotlight. Daphne spoke about the difficulties of obtaining the cast and I later talked with her about various ideas and conversations we had about aspects of our collaboration – it had been intense. However, I have seen this work in various circumstances from busy National Trust properties, in commercial art galleries, and our own studios and now here in pure isolation…un-nerving.

Next we went behind the scenes of the museum and I showed the small set of samples (below left) that I had kept: silk organza and different backing materials, paper backed adhesives, silk threads, needles, and the cut out and discarded stitched pieces, even a sample block of the marble resin; all kept in my research stash to explain my journey. Below right shows the way the gallery has now laid them out for viewing in the education department – so perfectly neat and simple.

Below the basic and flawed resin and marble-dust cast of the Rhesus monkey, and the stitch development at about the 3/4 way stage, on my studio table.

And here is the gallery where the Primate was introduced to the public as a new acquisition to the Museum’s collection. When I saw this space for the first time it felt like entering a tomb, or at least a place of veneration and it still makes me feel bereft every time I look at this image.

This commission has had a considerable effect upon my stitched works, even up the present day. For further insights and my stitching this work please go to my post in COMMISSIONS: Primate.

More birds in Skirts

| janethaigh

The last week of my exhibition Inspired to Stitch at Hidcote Gardens and this week ,taking stock of the whole experience, I find myself reflecting on, amongst other things, what sells and why. My small prints of the Birds in Skirts are still selling well and in a few weeks will be winging (sorry) their way to their new owners.

But it is often the case that the works I have most affection for (or would like to keep for myself) often do not sell immediately. I am particularly fond of the 2 larger A3 prints with the crazy patchwork skirts. I designed and made these fabrics for my first ever book, Crazy Patchwork, published by Collins and Brown in 1998. These 2 pieces were made into lampshades – yes that’s right, I made crazy lampshades – so I unpicked them from the shade shapes and used the still pristine patchworks for the large skirts.

IF I was buying from this collection, I would choose the lovely old white fabric designs chosen from my collection of vintage fabrics; strips of hand embroidered tape lace, Broderie Anglaise and crochet braids and ribbons that I have lovingly hand stitched together. But not one has been ordered – hey ho! obviously have been overlooked by the more colourful iterations or maybe it is the lack of the pastel skies?

But the Beribboned birds, below, made with the more modern and beautiful coloured ribbons by Renaissance Ribbons are still available….so what do I know?

And my very first versions of designing and stitching the complicated Jacobean embroidery techniques, that took so long to research and develop, have still to find a new home – Hey Ho! But does any designer ever know what will be the most desirable objects of all their creations?

And here is my latest version of the birds, it does not appear in the exhibition but is the result of a swift video made for instagram showing how I made this woven version….maybe there will be more to come as I have recently accepted a commission for one as a special birthday present…..

birds in skirts

| janethaigh

I gasped when I first saw these 2 topiary birds when visiting Hidcote to discuss my exhibition “Inspired to Stitch” for the Manor House gallery in 2025, where were the large bases of yew that they had perched upon for over 100 years?

Hidcote then
Hidcote Now

It was explained that the loss is in part due to necessary pruning( after the covid closures) needed to maintain access to the steps to the pool. Now they sit on top of bare but beautifully dappled trunks. I immediately thought “I can mend them”, visually of course! My idea was to create 2 wide ‘skirts’ of different fabrics – but when I started to think about making skirts my mind started to race with ideas. I quickly scribbled some down onto the only scrap of paper I had to hand…..

I decided to make small drawings of the 2 birds and then I could dress them both in a fabric skirt. Now how make this look feasible in reality. Using Inktense pigment crayons A4 sketchbook paper I roughed out the basic hedge shapes, but I had so many different ideas when I looked at my vintage fabrics scraps, that I decided to make a 2 sets of giclee prints, in order to illustrate all my ideas.

Above, the 2 giclee prints developed from the original drawings from my photographs, the first design was for a lattice or Jacobean Laid Work (see below the samples on the rough drawings).

The first skirt sample was stitched straight into a bird print, using a fine twisted cotton thread. When beginning any new project, I always attempt a challenging piece of ‘inspirational’ work, by which I mean it will make me want to carry on with all my new ideas.

Above is the first design I completed for a whole set of 22 ‘Birds in Skirts” and I made them especially to sell at my ‘Inspired to Stitch’ exhibition This is an unusual step for me as I very seldom sell my stitched works. So now they have all been mounted, framed and glazed ready to be delivered to the buyers after the Exhibition closes.

There will be more posts about these stitched prints, as this is a new and exciting way for me to work. It combines my love of drawing and stitching and opportunities to develop many variations using my collection of vintage fabrics. I am now conducting new classes to cover some of the ideas and new-to-me techniques that I developed for creating the Birds in Skirts edition

DRAWN to stitch: gardens & flowers

| janethaigh

This is the foreword, kindly composed by Kaffe Fassett, for the first page of my latest book I made as a catalogue/ picturebook to accompany my latest exhibition Inspired to Stitch: Hidcote Revisited. at Hidcote gardens in Gloucestershire.

It illustrates part of the story of my career in stitched textiles, from my first ever embroidered picture above, made out of the sheer frustration of working in the fast-track commercial fashion industry in London, after I left Liverpool Art College in 1970. And it is an imagined garden.

Fast forward several years to 1992 (you will have to buy the book for more information)and I am totally committed to all things flowers, gardens and topiary! Here are several pages from the book to whet your appetite and first here is Flora, the Roman goddess of Flowers.

Flora is the central image of 9 embroideries called ‘The Flora’ that tells a visual history of the development of, what I now think of as, “designer flowers”.

The Auricula Theatre above, with a series of small giclee prints I developed from the original silk embroidery. The protective curtains are made from a piece of vintage Spitalfields silk.

Pansy Faces and my drawings for the inventions I imagined as my exhibit in our town’s annual flower show.

A personification of Blodeuwedd, or “Flower Face” from Welsh folk lore; this is a giclee print of the original stitched silk collage on paper, that I developed from my old drawings made for ‘The Flora’ .

Here is a bouquet of hand embroidered flowers in ‘After Winifred’. I was given this bouquet during Covid, by a masked friend, in my garden, on my birthday. I was looking back though my Flora drawings to make some joyful embroideries and had bought a book of flower paintings by Winifred Nicholson……

I keep a careful record of all my research drawings, this results in a whole range of different drawings, samples, notes and photographs being kept for further inspiration. Here are typical ways that I use these ideas and studies for new works. Above are some pieces of ‘The Enamel Garden‘ a major academic research project into using textile techniques for other materials, here vitreous enamel on hand cut sheet copper. It is possible to trace how I used my research drawings to create these flowers and hedges.

And my latest canvas work design for Ehrman Tapestry, a version of the Vintage Topiary Bird used for the front cover of the book. I designed this especially for the company to make a kit of this design to celebrate the exhibition…. I will keep the post about making it until later.

And at last I am selling the book from my Shopify site ( QR code below). Above is the flyer for the Hidcote exhibition that gives access to more information into to all the works contained in the book. But best of all in the first week of the show, my first package of books and a giclee print ready to be posted.

HIDCOTE REVISITED: NEW EXHIBITION

| janethaigh

Invited to exhibit my embroideries at Hidcote Manor, a National Trust Garden, in April 2025, I immediately thought of my first visit in the 1970’s; I had just started to embroider, and the effect that it has had on my stitched work ever since. Above is a small selection of my first-ever embroideries that were inspired by my delight and fascination with gardens and flowers.

I stared with basic canvas work and enjoyed the restrictions imposed by the strict stitching and its filling-in-until-you-finish discipline. I was designing pictures in order to learn to embroider my ideas.

It was after visiting Hidcote that I started to draw gardens, mostly details of planting and of course, topiary. I took photographs and scribbled down notes to remember colour planting and topiary shapes to develop into embroideries. Now I realise that this was the time when I found my own way of stitching by using blended colours and really just stitching my drawings. I always scribbled drawings, took too many photographs and made notes ready to be tranformed into working drawings, and this is how start my work now, almost 50 years later.

Above a rather creased poster from my first one person show at Francis Kyle Gallery in 1979, showing my small scale canvas embroideries. My early fascination with topiary is evident.

Oddly I do not actually like the idea of strictly clipped hedges, specially when trimmed into animal and bird shapes, but this feeling completely disappears when I actually see it for real. I find this ambivalence really useful and for me it provokes new ideas; why bother to make anything that holds no meaning, mystery or is simply a puzzle for you to try to solve? But mostly I am delighted by the sheer absurdity of it. Why do we tether bird-shaped hedges to heavy domes of yew – to stop them flying off?

And I have continued to embroider the topiary figures that are often seen in grand gardens. Above is ‘Great Dixter’ a small silk embroidery circa 1980, that was very inspirational in making new pieces for this exhibition. Right is ‘Lytes Carey’, another National Trust garden, this is made mainly with simple large running stitches in woollen yarns onto a wool ground for a big woollen panel, in 2001. I always enjoy seeing the dense green walls of hedges surrounding an abundance of flowers, as seen below on my several visits to Hidcote in 2024.

Insired to make new works for the exhibition, back in the studio I combined different drawings, prints and photograps of several aspects of the garden’s abundance and used some old stencils and wonky photocopies that had been over-printed with my embroidered flower images. From this I developed a collage from shoji paper and stitched silk. Then found an old photograph of the birds as I can remember them with their crowns as peacocks.

The abundance of planting in the garden beds reminded me of Gustav Klimt’s flowery lanscapes, I began to imagine the plants at Hidcote developed into a wall of flowers. I had bought a packet of paper napkins patterned with a Klimt garden for presents to friends, from a museum in Vienna, but had kept them myself. I took one and pinned it to my studio wall, with the other half formed ideas.

Stages in the inspiration: designing, drawing, dyeing and stitching my homage to Gustav Klimt. I stitched a bird in twisted silk thread on a fine silk ground, then painted dye onto another silk ground adding many of the flowers and leaves, found in my photographs, to make the flower wall. Eventually I stitched the finished bird into postion.

The finished ‘Vintage Topiary Bird’ has become the front cover of the picture book/catalogue that I have produced specially for this exhibition. It has just been delivered to the publishers in time to be printed and for sale at the start of the exhibition Inspired to Stitch: Hidcote Revisited.

Flowers & Hearts

| janethaigh

The new season’s exhibitions at Jen Jones’ The Welsh Quilt Centre, Lampeter opened a week ago today where I am exhibiting a small show of personal work – work that I make and keep for myself.

On my first visit early in 2023, when I took actual work to show Jen Jones, she offered me a small gallery for an exhibition and I decided on ‘The Flora’ embroideries. However on my second visit to the, now empty, room I immediately realised it would need far more works than I had imagined. I decided to add a more unusual collection of my textiles combining vitreous enamel and based on Mending. It features broken hearts and how to mend them, so Hearts and Flowers: starting at the begining and going round the room: this is the story of putting up the exhibition

In the first week of March I took all my works and with the help of the whole team at the centre the exhibition was in place in a day(apart from a few extra tweaks before the opening)The first wall of work was The Flora. The exhibition curator/editor, Sarah James, remained focussed when I had lost mine.

The Flora flowers give way to a group of ‘Flowers For Our Times’ my most recent hand embroideries..but they continue the themes found in Flora. On the left is a stitched appliqued drawing.

The flower walls give way to hearts (and eyes) so here are my minimally quilted fabric patchworks. This took quite a lot of preparation, pressing on my behalf and for Charles (and Russell) the gallery’s invaluable exhibition men, constantly measuring and sometimes just waiting, but colour co-ordinated!

The large Comfort (Hearts)and Security (Quotes) Blankets and Safety Curtain ( Eyes) had been draped over my bannisters for weeks (above right) but a 3 hour car journey had creased them; I am always relieved to be able press my work before it goes on display.

Moving round next are the metal and vitreous enamel hearts – all broken, discarded, damaged but saved in some way.

The works above are made of metal and glass enamel, they are stitched and embroidered with drawn thread work in copper wires on metal fabrics and copper plate. Patterned by sifting white enamels through Lace and Broderie Anglaise stencils, except for the red sampler that is darned in silk on vellum

The bed in the centre of the gallery is Sarah James’ idea, she thought it would perfectly show off the bedding of Make it Through the Night and she was right! People are really curious and stop to ‘read’ the symbols and it makes sense when teamed with the Bolster.

Eventually we get back to entrance with patchworked and embroidered and flowers but outside in a vestibule there is still something else to see, Russell putting up my framed giclee prints, unframed for sale in the shop with many more flower pieces. And the large ‘Lytes Cary Manor’ woollen wall hanging taken from my studio wall where it has lived since 2001.

The very last picture I took was at the end of the Private View. A group of staff and on the left Jenni of Jenni Smith Sews talking to Hazel (who appears to organise just about everything around the Centre) waiting to hear how to get through the wild Welsh countryside to the restaurant for us to celebrate all the exhibitions and videos on display throughout this amazing place.

PS. my work is not for sale but my new giclee prints of embroidered flowers are available to buy in the fascinating vintage textile and bricabrac shop attached to the centre.