Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

As Christmas is officially over, it seems like a good time to belatedly tell you all about the various crafty thingys I made for the festive period! First I started off with simpleish embroidered fabric decorations: [And a few paper ones...] These were inspired by classic retro shapes and designs and for the more complex embroideries I took inspiration from Constance Howard's book 'Inspiration for Embroidery'. Most of the fabric, paper and ribbon was salvaged / upcycled. Next I made cards in a similar retro theme: Photo by  LunarApple These featured an Intergalactic Space Reindeer with antennae so that he doesn't miss out on all his important Christmas telly [e.g. James Bond]. I also made cards with Christmas trees on but these seem to have eluded all photography. However, I did manage to knock up a quick reindeer gift bag too:  Here's a bonus picture of my marvellous cat looking splendid under our tree: That's it! Until next time!

This week I have bad news and good news. The bad news is that this might be my last 'Volunteering at Walford Mill' post because I won't be a volunteer any more. The good news is that that's because I'm going to be a proper paid member of the team really soon! Yippee! This is great news for me since I've spent the last three years working on my degree in order to get a foot in the creative world's door; and following graduation I didn't have much luck with job applications which made me feel very lost indeed. I knew I didn't want to work in London, or for some big fatcat corporation, so finding a small, local gallery focussed on craft and education was perfect for me. Education is really important to me; as a mature student who's enrolled on many a part-time short course over the last ten years I am a huge advocate of learning. It's all part of growing and 'bettering' oneself after all! In my new Mill job I'll be helping with the e

Not much to report this week; most of the day was spent doing officey type things; sending emails and looking after the social media of the Mill, which is one of the jobs I am assigned to do quite a bit. I also helped out in the gallery shop and with the Creative Academy (kid's craft). This week they were creating hand drawn bauble pictures like this one: Baubs by Jeannie By cutting templates and drawing around them and filling in the space: And then rubbing out the pencil line to leave a shape with pattern but no outline. Phew! This was an exercise in neatness and patience for everyone involved! That;s it really! Until next time!