Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

This year for Halloween I taught wreath classes for children at both  Walford Mill Crafts  and the  Russell-Cotes Museum . As most people know, Halloween is goth Christmas and probably my favourite holiday ever. Here's the example that I made to show the kids: I was pleased with how it turned out - all the characters have different personalities and it's the ideal type of craft to do with children - they can make it as complex or simple as they like. Here's a few pictures of what the kids made: What a great and varied set of results! I like all the colours and textures they used and the great spooky faces they drew!

In 2015 I was approached by Bournemouth Borough Council to create a bespoke covering for a very important unveiling ceremony honouring Cecil Noble, a hero of the First World War and Victoria Cross recipient. Yesterday I was reunited with the unveiling cloth when I was invited to a second ceremony, this one honouring Charles Riggs who was also awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. The ceremony was held exactly 100 years after his death on 1st October and as I found out from my Mum, I also had a Great Great Uncle who died in the war on the very same day. It was lovely to be reunited with such a meaningful piece of work that I haven't seen for so long. I put a lot of thought and energy into making the ceremonial cloth and I worked on it at the same time as finishing a major assignment for university and somehow fitted in a trip to Venice as well?! Well played, Past Me. I used hand embroidery, hand sewing, machine sewing, CAD embroidery with velvets, faux leather, braid, tassels a

This month I'm lucky enough to have been chosen as the featured artist for Balaclafa, a small gallery in Caernarfon, North Wales. I'm always looking for opportunities to exhibit outside of my local area (Dorset) and thus spread the joy of my unique textile art all over the darn place, so to have been asked to show work so far afield is fantastic. I decided to show a mixture of some of my older work alongside the newer prints, brooches and cards that I've been creating. It was brilliant to rediscover some of these pieces that hadn't seen the light of day for a couple of years and I found it quite inspiring and reinvigorating to look over it all again. Without further ado, here are some pictures and thanks to Menna and all at Balaclafa for setting it all up and having my work there! Stickers and Mixed Media  Stickers, Temporary Tattoos and Mixed Media Textile Mask Cards, Prints and Mixed Media Textile Mask Temporary Tattoos, Stickers and Brooches

This week  Threads of Narrative  (my shared textile project with Lisa Earley) opened at Kingston Lacy in Wimborne. They've incorporated some of our work into their larger exhibition 'Beyond the Portrait' about some of the ladies of the Bankes family and we've got our own space in the laundry room out in the courtyard. If you didn't get around to seeing the exhibition the first time at Walford Mill Crafts, then this is a great chance to see it since it will be on until October! Here's a few pictures I took today: Apron Strings - Sarah Appleton 2018 Little Hilary - Sarah Appleton 2018 That's me - hieee!  Other than that, I'm currently working on a big private commission which I'll post progress on soon, and hopefully there will be more exciting news to come too. Byeeee!

Today's post is a little different than usual because I'm writing about something other than myself! On Wednesday I went with family to visit the American Museum in Britain; I was given a National Art Pass for Christmas and am trying to utilise it as much as possible - the AMiB is one of their places. whut meeee  The fancy gardens are being worked on at the moment so we didn't get to see a lot of those which was a shame. I did spot this rather lovely Art Deco-ey sculpture thingy though, which is maybe some kind of sundial...? My favourite parts were the Native American costume, with all its colours and patterns: And the Room of Many Quilts, especially this Thistle-Disguised-As-A-Pineapple quilt: is it a thistle? is it a pineapple? you decide And then I spotted a few hidden gems too such as this skull in a frieze: Wallpaper that understands and celebrates the glory of corn: Aaaand a quilted horsey! There was of course lots more things to see

The past few weeks have been very busy for me as I prepare for my very first proper craft fair. It's being organised by a team of my fellow Dorset-based Etsy sellers and there will be over 60 locally based stalls there selling crafts, arts, vintage and antique goods so it all sounds very exciting indeed! There's lots of elements for me to think about as it's my first one; such as how to present my stall, the equipment I need and packaging and marketing materials... and that's even before I've thought about all the stock that I'll need! With three days left to go I'm finally getting there, I've been checking things off my list, ironing tablecloths, etc. and I wanted to share a few of the new products I've been working on that will be featuring on my stall. First of all there's my new stickers: which come in two fabulous space age designs; 'Planet' and 'Cow Abduction', the latter of which is based on my original linocut, whi

Threads of Narrative is still running at  Walford Mill Crafts  and will be staying there until 22nd April, having been extended due to popular demand (or something)! After the original opening date was postponed due to the snow, it's great that more people will be able to see the work during the extra time. After it's finished at Walford Mill, the show will be moving on just up the road to  Kingston Lacy  - the last home of the Bankes family - where it will be on display for even more people to see! I'm really looking forward to seeing my work placed in the home of the family it was inspired by and will be so proud to see it there. More details of this exciting development to come! Without further ado, here's some photos of our launch event (photos by Steve and Sarah Appleton): Lots of people came along (thank you if you were one of them), including Jude the dog! 'My Own Darling Mummy' - Sarah Appleton 'Apron Strings' - Sarah Appleton 

I've been a bit rubbish at posting blogs so far this year, this is mainly due to finishing all the work off for the Threads of Narrative exhibition, which opens this week at Walford Mill Crafts in Wimborne. If you've missed my previous posts about this project, you can read a bit more about the beginnings  here ; but in a nutshell the project is a textile exhibition about the Bankes Family of Dorset. Now all the work is complete and up I have more free time to talk about it... or at least post pictures! Here are the two main pieces I've made: My Own Darling Mummy This is the pink neoprene dress I posted about previously, now complete with lights, words and frills. I'm pleased with how it turned out; as with any project there are things I would have liked to have added or improved if I'd had more time, but time just trickled away with this huge commission and I had to end it somewhere! Here are a couple more pictures, I will of course take higher quality shots