Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

When I wrote my first blog post about making a block for  Little Amal's Skirt of Welcome  I never expected there to be a second part to the story from my perspective. But after posting a picture of the square that my Mum and I had made on my Instagram  I was surprised to be invited by  Annie Symons  to head up to London to help out with assembling the skirt. I was even more surprised when after I jumped at the chance, my Mum said that she was also up for the adventure too, so in October we headed from Dorset to Highgate Library, with sewing machines in tow. There we met up with a whole team of ultra talented creative people; some sewing, some ironing, some organising and all super friendly and welcoming. I was overjoyed to see our block coincidentally waiting at the top of the next pile on the table to be sewn in as soon as we arrived.  I did various jobs throughout the afternoon, including sewing, trimming, unpicking and sewing again, measuring, cutting, m...

Wow, it's been over two years since my last blog post! 😅 I've had plenty of exciting crafty adventures in the meantime and have lots to post about, so I'll start with some quick updates to get things going. Back in 2019 I was asked to drop in and chat on the  Culture+  podcast  Women Know Your Place . I resisted posting about this when it first came out because: 1. Fear of hearing the sound of my own voice in a recording (I know you know what I mean) 2. I thought I would come across negatively for talking about personal stuff (sharing is hard and doesn't always pay off) However, having reviewed the recording last week I have decided that those fears were completely unfounded so I'm sharing it now! In a nutshell, I talk about a few of the projects I had been working on at the time and then go on to reveal the reason why I have fallen off the radar a bit. SPOILER: I suffer from a thyroid related chronic illness that I don't talk about very often - if you don'...

Today was the first day of the final push towards Mardi Gras day! With only 4 days to go, we'll be putting the finishing touches onto costumes and making everything fabulous and gorgeous this week. Today started by finishing off these spicy little numbers for the  Viva Carnival Club  that we started last monday: After that it was time for a team meeting; starting to plan the actual logistics of carnival day. There's a lot to do; making sure everyone knows where they need to be at what time, decorating, entertainment and refreshments... as a carnival newbie it's all fresh to me but I shall do my best to keep up! Next I finished the feathered friend I started on wednesday [for before pictures, you can click here ]: It looks gorgeous now that it's plumage is fully restored! And I made a new circular piece for another costume that needed a little touching up: Shiny! Then Gina and I finished off the backpacks for the Equals ladies that go with the Delhi Durba...

On thursday and friday this week we mainly worked on a set of costumes representing the  Delhi Durbar , including red, white, blue and gold tent skirts and a giant elephant puppet! The main part of the skirts had already been made last week, so we just had to decorate and finish them with the Equals group (who will be wearing them next saturday). The first part of this process was to finish the decorative side panels by covering them with fabric: And cutting them out with the most ginormous pair of scissors I've ever seen! Then goldifying them: Then adding wire inside so that they can be bent into a 3D effect (this will make sense later): After that they were all hand printed with a stamp Gina had made from foam and gold paint: Before After Everyone in the group had a go at printing which was another fine example of teamwork; I did the first couple of prints, then I showed the next lady how to do it, and she showed the next and so on! Then when they were dr...

This week I began my volunteering / work experience stint at The  New Carnival Company ; regular readers will remember my recent day trip there to meet them. Their 'flagship event', the Mardi Gras will take place on July 1st so I'm here to lend a hand getting ready for that - primarily in the costume department. Monday was all about travelling down to the Isle of Wight from Bournemouth and settling in, although in the afternoon I helped with prepping for Tuesday's school session. This mostly involved a lot of cutting up ribbons: ribbin And making belts / waistbands with double-sided tape and ribbon. Very sticky tricky indeed! After that Gina and I prepped some chest pieces for 'spice' themed costumes made with fabric printed by some of the carnivalers with foam stamps and acrylic paint which turned out really nicely: After that it was home time, but also time for a little explore: Today (tuesday) Gina, Jenny and I went to do a school visit...

Yesterday I took a day tripper out to the Isle of Wight to visit The New Carnival Company  at their fabulous studio space in Ryde. I was put in touch with them via a contact at the Arts Council, who (correctly) thought that my  costume and mask  based work would complement the costumes made by The NCC and that I might be interested in working with them. As a complete film fanatic, finding out how to make big props and costumes really appeals to me too. So yesterday I took two trains and then a ferry: I love boats, me and found myself on the island. I met the friendly and welcoming NCC team and after a bit of a chat and a lovely and much-needed cup of tea I was set straight to work on a taster day! 'Work' in this case meant sitting in on a prototyping session of the carnival costumes for a local school. The in-house artists collaborate with the pupils and teachers to come up with costume ideas based on the current year's Mardi Gras theme (this year's theme is Refl...