HAWTHORNE & HEANEY

Embroidery Specialists

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Hawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz

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After visiting the Emma Kunz exhibition of visionary drawings at the Serpentine Gallery in May our intern Max was inspired by the artists use of geometrics, spirographs and straight lines. Emma Kunz would ask questions to a computer and using a pendulum and this would this result in a series of spirographs and abstract structured patterns. From this research Max was asked to develop a collection of samples for contemporary bridal wear.

Hawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz London Hand Embroidery

A starting point was to take photographs at the exhibition as well as research into contemporary bridal wear and develop mood-boards that would create a coherent story for her samples. She created one mood-board for research photography, combing Emma Kunz’s work with bridal wear and another that went into more detail of techniques and materials.

Hawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz London Hand Embroidery

From these moodboards Max started developing drawings and recreating the lines and patterns seen in the exhibition.

Hawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz London Hand EmbroideryHawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz London Hand Embroidery

These drawings allowed her to begin samples. As Max progressed with her embroidery techniques she produced a range of samples using thread to create the lines seen in Kunz’s work.

Hawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz London Hand Embroidery Hawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz London Hand Embroidery

Max saw the potential for digital embroidery in this project. The neat lines and geometrics could be best interpreted by a machine and this was also reflective of the way Kunz would use a computer in her art work.

Hawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz London Hand Embroidery

 

Hawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz London Hand Embroidery

Max looked into developing pieces for bridesmaids as well as brides by using beautiful mushroom and rose gold satins with organza.

Hawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz London Hand Embroidery Hawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz London Hand Embroidery

Her final sample was created on a digital embroidery machine with white satin and organza which she has selectively cut away and added subtle embellishment as a finishing touch.

Hawthorne and Heaney inspired by the Visionary Drawings of Emma Kunz London Hand Embroidery

 

All Embroidery by Max Williams for Hawthorne & Heaney

Words By Flo Sargent

Hawthorne & Heaney asks: Have you ever wondered about some of the techniques behind our Embroideries ?

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As well as being an embroidery studio, we also have a school which teaches embroidery some evenings and weekends. Our classes are mostly hand embroidery but we have recently added a machine embroidery class to our repetoire. The classes can be found under the London Embroidery School which is also us!   

Hawthorne & Heaney asks: Have you ever wondered about some of the techniques behind our Embroideries ? London Hand Embroidery

The London Embroidery School website as well as being a place to book classes and purchase embroidery materials is also a great information hub for tips and tricks for embroidery. These can be found under the pro tips series and range from the basics like how to thread a needle (we talk about 4 styles to choose from, not exclusively) to more specialist techniques like prick and pounce:

Hawthorne & Heaney asks: Have you ever wondered about some of the techniques behind our Embroideries ? London Hand Embroidery

Hawthorne & Heaney asks: Have you ever wondered about some of the techniques behind our Embroideries ? London Hand EmbroideryHawthorne & Heaney asks: Have you ever wondered about some of the techniques behind our Embroideries ? London Hand EmbroideryHawthorne & Heaney asks: Have you ever wondered about some of the techniques behind our Embroideries ? London Hand Embroidery

Or how to use a particular tool, like the curved scissors, a studio favourite;

 

Hawthorne & Heaney asks: Have you ever wondered about some of the techniques behind our Embroideries ? London Hand Embroidery

Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition

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At the start of last month, we posted a blog by our intern Kiah from her visit to the David Adjaye’s Making Memory Exhibition. Taking inspiration from this, she produced a series of drawings from the elements she found inspiring.Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition London Hand Embroidery Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition London Hand Embroidery Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition London Hand Embroidery Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition London Hand EmbroideryWith her drawing style being quite graphic, she favoured the staircase elements of Adjaye’s designs, bringing in the play fo the light and shadows on the stairs as you can see from the drawings above.

These were then translated into a repeating CAD embroidery design which she embellished with a variety of techniques that she has been practising from the classes  taken at the London Embroidery school

Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition London Hand EmbroideryThese can be seen in the addition of the sequins at the top and bottom:

Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition London Hand Embroidery

There is also the clever use of some very neat satin stitches in stranded cotton

Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition London Hand EmbroideryAnd the more specialist raised cutwork bullion squares to finish it off

Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition London Hand EmbroideryWe also asked Kiah to show us how she imaged her textiles being used within an interiors context, so she produced these lovely visualisations of her work as used in a hotel or luxury office space.

Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition London Hand Embroidery Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition London Hand Embroidery

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing

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Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand Embroidery

Hawthorne and Heaney have been out and about with our stitching kits this weekend past as we were based at Harvey Nichols for Skandi chic brand, Anine Bing.

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand EmbroideryAll set up in store for stitching

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand EmbroideryPerusing the embroidery options

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand EmbroideryScript style stitching onto camo jacket

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand EmbroideryBlock style stitching onto sweatshirt

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand EmbroideryScript style stitching onto shirt

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand EmbroideryLarge Script style stitching onto sweatshirt for Louise Redknapp

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand EmbroideryThe lovely store ladies modelling their personalised camo jackets

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand EmbroideryA little lightening bolt detail for the back

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand EmbroiderySuper cute chain stitched S onto knitted jumper

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand EmbroideryBlock style name onto the back of a sweatshirt

Hawthorne & Heaney at Anine Bing London Hand EmbroideryBlock style Intials onto shirt collar

After what you can see was a very busy and sucessful hand event, we can’t wait for our next one. If you would like to be our next event, get in touch!

Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art

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Embroidery, much like fabric, is not made to last forever. So when we are looking for examples of historical textiles, sometimes, they simply do not exisit anymore as the fabrics disintergrate with age and use. However we do still have a source of what textiles might have looked like in their glory days in the form of painting.

During a recent trip to Amsterdam in the Rijksmuseum, we came across some wonderful examples of historical painting which showed great detail of the textiles that they protrayed.

Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand EmbroideryGirl In White Kimono by George Hendrik Breitner

1894

most likely showing a print of Japanese origin

Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand EmbroideryPendant portrait of Oopjen Coppit By Rembrandt

1634

Demonstrating the fineness and whiteness of her flat lace collar

 

Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand EmbroideryPortrait of Emperor Napoleon I by François-Pascal Simon baron Gérard

1804

Depicting traditional goldwork techniques and bullion fringing

 

We also have had one of our interns, Amy Pickard working on a project for us in house where she chose a painting which featured a beautiful piece of textiles and has been working to recreate it herself.

Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery

For the project, she starting point with a visit to the National and National Portrait Galleries. Here she collected primary research of examples of historical textiles. There was a lot of symmetry and geometric shapes as well as a heavy use of floral motifs. It was wonderful to see so many paintings with gorgeous details and being able to name techniques documented.

Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery
After the trip, the photos were sorted through and drawing were made of some of the details. For this she used a lot of Ecclesiastical paintings or portraits of past nobels.
Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand EmbroideryAlong with the photos she assembled a moodboard to help to keep her on track with the aims of the project.
Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery
Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery
Having attended a tambour beading class with our partner company, (London Embroidery School) she decided to recreate one of the motifs using this technique.
Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery
And then followed up with two other samples on velvet in CAD machine embroidery using similar repeats from the isolated motifs.
 Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery
Hawthorne & Heaney on Textiles in Art London Hand Embroidery
All in all we are really excited by the outcomes of the project and think that Amy should be really please with them too!

Hawthorne & Heaney on Ribbons

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When you think about personalisation, people usually associate it with garments, but it doesn’t have to be restricted to them. We recently did a project with a tablescape designer extrordinare Fiona Leahy  for the Aerin èclat de vert perfume launch dinner in  De Crillon in Paris.

Hawthorne & Heaney on Ribbons London Hand Embroidery

Hawthorne & Heaney on Ribbons London Hand Embroidery

Hawthorne & Heaney on Ribbons London Hand EmbroideryStunning right?!?!

(All above Images courtesy of Fiona Leahy Designs)

Hawthorne & Heaney on Ribbons London Hand Embroidery

Hawthorne & Heaney’s Special Project

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Here at Hawthorne & Heaney we had a bit of a special project on at the moment for a certain wedding that took place in September 2018. We were tasked with creating the chasuble for the priest to wear for our Director’s wedding.

Hawthorne & Heaney's Special Project London Hand Embroidery

Approaching a garment like this is a sizeable task because of the importance of the imagery and the congregation that will see it. Designed by our director, the cross shaped design features a large image of the holy spirit as a dove at the top. This was inspired by an old piece of cut work embroidery which we are reinterpreting for machine embroidery. We wanted it to retain some of the original cutwork movement which can be seen in the direction of the running stitches and feathers. This also informed the choice of metallic silver for the details to get that shimmer amongst the sheen of the white machine thread.

Hawthorne & Heaney's Special Project London Hand Embroidery

The middle section has a series of flowers which we focused on the shading of them amongst the raised scrolls and braid work.

Hawthorne & Heaney's Special Project London Hand EmbroideryHawthorne & Heaney's Special Project London Hand Embroidery

Hawthorne & Heaney's Special Project London Hand Embroidery

Down the bottom we have the lamb of god: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. For his imagery we wanted to emulate a similar texture to that of the dove but with a more ‘wooley’ nature. 

Hawthorne & Heaney's Special Project London Hand Embroidery

Each section of the embroidery has to be tidyed and finished by hand which you may be able to see from some of the earlier photos where the design is still on the machine, the stitching looks a bit rougher than the polished finish we were going for.

Hawthorne & Heaney's Special Project London Hand Embroidery

We also added some crystals and small hamd details at the end which added those final details to make it sing.

Hawthorne & Heaney's Special Project London Hand Embroidery

But even when we were done with it, that was not the end of its journey as it was delivered to the tailors who made it into the chasuble itself.

Hawthorne & Heaney's Special Project London Hand EmbroideryHawthorne & Heaney's Special Project London Hand Embroidery

Re-interpretting originally hand embroidered designs in machine embroidery can be quite challenging to give it a style of its own and not to look like a lesser version of the hand embroidered piece. We aim not to replicate it, but to reimagine it.

 

Hawthorne & Heaney's Special Project London Hand Embroidery

Hawthorne & Heaney on Roses

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By compairson to last week’s post and the scale of the embroideries that we produced for the patches, this little job may seem insignificant. However we can’t help but get excited about pieces like this whether we are producing 2 pieces or 200 of them in the end.Hawthorne & Heaney on Roses London Hand Embroidery

We were approached and asked to use this tudor rose image to create a pair of freestanding embroidered embelums to go onto a bespoke cape which one of our tailors was working on. By adding raisings into the piece we were able to give the piece some body despite the fact that they are not onto a fabric base.

Hawthorne & Heaney on Roses London Hand Embroidery

You can see from the scale of the hand just how little they really are.

Hawthorne & Heaney on Roses London Hand Embroidery

Here they are in situ where they will get to live against this gorgeous velvet collar. Aren’t they just so cute?!? 

Hawthorne & Heaney on Roses London Hand Embroidery