hand embroidery

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

June 6, 2019 by Natasha Searls-Punter

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!

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:

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

Hawthorne & Heaney inspired by the Making Memory Exhibition

April 21, 2019 by Intern

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. With 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

These can be seen in the addition of the sequins at the top and bottom:

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

And the more specialist raised cutwork bullion squares to finish it off

We 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 at Anine Bing

April 15, 2019 by Natasha Searls-Punter

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.

All set up in store for stitching

Perusing the embroidery options

Script style stitching onto camo jacket

Block style stitching onto sweatshirt

Script style stitching onto shirt

Large Script style stitching onto sweatshirt for Louise Redknapp

The lovely store ladies modelling their personalised camo jackets

A little lightening bolt detail for the back

Super cute chain stitched S onto knitted jumper

Block style name onto the back of a sweatshirt

Block 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 Visits Dior: Designer of Dreams

February 28, 2019 by Natasha Searls-Punter

If your instagram feed is anything like ours then you will not have failed to notice the hugh amount of attention that the Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition is getting at the V & A Museum at the moment. Following its opening on the 2nd February, the exhibition which is held in the museum’s new Sainsbury wing, it has received an unprescedented amount of visitors.

The exhibition is currently sold out, with tickets being drip released around the 15th of each month and a few kept back each day on a first come first served basis. Members of the V&A however can still visit at their leisure and Hawthorne and Heaney were lucky enough to visit the exhibition on members night in order to bring you our insight.

The London exhibition has a much greater focus on the individual designers of the House of Dior so if you had already seen it at Musee Des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, then this version brings a different angle. Split into a series of sections, this part of the exhibition really gives you a sense of what each creative director has brought to the house. Furthermore it also highlights some of the key aspects of Dior as a fashion house, which holds all the designs together over the years. Identifying these values allows them to keep delivering pieces which are recognisably ‘Dior’.

Each rooms has its own sense of the wow factor with the paper cut flowers room, displaying some of the more romantic pieces amongst the flowers which were dripping from the ceiling. The center piece of which is this gown embellished with hundreds of tiny cut feathers.

We can not cover this exhibition without mentioning the toile room. Probably the simplist room with its ehite cubes, it really brings home the process of producing couture garments and the work that goes into them. It is lovely to look around and recognise some of the dresses you have already seen the final versions of, in their developmental form. As well as taking the time to watch the series of videos they have on display amongst the toiles which show the making process of other Dior producs such as shoes and jewellery from their specialist makers.

Some of the toiles have notes and annotations left on them which highlight the complexity of the pattern cutting when all the other details are stripped away in white.

From an embroiderers perpective, there is plenty to see and appreciate in this exhibition. The variety of styles and techniques is huge so whilst all the pieces may not necessarily be your taste, you can not help but be humbled by the skill.

Goldwork, raffia, feathers and beads all feature in this Galliano piece created for Dior by Lesage.

An interesting use of mesh appliques create the beatle wing/ petal effect amongst the sequins on this gown from the 1950’s.

Where else would you get the chance to get this up close and personal with dresses like this one, worn by Charlize Theron in the ‘J’adore’ adverts?

It is here that you can see that the sequins are tamboured onto the tuelle by hand with their joining stitches adding to the texture of the piece.

Some of the more contemporary pieces provide a different perspective on ‘les petite mains’ (the little hands; referring to the skilled makers that create the designers vision) that we get to see a modern application of traditonal skills such as the use of beads and velvet in this a line evening gown.

Of course, there are also the iconic, historical pieces that you have probably glimpst before, like this gown worn by Princess Margaret for her 21st Birthday photoshoot.

If you find the opportunity, then this exhibition is a absolute must see for fashion, design and embroidery fans everywhere. Follow the link for all the booking details.

All photos courtesy of Natasha Searls-Punter

Dior: Designer of Dreams

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London

On now until 14th July 2019 (extended to the 1st Sept 2019)

Hawthorne & Heaney visits the Sunbury Embroidery Gallery

February 7, 2019 by Natasha Searls-Punter

It is safe to say that there are not that many places around that can say that they are a gallery dedicated to embroidery, but The Sunbury Embroidery Gallery is one of those few. Located in the very quaint Lower Sunbury in Middlesex, this collection of traditional embroidery makes for a highlight in an already lovely bit of the world. Only 3 miles down the river from Hampton Court (where the Royal School of Needle Work is) makes this area a bit of the stitching hotspot.

The gallery is situtated within a historic walled Garden, displaying a collection of work celebrating the local area and commemorating the Millennium. All the work was completed in the year 2000 by 140 local embroiderers taking around 100,000 hours, all overseen by Pam Judd.

In the body of the village panel, a great variety of thread and stitches have been used to build up the effect. Silk shading and french knots are widely used, with some parts stitched separately and applied on later in a stumpwork style giving the piece more depth.

On either side of the village panel are 120 tent stitched community logos showing the supporting organisations such as Spelthorne council. Along side the permenant embroidery exhibit, they have temporary exhibits from other artists such as the current exhibit Jason Hart: A Passion for Wood and Carol Naylor: A Stitched Timeline which goes on display from 26th Feb 2019.Though the gallery may be small, it is a lovely example of community spirit in the form of traditional embroidery.Open Tuesday- Sunday 10am-4pm, admission is free though donations are welcome as it is run by volunteers.The Sunbury Gallery, Walled Garden, Thames Street, Sunbury on Thames, Middx, TW16 6AB

Hawthorne & Heaney does Quantity Orders

November 15, 2018 by Claire Sarah Barrett

Looking through our website, you would be right in thinking that a fair amount of our work revolves around one off gifts, unique pieces and protypes; however we are able to produce quantity orders, should that be what you and your brand requires.

Hand Embroidered Monograms onto Hankerchiefs

Raised Machine Embroidery onto Napkins

Freestanding Branded Patches

Personalised Towels

Hot Water Bottle and Blanket Sets

We can offer express turn arounds subject to availability also as our studio is conveniently located in Central London. Get in touch if you have a project in mind that we can help with.

Hawthorne & Heaney for Kalms

September 20, 2018 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Hawthorne and Heaney are very fortunate have a a great variety of work that comes through our door which means that you may have unknowing seen our work.

Earlier this year, we worked on a piece for the advertising campaign for ‘Kalms’. They wanted to create an embroidery of their slogan onto the duvet with the real life packet.

The colour of the stitching was very important that it would photograph true against the colours of the packaging so we spent some time testing a few threads before settling on this one as the strongest option. The texture of the stitching was also very important to them as they wanted it to have a very hand embroidered feel, but the stitching is done by machine. Therefore we chose a cotton thread which is also used for hand embroidering and paid special attention to the direction of the stitched to make them look like they flow naturally, like ink from a pen.

We were very please with the end result, and feel that we achieved what we were trying to achieve with this project. Have you seen it about?

Hawthorne & Heaney: Intern Projects

August 30, 2018 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Hawthorne & Heaney has been very fortunate to have a series of wonderful students who come to the studio as interns to learn about the industry and experience a working studio. But what do they actually do while they are with us I hear you ask?

What they work on day to day is very changeable but for our longer term interns we like them to have a project of their own ongoing whilst they are with us. The gorgeous images you see here are from our most recent intern, Elsie Wong who was working on some floral motifs for us along side her other duties.

She draws on her Singaporean heritage and Central Saint Martins experience to bring her clean yet delicate style to these pieces.

She then went on to translate one of the pieces into embroidery using one of the techniques learnt in her classes at the London Embroidery School, specifically Limerick Lace.

Here is is presenting her final piece to us demonstrating the design process from design, to draft, to embroidery. I’m sure you will agree, great job Elsie! What do you think?

If this has taken your fancy and you would like to join us as an intern, please see the internships blog or jobs section of the website for application as we are currently looking for someone to join us for an immediate start.