textiles

Graduating Class of 2020

July 22, 2020 by Natasha Searls-Punter

This year thus far, it can definitely be said to have been an unusual one at the least but some things must remain and the show go on. This year’s textile graduates may not have had their usual physical showcase of their works but they have worked very hard and will be graduating none the less.

We at Hawthorne and Heaney are very proud to have these young people choose to spend some of their industry experience time with us, and after working with them in the studio for some months it is wonderful to see how their work has grown and progressed since we saw it last. Therefore it is out pleasure to bring you this year’s graduates from the Hawthorne and Heaney intern community:

Kiah Nicole Fisher– Loughborough University- Textiles: Innovation and Design

Luminescence: ”This project is based on the scientific theory of the existence of other dimensional/parallel universes and visualising the journey one might take to enter another dimension. Parallel universes have been a scientific theory studied by many physicists and mathematicians throughout the centuries, including Plato who’s Cave allegory seems to imply that our three dimensional world is but a projection of an even higher dimensional reality. I was initially inspired by the story of Alice in Wonderland, when Alice falls into the rabbit hole. Mathematician and writer Lewis Carroll was able to visualise the idea of connecting multiple universes through the possibility of wormholes within this children’s book.

Taking inspiration from science fiction movies and series that attempted to visualise inter-dimensional travel through hyperspace with flashing lights, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, I mainly used photography to create original imagery that attempted to capture light in different states such as refraction, emission, and much more.

With this imagery, I was able to create a print design collection for a menswear/unisex utilitarian style collection. This collection would be an accessible fashion collection for those inner nerds who have a love for science fiction but don’t necessarily want to indulge in the fantasy of costume. This collection allows people to express their passion for science fiction, while making it fashionable and wearable.”

Laura Hill– Loughborough University- Textiles: Innovation and Design

Conscious Coastlines: ”Uses organic cotton, organic linen, recycled fibres, and yarn leftover from previous projects that would otherwise go to waste.
All synthetic dyes used contain no animal ingredients and were chosen based on their minimal levels of toxicity to the environment.

My final major project explores the creation of a “conscious” collection of textiles for the everyday interior environment and the everyday consumer. The theme is inspired by the natural beauty of all elements British coastlines. In the context of the project, “conscious” means that no animal products have been used in any stage of production, and so it can be regarded as a vegan collection. “Conscious” also refers to the choices to use more sustainable fibres and less toxic dyes.

Within my work I am a fast learner, observant, and methodical in my process. My strengths include a good understanding and use of colour, and the way in which I successfully translate a design from drawing to fabric. In my future career I aim to promote cruelty-free and sustainable practises within the textiles industry, and hope to work for a company whose values on these topics align with my own.”

Fading Waves

Amy Pickard– Huddersfield University- Costume with Textiles

”This year, I chose the construction with textiles pathway, specialising in embroidery. For my Final Major Project, I selected ‘Awakened’, a modern-day YA vampyre novel by P.C. & Kristin Cast. I’ve created the costume for Queen Sgiach, a powerful feminist and Scottish vampyre Warrior, who resides on the Isle of Skye. This directly inspired the colours, textures and motifs in her portrayal. Creating for a simulcast theatre performance allowed for detailed textiles, goldwork and beading, alongside bold digital embroidery to be explored throughout the project. Sustainability has been the key ethos surrounding my project/ practice this year. I sourced second-hand fabrics and accessories, used surplus or handmade embellishments, e.g. homemade sequins, and minimised waste when creating my costume and textiles collection. Similarly, I used only viscose instead of traditional polyester threads. For these, Madeira UK granted me a student sponsorship. Through this project, I have progressed my passion for embroidery and construction, predominantly corsetry. I also explored my interests with the following companies through a placement year: Oxfam Online Shop; The Alhambra Theatre; Hawthorne and Heaney; Hand & Lock. Additionally, I started my own business to fund my London placements; I am developing this further after graduation.”

Jessica Strain– Loughborough University- Textiles: Innovation and Design

Nature Reclaiming Spaces: ”Jessica’s graduate collection Nature Reclaiming Spaces, focuses on fusing the best of what modern machinery has to offer with specialist hand led embroidery and lacemaking techniques. Passion for manual processes can be seen throughout Jessica’s work; double exposure film photography, shuttle tatting and limerick lace were driving processes for this project.

Sustainability is at the heart of Jessica’s design process; she experimented with natural dyeing at home and spent hundreds of hours embroidering her pieces by hand. This intensive and considered approach to design is something she will take forward in her career. She aspires to continue creating work in a studio environment, honing her embroidery skills through future projects.”

Graduating Class of 2020 London Hand Embroidery

Abigail Tominey- Smith – Nottingham Trent University- Textiles

The Feel Good Feminine: ”Bringing together beautiful feminine florals and powerful text to represent strong women of the 21st century. Powerful words to showcase powerful women, to contrast with, and highlight their femininity. Created to inspire positive well-being and to improve the mental health of women through promotion of empowering words. Adding an additional level of meaning and a personal aspect to each design, producing a garment with emotional durability. Designing a luxurious and individual collection for a high-end bespoke womenswear market, personalised with text. Incorporating a calm and delicate colour palette on a range of sophisticated fabrics with mix of digital and hand embellished elements.”

I’m sure that has left you feeling quite inspired by these designers, we can’t wait to see what comes next for them as they embark on their careers.

Hawthorne & Heaney for Jessica Strain

June 12, 2020 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Work In Progress back in April 2020 (design by Jessica Strain, Image from H&H)

Some good news to share with you! During the lockdown period we were presented with the opportunity to spread some positivity and sponsor one of our freelance embroiderers with their graduate collection. Like many people when Covid lockdown began, Jessica Strain was stopped in her tracks from following through with her many months of planning when it came to producing her BA textiles Textiles graduate collection.

Work In Progress back in April 2020 (design by Jessica Strain, Image from H&H)

As a former intern of ours, she approached us to see if we could help with access to the machinery she could no longer use in the workrooms at uni. And so our sponsorship of Jessica’s collection began, making the small missing step in her production chain by realising her designs onto the final pieces. It was also wonderful for us to see her utilise some of the hand embroidery skills she learned during her time with us and weave them into her collection; such as tambour beading and limerick lace.

Hand Embroidered Limerick Lace by Jessica Strain

That collection, ‘Nature Reclaiming Spaces’ is now out as she has finished her course and the results are just beautiful. Have a read of the press release below for a flavour of the themes she explores through her textile collection. However, the images, as I’m sure you will agree, speak for themselves.

Work In Progress, Machine Embroidery (design by Jessica Strain, Image from H&H)

Work In Progress, Machine and Hand Embroidery (by Jessica Strain)

Jessica Strain has created an embroidery collection exploring how mother nature infiltrates all things man-made, whether that’s rust on a metal post or weeds growing through cracks of buildings, beauty can be found in the ordinary.

Combining traditional embroidery techniques with contemporary machine-led processes is at the heart of Jessica’s practice. Jessica began her collection by taking a roll of manually double-exposed film photographs on a 35mm camera. To develop her love of hand-led processes, it was only natural for Jessica to employ embroidery techniques such as tambour beading, limerick lace and shuttle tatting (a form of lacemaking) within the collection.

Sustainability is integral to Jessica’s design process; embroidery techniques lend themselves well to sustainable textiles as they are hard wearing and designed to last. Natural dyeing made up the majority of colour within Jessica’s collection; dyeing organic fabrics with onion skins, nettles and an indigo vat from home during the COVID lockdown. Jessica hand-dyed her digitally embroidered kimono in an indigo vat, each piece requiring 15 X 2-minute dips with additional rinsing between dips. Constituting of 13 pattern pieces, it’s evident how devoted Jessica is to her practice.

Machine Embroidered Kimono By Jessica Strain

Once the textiles side of her collection was complete, she brought the project around to its fruition, moulding them into these stunning garments.

Hand Embroidered Limerick Lace Skirt By Jessica Strain

Tambour Beading By Jessica Strain

Finishing off by taking those garments back into their natural habitat with this look book photoshoot, we are delighted that Jessica’s collection has come together so well and know that this is only the first step in wonderful things to come for this textiles designer.

Thanks for sharing these images with us, all image credits unless otherwise stated are courtesy of Jessica Strain. To see more of her work find Jessica on instagram or her website .

Hawthorne & Heaney visits Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk

March 24, 2020 by Natasha Searls-Punter

As a member of the V&A, I try to visit most of the temporary exhibitions they put on in the fine institution that is the Victoria and Albert Museum. At the start of March, they opened their doors on their newest addition ‘Kimono:Kyoto to Catwalk‘.

Held in North Court of the building, this exhibition brings a little Asian influence to their corner of the world. The Kimono is a fascinating piece of social history, carrying so much culture and responsibility within its relatively simple folds.

Kosode: From Edo period demonstrating Yuzen dyeing (Cloth tube fitted with a metal tip used to apply a thin ribbon of rice paste, then dyes are brushed within the paste boundaries) 1730-70

I won’t go into all the history as you should be able to make your own discovery of the exhibition and enjoy it fresh yourself, but I will show you a few of my highlights which may stir your interest. For an embroiderer or anyone interested in textiles, the exhibition is full of wonderful examples of hand embroidery and lesser known textile techniques. They draw a lot of attention to them, which was something I had not necessarily expected of the exhibition but was delighted to realise. As the basic form of a kimono is very clean and unfussy, once the structure of the garment has been addressed and the pattern explained there is not very much more to say about the shape. It is the varying and evolving elements of the details displayed on them which holds all the intrigue. Even though this is a fashion exhibition it is the textiles that does the lion’s share of the talking.

Design for a Kimono 1800-50

The historical examples at the start of the exhibition were very strong, the pattern books were a surprise but of course it makes great sense to sell such a garment in this way, with patterns being chosen and customised from a book rather than remade examples. The women of the elite military class could have designs made specifically for them, particularly for special occasions.

Detail from Kimono of a Geisha- a very elaborate example demonstrating the parallels between fashion and the theatre in 18th Century Japan

On the embroidery front, there are many great examples of goldwork and silk floss/ silk shading styles throughout the exhibition. The lion above is quite an extravagant example, taken from the back of the kimono shown in the first image of this blog. Amazingly, the lion is only a very small part of the work on that kimono probably only measuring about 20-25cm high and isn’t even the main centre back motif. However I’m sure you will agree it is an exquisite use of Japanese thread (cotton core wrapped with gold leaf paper).

There are also a few pieces that feature a dying technique called Shibori which you may have heard of. It’s use is using much larger scale and bolder than the examples on the kimonos where it is used to create very small and delicate designs, creating a much more subtle and quietly expensive impression. The technique is quite labour intensive as it require parts of the fabric to be tied off very tightly before dying so they are left in negative as can be seen in the white squares pattern.

Uchikate- Outer Kimono for a young woman featuring Shibori and embroidery 1800-50

When Japan opened up its began trading with western countries such as Holland and Portugal, we can start to see the cultures influences each other, as Japanese kimono makers start to make kimonos from cottons South-east Asia and foreigners eager for everything Japanese started to use Japanese fabrics for their own pieces.

Day Dress: Misses Turner 1876-8

Japanese influenced robe, Victorian Era

Towards the end of the exhibition they turn the attention to more modern applications and influences of the Kimono. This includes pieces from modern fashion houses such as Dior, Commes De Garçons and Alexander Mcqueen. This room brings the exhibition full circle, they also demonstrate the cyclical nature of fashion as you can pick out the elements of kimonos that have influenced that ‘new’ piece.

‘High Voltage Power-Lines’ Yamawaki Toshiko 1956

Evening Dress: also by Yamawaki Toshiko (1956) featuring Obi like bow and scrolling asymmetric designTextile details, couched goldwork and red embroidery imitating kanoko shibori

While this last room holds many beautiful pieces, the real gems of this exhibition are the historical pieces. Many people will be familiar with what a Kimono is on sight from walking through the Asia exhibits, but this exhibition delves so far into this garment and unpicks the elements of it. The V & A puts on lots of great fashion exhibitions and in London we are spoilt that we have fashion specific exhibitions at all. But as this one puts so much detail into the textiles and processes, it has something special to offer in my opinion.

Hawthorne & Heaney visits McQueen’s Old Bond Street Show Space

February 6, 2020 by Natasha Searls-Punter

London is very lucky to be able to offer a wealth of great free exhibitions and museums on many subjects. This open to all attitude really helps to keep feeding the minds of our designers and innovaters that one can go out and have your eyes opened to all sorts of information. One such jem that might be a little lesser known is the top floor of the flagship Alexander McQueen store on Old Bond Street.

They have started to use the stop floor as more of an exhibition type space, sharing insights from the vast archives that the house of McQueen holds. At the moment, the space is dedicated to roses, curated by the Creative Director Sarah Burton.

What we found really special about this space, as an embroiderer in particular is that you can get right up close to the pieces to see the details often lost in show and large scale exhibitions. Something that we found even with very well done exhibitions like Savage Beauty. In addition to this they are sharing a lot of the background research and technical craftsmanship that goes into making a collection and show with this kind of dramatic results. There are development moodboards, fitting notes, embroidery placements onto pattern pieces and draping directed onto the model. There is also a viewing booth with footage from the shows to fully round out the experience and see it in the final context for which it was intended to be consumed.

If you find yourself in the area, it’s definately worth a trip it to see some beautiful things and get some of the background scoop on how these things all come together. The notes and quotes from behind the scenes really give you a sense of being emersed into their world. We are already looking forward

Hawthorne & Heaney for Watts and Co

January 10, 2020 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Last year, we had the pleasure of making this banner embroidery for legendary company, Watts and Co. It is for the Church of the Incarnation, Highlands, NC. The church’s emblem has been embroidered onto exclusive Watts Blue Bellini silk damask, finished with silk bullion fringe. ⁠⠀

We included lots of raisings and textures in this piece to make it look as rich and luxurious as possible. We are particulally pleased with the fish and the cross’s halo, what’s your favourite bit?

Hawthorne & Heaney visits ‘An Enquiring Mind: Manolo Blankik’ at the Wallace Collection

August 21, 2019 by Natasha Searls-Punter

‘A Girl Threading a Needle by Candlelight’ by G. Schalcken

The Wallace Collection is a hidden gem in London’s art history crown, which even this museum buff and lifelong Londoner has only just discovered. Set in a stunning 18th Century building on Manchester Square (just off Oxford Street) it is hard to believe it has taken this long to come across it. Housing some very famous works of art such as Hals’s ‘Laughing Cavalier’, Boucher’s ‘Madame De Pompadour’ and many Gainsborough’s there is plenty to see if you fancy a bit of an oppulent afternoon in the city. For keen stitchers, there are some stunning tapestry works as well as these 17th century wall hangings from Italy featuring lots of goldwork techniques. Now, until the end of August they have upped the ante a bit further by adding stunning couture shoes into the mix.

Wall hangings, Italian, c. 1650, maker unknown

For a limited time the Wallace Collection is also displaying a selection of footwear superstar Manolo Blahnik amongst their artworks. Unlike many other fashion exhibitions, this is more of an intergration of the shoes in amongst the other art, they sit alongside the permenant collection (sometime on them!) in carefully arranged bell jars. This makes the exhibiton much more intimate as you feel you can get up close to all the pieces on display and all are treated with equal respect.

The selection of shoes in each room has been themed to compliment the artworks they are among. A particular favourite of mine was the oval drawing room where the most decadent shoes Blahnik designed for Sofia Coppola’s film ”Marie Antoinette” are shown amongst the sweet coloured room featuring Fragonard’s ‘Swing’ and Boucher’s ‘Madame de Pompadour’.

From an embroidery perpective there are a few pieces that standout as particulally beautiful. These boots ‘ Lepanto’ (Davee) 2003 look to be a combinations of hand painting and embroidery to a very rich effect.

These pink petal encrusted pair called ‘Amir’ 1997 look like they belong with some of the dresses from the ‘Designer of Dreams’ Exhbition which is still on at the V & A Museum

Of course, there are beads so we couldn’t not mention ‘Zarina’ 2015 which are the very definition of encrusted.

Downstairs is a wall of the original sketches for shoes on display upstairs, showing Blahnik’s distinctive style and flare.

Overall it has all been very respectly done. It is clear from the selection that Blahnik is passionate about beauty and craftsmanship with many skills shown in his designs and revisited throughout the years. There is not much information on each of the pieces, a simple sticker of each one’s name and year leaves you with a few questions perhaps, but lets you enjoy them uninterupted.

‘An Enquiring Mind: Manolo Blahnik at the Wallace Collection’ is on until the 1st Sept 2019, Entrance is free.

Hawthorne & Heaney Visits Mary Quant at the V & A Museum

August 14, 2019 by Natasha Searls-Punter

”From miniskirts and hot pants to vibrant tights and makeup, discover how Mary Quant launched a fashion revolution on the British high street, with over 200 garments and accessories, including unseen pieces from the designer’s personal archive. ”

Thai Two Piece (top circa 1960)

This time, the V&A’s fashion and textiles display has brought us straight into the swinging sixties with the ‘Mary Quant‘ exhibition which it is currently housing. Covering many aspects and influcences of the brand, this exhibition explains how Quant built such a sucessful label and how it came to influence the way we shop today.

Coat with Frogging Details

The begins of the brand were humble, with Quant stitching together pieces of an evening upstairs from her shop ‘Bazaar’ to be sold the following day. The inspiration for her pieces was drawn from necessity. Quant saw that girls didn’t necessarily want to dress like smaller versions of their mothers and wanted to make their own fashion choices. She identified that these people thought of themselves as more ‘easy going’ and ‘broad minded’ than the previous generation and wanted to express themselves as such; stepping away from the constrictive gurdles of the 50’s and into more flexible, playful pieces. You might say that what Mary Quant did for fashion in the 60’s was a kin to what Chanel did in the 20’s, providing a more comfortable alternative to the restrictive fashions of the previous decade and in turn allowing the wearer to make socio-political statements about themselves their beliefs (women’s roles in society and decorum for example).

Cotton Wrap Dress

The Quant brand started as a way to offer an alternavive way to dress, however there was always a strong undertone of inclusivity in the designs, and here we can see how Quant channels the 50’s shape she had previously moved away from. Reimagining it in a more comfortable wrap around style in a soft cotton fabric, she started to appeal to a whole new group to expant her following.

Manhattan dress (circa 1970)

Mini-Culottes dress

Upstairs the exhibition moves on to more about how the brand expanded as times moved on, displaying pieces from the 70’s onwards. You can see how the styles developed with the times, but Quant managed to balance the changing styles with some of her classic brand features.

Another area in which Quant was a revolutionary was in her makeup range. Like with the fashion, the makeup grew out of necessity as Mary felt that the people who were buying her items, needed to be able to do more natural, lighter make up to compliment the fashion choices they had made. Other make up brands available at the time promoted a much heavier made up look, which didn’t necessarily reflect the look people wearing Quant’s clothes wanted to create for themselves.

Here we can see how the strength of the branding comes into play. They focused on simplifing the process of making yourself up in the products which are often have multiple uses, were made to be able to fit into palettes for easy storage. The names also simply state what they do whilst having a sense of humour: ‘Cheeky’, ‘Tan Trap’ and ‘Grease Paint’ for example.

Mini Crinkle Dress

From an embroidery perspective, there unsuprisingly isnt much featured in this exhibition as it is more of a luxury technique (particulally during this time). However it isan interesting exhibition to look at from a textiles/ production view point as the brand being one of the first high street shops aimed at a younger market. Though there is an emphasis on accessibility for more people into fashion and therefore a lower than their contemporary competitiors price points for the items, there is still great quality to these items. This testament is shown in the vibrancy and how well the garments have still held their shape, particulally on pieces you can see have been worn and loved, but still are in great condition. It draws a stark contrast to some of the throw away fashion we have come to know when we think about ”accessibilty” on today’s high street. There are echos of the global responsibility we have for the planet in the fashion industry which was introduced in the ‘Fashioned by Nature‘ exhibition the V&A Museum held last year.

If this has tickled your fancy, the Mary Quant exhibition is on at the V&A Museum until 16th Feb 2020, tickets start at £12.00

Hawthorne & Heaney on ‘Threads of Life’ by Clare Hunter

July 17, 2019 by Natasha Searls-Punter

”You cut a length of thread, knot one end and pull the other end through the eye of a needle you take a piece of fabric and push your needle into one side of the cloth, then pull it out on the other until it reaches the knot. You leave a space. You push your needle back through the fabric and pull it out on the other side. You continue until you have made a line, or a curve, or a wave of stitches. That is all there is: thread, needle, fabric and patterns the thread makes. This is sewing.”

(Beginning)

A few months ago, we got a lovely little surprise in the post of a book about embroidery. Whilst we have quite a few books on embroidery in the studio, specific techniques or historical references and so on, this one differed in that it was about embroidery as a cultural vehicle, and so it had our attention. The book is called ‘Threads of Life’ by Clare Hunter who explores embroidery as the chosen method of communication for many great examples of noteworthy people during the course of her book.

Whilst we do not want to ruin the book for you should you wish to read it yourself, there are a few parts which we hope might grab your interest as they did ours. The book is split into well defined chapters on particular themes which makes it very easy to dip in and out of as the feeling takes you.

Chapter 2: Power, was a particular favourite of mine as it is all about Mary Queen of Scots who was an avid embroiderer, something that I previously had no idea of but can’t help but be captivated by this idea of an embroiderer Queen. Hunter explores her relationship with embroidery from both an external and more personal level where she uses embroidery as her weapon to try and exert some influence over her future:

”Female Monarchs had greater need of the advocacy of textiles than their male counterparts. The public display of their hand crafted emblems and symbols meant that for women, even when physically absent from court through childbirth, banishment or imprisonment, the textiles they had commisioned or sewn remained on display as their representatives, still messaging their lineage, still acting as a presense of sorts.’ (Page 24-5)

”In desperation, she began to woo Elizabeth with embroidered gifts. It was a calculated generosity. Such presents in court etiquette represented a bond or inferred an obligation: used publically, they declared intimacy.” (Page 31)

The book is semi-autobiographical as Hunter includes stories from her own past, one of which made for another highlight of the book for me. In the ‘Journey’ chapter, Hunter tell us of a visit she made to Kaili, Southwest China where she shares a non-verbal conversation she has with a Miao woman she met there. It demonstrates the passion that people interested in embroidery all seem to share, which transcends spoken languages:

”I think she is about to leave, but instead she unties its knot and lets it spill out textiles, which she then lays out one by one onto the bed… The bed becomes canopied in encrusted cloth. She beckons me overand we examine the textiles together, her touching and stroking, lifting up this corner and that, willing me to see an intricacy here, wanting me to notice a technique there.”(Page 110-111)

I think what is really lovely about this book, as an embroiderer, is that it really examines embroidery as a craft and as an art form. Personally, I felt gratitude to Hunter for shining a light on embroidery and really felt that ‘yeh, i’ve been there’ moment when she talk about sharing a segment of the book with her writing group and the somewhat despondent attitude to the subject prior to reading the piece. Any works like this that seek to re-educate societies attitudes to something which can be perseved as irrelevant, elitist or outdated to the vibrant and ever evolving art form that we know it to be, must be a good thing in my opinion.

All quotations courtesy of ‘Thread of Life’ by Clare Hunter (Hodder & Stoughton)