Materials Kit Worth £15 Included
Fascinated by transparent fabrics and light, Vinny developed a range of different processes and techniques which metamorphosed into a body of work inspired by the Flora of the intertidal zone, called ‘The Mersea Florilegium’.
She has now put this together as a workshop.
As a starting point you will make expressive observations of Flora and natural forms .
You will then learn how to bond fabrics and fibres and use dissolvables to create ethereal webs and delicate organdie textured grounds, upon which you will stitch your favourite natural form using the observations you have made.
Includes homemade lunch and refreshments
About the tutor
Vinny studied printed textiles at Middlesex University which is where her interest in Fine Art Textiles was first kindled. After attaining a first, she sold work from her degree show to The Donna Karan studio in New York and went on to work as a Fashion Textile embroidery designer selling to fashion houses and labels worldwide and then going on to work as a teacher of Art & Textiles.
As an artist she has worked on Community Arts projects, Public Art commissions and exhibited in galleries in London and East Anglia.
Since her move out of London to Mersea Island in Essex, her work has focused on the natural ephemera of the landscape, in particular the unique nuances of the fringes and plant-life of the Blackwater. Exploring the marshes and tidelines, the repetitive nature of the stitch she uses, echoing the constant ebb and flow of the sea.
The processes she uses combine screen-print, machine embroidery, photoshop and digital print, with other techniques experimentally to produce mixed-media pieces in a variety of formats, from sculptural forms, to panels and glass.
Her current body of work, ‘Mersea Florilegeum’ is focused on exploring the flora of the Saltmarshes that surround her island home, making sketches of the salt marsh Flora and then manipulating fibres and fabrics to create delicate webs, to which printed binary code and embroidered plant forms are applied.
These delicate natural forms and their network of roots are literally ‘meshing’ together our fragile coastline, reducing the destructive energy of the sea as it flows around them.
In this she sees an analogy with the way the web has bonded our lives and families together in this time of climate and pandemic emergencies and opening up a world of possibilities to explore from our homes.
She is featured artist on TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club
and recently exhibited with East Textile Group at RHS Hyde Hall.
A machine which can do freehand machine embroidery will be needed, as well as basic sewing equipment.
You can also bring a range of threads, cords and transparent fabrics such as nets and chiffons.