This website is part of the Embroiderers' Guild, the only national charity dedicated to informing and inspiring young people in the art of embroidery. We are currently working on a strategy to support teachers and other professionals in their delivery of the curriculum as it relates to art and craft particularly in Key Stage 2 (England and Wales) and Primary 2 and 3 in Scotland.
When these plans are finalised we will notify them on this webpage and invite teachers to contact us to see how we can help them. At this time (August 2016) we do not anticipate the completion of the strategy until after October 2016.
JUNIOR STITCHERS CALEY CLUB
With Professor Malcolm Lochhead at the University of Glasgow.
Over recent years Junior Embroiderers and Textile Students have worked with Professor Malcolm Lochhead at Glasgow Caledonian University on a variety of topics. This year they have had a series of six workshops working alongside the Caley Club.
The Caley Club, supported by Government grants and the University, has been set up to give support to young people from the City of Glasgow. Malcolm worked with 10 children who have never stitched before and the same number of Textile Students from Groups all over Scotland. October 6th 2012 marked the end of the series of classes run for Scottish Young Embroiderers by Professor Lochhead. The members of the Glasgow Branch invited us to join them for a presentation of certificates and were very impressed with the work we showed them.
The programme of six classes covered basic design. The first week said ‘What’s the Point’ and looked at focal point in art including fashion - everyone made a decorative button.
Next was ‘Shaping Up’ with all sorts of ideas from nature, buildings and man made structures all around us.
Week three was all about colour. The students were divided into six groups, each making a section of a colour wheel with coloured paper scraps. Then, looking at fabrics, the students saw how colours alter in relation to each other, especially using coloured nets and sheer fabrics.
Drawing, in week four, was not quite so popular but different pens & pencils made interesting marks and lines.
During the break for the summer holidays a challenge was set : “Take a ..... Line for a.....Walk.” Each student was given a different adjective and adverb for the blanks. The children all worked hard and came back in September with lots of ideas and some half completed pieces of work. These were then worked on, and presentation, mounting and framing ideas were discussed. Eventually a shopping list was made for the final class. You can see some of the ideas worked on in the techniques section of this website – ‘how to......videos’. At the final class everyone learned about stretching work, mounting and presenting – it was so interesting to see how much difference careful framing made to each piece.
The end results really exceeded all our expectations. The students had made such strides with their work and the final show was a real credit to them. We know that they have all been inspired by what they have learned and hope that they will enjoy sharing this with their local group members
