Rosie James – November Speaker and Workshops. 2-3 November

We are thrilled to have Rosie James as our Speaker on Saturday 2nd November. She is also doing a workshop for those fortunate enough to attend.

Rosie James is a Textile Artist living and working in Kent. She has a BA Hons Textiles degree from Surrey Institute of Art and Design and an MA in Textiles from Goldsmith College London.

Here’s a link to the AXIS Artists Directory, where Rosie has a comprehensive listing of her work. https://www.axisweb.org/p/rosiejames

Rosie started making dyed and screen printed fabrics, scarves, ties, cushions etc, but once she discovered that she could use the sewing machine to draw with, she found herself doing less print and began creating larger and more one off pieces.
Her first stitched drawing was of a group of friends at a beach hut party in Kent. This piece won the Bentliff Museum and Art Gallery prize in 2008 and spurred her on to do more.

She uses crowds and large gatherings as her first point of reference. She says she is
‘looking for the detail in the ordinary but also the commonality within the group’.

One of her favorite artists is Pieter Breughel the elder whose paintings depicted large groups of people with details of everyday life.

Photographs are used to still movement and to reveal details; these photographs are then used to create drawings and then sewn onto fabric using a sewing machine.

Rosie uses transparent fabrics and likes to use raised stitches and to leave loose threads, which reveals the process of sewing. Transparent cloth allows her to layer the drawings on top of each other, and to build up the crowd. She screen-prints buildings, windows, roofs and skylines in many of her pieces of work, these elements create a sense of atmosphere and build links between the people and their location and their belongings.

Her commissioned work hangs in Ordeal Hall, Salford and the Hilton Hotel at Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5.

The Ordsall Hall, Salford commission hangs in the 16th century Great Hall. It consists of screen-printed photographs of groups of people living in the Ordsall area in the 1930’s running alongside a printed Ordsall skyline. Below this there are stitched drawings of people from the local communities in the area surrounding the hall.

She enjoys teaching and running workshops and has recently written a book entitled: “Stitch Draw” which showcases other Textile Artists work and includes Rosie’s vast knowledge. She takes you through in simple steps and techniques on how to draw with a sewing machine.

Rosie is also a member of the Art Textiles Made in Britain Group

Thanks to Janette McKie for the photos and information.