January Meeting - our own Ros Lomas

Ros Lomas, one of our many branch members who has agreed to stand up in front of the group and talk about her creative journey.

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Ros Lomas, one of our members, gave us a fascinating talk to start the new year entitled “ Time to Learn”. On retiring Ros, decided to extend her stitching skills and enrolled on various courses to get a taste of what was available. These included a 3 weekend taster course and Level 2 Machine embroidery with Janet Crowther at Urchfont.  After a break, Ros took the plunge and signed up for the City & Guilds Level 3 Distant Stitch Course. This involves a programme which is divided into six themed modules. When the work for each module is completed, it has to be photographed and then placed on Ros' internet blog for the tutor to mark and comment upon. Many of Ros' completed pieces of work were on display for us to examine and admire; a floor puzzle in black and white fabric which Ros herself had dyed; an Indian thangka and a beautiful blue bag amongst other pieces.

In the next part of her talk, Ros showed where much of the inspiration for her work came, her holidays in India, particularly the colours and embroidery of that country. She showed us photos and gave us a description of the intricate processes which go into the making of double Ikat in Patan and explained that a sari length in silk double Ikat could cost as much as £3,000.00. We saw photos of block print works in Bhuj and a lady preparing fabric for tie dyeing. In Gondal, the cotton factory is run on the lines suggested by Gandhi which involves using old technology and a lot of manpower rather than modern mechanised methods which would put many people out of work. The Calico Museum in Ahmedabad was set up by an English lady, Anne Morrell, to collect and preserve the traditional embroideries as well as teaching and discovering the old techniques and although Ros could not take photos there she told us that there were some on the internet. We saw samples of Chikanstitch embroidery from Lucknow on some beautiful blouses which Ros had brought home (we were hoping thy might be for sale)!

Unfortunately we were unable to see a DVD “The Stitches Speak” about the setting up of a museum near the Pakistan border because of technical problems but it is hoped to buy a copy of the DVD for the branch library.

It was an interesting and very informative talk which we all enjoyed. Ros said she came to stitching comparatively late she has more than made up for lost time!

Thanks very much, Ros

Report by Christine Hill - thanks

More of Ros' work

Also on display at the meeting was work by the members of Chris Cook's Design for Stitch classes.