Monday 17 October 2011

Jane Lemon Exhibition

I'm sure all UK stitchers know Jane Lemon's work. She is best known for her amazingly innovative church work. Heading up the Sarum Group, she changed the image of ecclesiastical embroidery over the last 40 years. Her own work took a back seat to the group so it's great to see an exhibition of eight panels of hers at Salisbury Cathedral. The work is titled Prisoners of Conscience and celebrates the 50th annoversary of Amnesty International. The Cathedral has a long history of support for this cause and their stained glass window depicting this theme is quite amazing.

I'm not going to go on at length about the panels here but I shall be doing a full review for December's Workshop on the Web and our review pages are unrestricted, so catch it then. But, if you can get to Salisbury (there is a charge to go in to the Cathedral), it is so worth seeing and they have some of the Sarum Group frontals on view as well.

The work is an interesting mix of machine embroidery, goldwork and embellisher machine.






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Jane attends life drawing classes and it really shows in the composition of the figures.




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The barbed wire runs through all the panels, silver turns to gold when the prisoner is released.

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Below you can see Jane's amazing skill - the silver kid barbed wire is a wonderful, both as a close-up and from a distance.

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Thanks for the advice about the jammy mouse. It still fells a bit sticky and the jam didn't set well this time so I think it will be a sauce and a glaze, though probably not for mixed work, Heather.


The Lynda Monk book Fabulous Surfaces has gone to the designer in Australia. As it is a new series for d4daisy, which we are calling Workbooks, she is doing a re-design. I can't wait to see the sample pages. These will be single topic books, aimed at producing wonderful stuff without spending a fortune. You won't believe what Lynda has done with tissue paper!


My new book will also be a Workbook, based on dissolvable stuff - mostly film, not too much paper this time, although I've found some interesting ways of combining the two. I've been able to get cracking on mine and spent some time gathering up all my pieces. I'd forgotten about this little book. It's made from Softsculpt. warmed and bent over two bottles to give a book shape. The 'leaves' are made from water-soluble film and I'm exploring more on the technique used. Having lots of fun.

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Comments


I remember signing your book Sabine - it was great to meet you. I think the exhibition in the foyer two years ago might have been the Pfaff one which doesn't happen every year. i agree there wasn't much happening in this area. I think it is a sign of the times that stalls selling mops and so on had crept in this year. I guess it's hard to fill when everyone is broke.


We all have to support AVG Irene - and it's necessary to keep up the paint stocks. I bought lots of their papers, too.


Diane's cumquats sound wonderful. I bet they make great marmalade.

3 comments:

Heather said...

Jane Lemon's designs are so striking - simple yet powerful, and of course exquisitely worked. From a different era I remember being enthralled by Beryl Dean's canvaswork panels. Looking forward to the new books - no problems if asked what I would like for Christmas, even if they are not ready on time.

Diane said...

The close ups of Jane's work look wonderful. It is too bad that this exhibiton (and others) won't be shown here in Australia.
Waiting patiently for your new book.

Sharne Gregory said...

When is the E.T.A. of your book please?