James Hunting is an embroidery maestro from London, England.

A Textiles graduate of Goldsmiths College, James has been producing magnificent embroidery in the fields of fashion and art for over 20 years, and currently leads the Degree course in Fine Hand Embroidery at the Royal School of Needlework.

James describes his artwork: “Through mark- making, colour and texture each piece is representative of moments of time, either the past, present, or future. They encompass real or imaginary moments, emotions experienced, desires acknowledged, thoughts barely captured, dreams realised, yet to be realised or even destined to remain unrealised.

“Pieces should awaken half forgotten associations within the viewers’ memory. Certain stitches, colour combinations and images should unlock a more personal reflection on emotions and lives lived. The intention is that each viewer will move on having spent some time occupying a less concrete dimension of their daily life.

“I do not title the works, allowing the viewer to infuse each piece with their own interpretations, although I have my names for the pieces that I am happy to share if requested. The more abstract pieces, although presented in one way, may be hung according to the owners feeling, each viewer ‘sees’ the work in their own way, bringing their memories and ideas to their viewing.”

James is a bit of a legend, particularly on the UK stitching scene, and quite rightly so. His mastery of his art is evident throughout his body of work, and the quality of embroidery is second to none. It is great work.

Visit his website to see more of his work or, if you want to meet the man, book yourself a place on a Royal School of Needlework course – I’m sure he’d be happy to see you!

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The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge is brought to you in association with Embroidery As Art, the inspirational stitched art blog from the legendary Jenny Hart.

Hullo! I’m Curegreed, and every third Friday of the month I’ll be telling you all about what goes on at the degree in The Royal School of Needlework. I’m a student and I’ll be sharing as I’m going. It’s nothing official, but Mr X Stitch thought it’d be interesting. Here goes nothing!
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So our current project is ‘Painting with a needle’, AKA Silk Shading. The very prospect of this filled us newbie stitchers with dread. The margin for error had shrunk dramatically, this was no longer Jacobean crewel work with its nice big crude stitches and little attention to reality, this wasn’t canvas work with it’s safety net of “provided you counted properly, you’ll be fine.” This was silk shading. Our stitched pieces had to look as the object would look in real life. The lighting had to be correct, the colours had to flow into one another, it had to be spot on.

Anne Butcher was brought in for our technical stitch lessons. And as teachers should, she taught us not to be so scared of it. She gave us hints and tips until we’d gained enough courage to try, which is the hardest step. Once you’ve started trying and you’re not scared to fail, it’ll be ok, eventually. So the entire project has been based on two stitches- split stitch and long and short stitch. Split stitch outlines, long and short fill and cover the split stitch. It’s best to remember long and short as ‘long and longer’. Short stitches have no place in colour blending. Work back into the work, work on top, stitch, stitch, stitch. Add more stitches. Put in enough stitches so it just becomes a mass and no individual stitches can be picked out. It’s not regimented, it’s random. It’s trial and error. It’s silk shading.

So, days of work, and what do you end up with?

A leaf with a turnover. *sigh*

See you next time for stories of …Goldwork!

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If you want to see my other work then my personal blog is a pretty good place to start: My Little Stitches
If you want to know more, please get in touch! You can email me at: prettyguns.rosa[at]gmail.com

Disclaimer: Curegreed’s view do not necessarily represent those of the Royal School of Needlework, and she’s not pretending they do. Okay?

An unusual stitchgasm today, it’s the new Jane Campion film Bright Star. It looks at the three-year romance between the poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats’ death aged 25. As you might expect from Jane Campion, who wrote and directed the Piano, it’s a beautiful film which will undoubtedly stir the emotions.

“But why is this a stitchgasm, Mr X Stitch, you big softie?” I hear you ask. Well, the reason is this. The opening sequence of the film features Fanny’s embroidering, and because they wanted an authentic stitching experience, they contacted the Royal School of Needlework. And they struck gold in the form of Jessica Aldred, friend of Mr X Stitch, stitching superstar and RSN graduate. Jess is an extremely skilled embroiderer, and she was good enough to share her big screen debut with us:

“Back in April 2008 a member of the Production crew from the film Bright Star came to the Royal School of Needlework looking for a hand double for the film’s leading actress Abbie Cornish. There we all were holding our hands out for her to look at, and I was very surprised when she chose me! (Ok, I may have given myself e cheeky manicure the night before).

“I was told to make my way to Luton Airport Station very early one cold morning where I would be collected by a driver to take me to the film set. It all seemed very glamorous, especially when I was taken to make-up to have the tattoo on my wrist covered, after which I was left in a tent for at least 6 hours! With frozen fingers I was finally called to a room in a beautiful farm house to begin shooting. First, they wanted a close up shot of a needle being threaded with as little of my fingers in it as possible. I began sat next to the camera, leaning in to it on one side and of course couldn’t see what I was doing at all. We finally settled on a position whereby I was stood on a box leaning over the camera with the camera man under one arm and the director under the other! As you can imagine the minute someone called ‘quiet the floor, and action!’ I would start shaking with nerves! We finally managed to get a few shots, and then moved on to filming some close ups of my hands rhythmically sewing.

A few days later the Production Company called to ask if I’d like to go back to the set as a Needlework Consultant, meaning that I would set up all of the frames ready for stitching and teach the little girls in the film including Edie Martin who plays Toots, how to sew. After having done so much waiting around the girls were thrilled to have something to do and took the lesson very seriously even though we knew little of what they actually stitched would be seen on screen. There was a surreal moment where they were all sat in a circle in costumes and bonnets, sewing away and talking about Nintendo, I felt like I was in a twisted time warp! While we sewed, scenes were being filmed in the room next to us, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to be introduced to the film’s writer and director Jane Campion.”

Thanks for sharing that info with us Jess. You’re one of my favourite stitchers and it’s good to know that the film industry recognises talent when they see it as well!

Bright Star comes out in cinemas this week. Go and see it and impress your friends with your in-depth knowledge of the behind-the-scenes tricks used to create that authentic stitching shot at the start!

The Knitting & Stitching Show ran from 8th to 11th October at the Alexandra Palace in London. I was fortunate to attend for two days and it was fantastic.

As well as a large hall full of stalls catering to all your stitchy needs, the show featured a terrific assortment of artisans showcasing their works and exhibitions to capture the attention.

The Pfaff exhibition of machine embroidery featured a varied array of pieces inspired by the concept of landscape and really showed the breadth of possibilities that can be realised using a sewing machine. From large quilted pieces to three dimensional textiles there was work to inspire where ever you looked; highlights for me included the photorealistic work of Carol Shinn and Rosie James’ people studies.

There was an inspiring range of new talent on show, including design graduates and award winning textile students. I was particularly taken by the portraits of Lisa Connelly, whose hand stitched work explored multiple personalities and had that blend of macabre charm that I do so enjoy.

I’ll be honest, I spent a lot of show meeting people that I want to do future posts about, so I won’t give away too much information here, but here’s a quick selection of shots to tease you:

Above: Lee Mattock’s machine stitched frieze. Below: Lindsay Taylor’s silk sculptures.

Above: Louise Baldwin’s mixed media work. Below: Tom Lundberg’s hand embroidered pieces.

One of the great things about the show was the opportunity to meet with the artists and talk to them. Kerry Mosley’s embroidered wire portraits (above) were terrific to look at, but the accompanying narrative to the work brought the pieces to life. Having chats with the artists and discussing how their work made me feel was a great privelege.

As well as the artists mentioned before, it was great to be able to see works from Alice Kettle and the Embroidery Guild, and to visit the stands of Emily Peacock and the Royal School of Needlework. And I even got to hang out with Curegreed (and Eilidh!) as well, so it felt good to be there.

It seems that the Knitting & Stitching show is somewhat unique in being so focused on those crafts. It was clear from the number of stalls in the main area that the industry is still going strong, but I must admit, I was very inspired by the time I spent on the Cutting (& Stitching) Edge.

Were you there? What did you think?

Only one day to go until the Knitting & Stitching show at the Alexandra Palace in London. It’s going to be ace.

Running from Thursday til Sunday, the show is the biggest stitching show in the UK, and features a wide range of stalls and exhibitions. I’m paying a visit on Thursday and again on Sunday - tweet me or email me if you’re going then and we can meet up!

There’s going to be loads of stitchy talent on show – exhibitors include Alice Kettle and the Royal School of Needlework. And you can also meet the stitchy goddess that is Emily Peacock (swoon!) and catch a glimpse of our own Curegreed as well!

I’m going to do my best to post pictures over at the Phat Quarter, giving you my own slant on the show. It’s going to be awesome – hope to see you there!

Hullo! I’m Curegreed, and every third Friday of the month I’ll be telling you all about what goes on at the degree in The Royal School of Needlework.  I’m a student and I’ll be sharing as I’m going. It’s nothing official, but Mr X Stitch thought it’d be interesting. Here goes nothing!

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You should see it – the look on people’s face when you tell them you’re going to study at Hampton Court Palace. People don’t really know what to say. They are then bewildered further when I tell them it’s to do Hand Embroidery at The Royal School of Needlework. But of course a young girl with a bull ring, bleach blonde hair and doc martens can’t be into needlepoint? And have been accepted to study at RSN…? No, surely not? But I am. And I’m just as surprised as they are.

It’s not as impressive as it sounds. I applied simply through UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) with a personal statement attempting to sell myself, and then attended a 20 minute interview in which I showed off my portfolio (full of embroidered pictures of cunts and racists, since you ask) and tried to impress with my charm and wit. And it worked; I began my studies on the 14^th September.

For now, since we’ve not got our teeth stuck into anything too major, I’ll simply show you the view from the classroom window:

Jealous?

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If you want to see my other work then my personal blog is a pretty good place to start: My Little Stitches
If you want to know more, please get in touch! You can email me at: prettyguns.rosa[at]gmail.com

Disclaimer: Curegreed’s view do not necessarily represent those of the Royal School of Needlework, and she’s not pretending they do. Okay?

The Royal School of Needlework had an exhibition stand at the show this weekend. I was blown away by the quality of the goldwork and blackwork – something I’d never really looked at before. They do courses in jacobean crewel, goldwork, canvaswork and similar skills, with the aim of promoting the skills and practice of high quality hand embroidery.
I walked away from the exhibition realising that I’d love to do the courses – you can gain a B.A. Hons in Hand Embroidery if you want to. I like the idea producing high end stuff, but still putting my usual spin on it. I feel like the neanderthals in 2001: A Space Odyssey who’ve just seen the monolith. My brain is expanding in new and unknown directions…
The website shows the prices, and they are not cheap, but I always think if you want something enough, and you approach it with the right attitude, the Universe kicks in to help. So we’ll see…