Join Sue Stone’s Weekend Workshop in Cardiff

About the weekend workshop

This 2 day workshop, ‘People & their Stories’ will introduce you to creating illustrative, stitched portraits using hand stitch and appliqué.

My teaching style is one of individual, personal tuition throughout the workshop. I will start by guiding you through the straightforward techniques that I use in my work.

I will also bring a collection of my small works and personal samples. You can use them as inspiration for your own work.

The workshop is suitable for all abilities and will include:

How to transform your own drawings or photos into a starting point for a stitched piece
How to get started using uncomplicated techniques of image transfer to fabric
Drawing with simple stitches, like back stitch and running stitch
Using sampling to help decide on techniques and designs
Exploring appliqué techniques
How to add simple background details like text to help tell your subject’s story.

By the end of the workshop, you’ll have begun a small portrait to continue at home. You will also be equipped with skills to develop your own figurative work further.

Your portrait can be of a real or imaginary person. They can be known or unknown to you. Each picture has its own story to tell.

More Information

Pre-Workshop Preparation

Materials and fabrics will be provided but please feel free to bring some of your own favourite fabrics and threads. This will give you a deeper connection to your work.

The aim of the workshop is for you to produce work that is personal to you. It’s also helpful if you choose colours that love and which suit your starting image.

Please bring a choice of your own drawings or photographs to use as inspiration. I will send you some guidelines for selecting and adapting suitable images before the workshop.

Important: If you are a beginner, you should choose a simple starting photograph or drawing like those shown below.

About Sue Stone

My work is inspired by people and places. I’m best known for textural, figurative work which tells a story. My emphasis is on hand embroidery, often mixed with machine stitch, appliqué, and paint.

I have exhibited my work widely throughout the UK and Europe. I have also exhibited in Australia, Japan, Pakistan, and the USA.

I have taught ‘in person’ workshops throughout the UK, and in France, USA and Canada. I also teach online courses for textileartist.org which is run by my two sons Joe & Sam Pitcher.

Don’t forget to add these dates to your diary!

The workshop will take place on 26 & 27 April 2025 at Beth Morris Workshops in Cardiff.

Sign up now to secure your place on my ‘People and Their Stories’ weekend workshop.

I am looking forward to meeting you in Cardiff next Spring!

Retrospective • An Archive of work made in 2021

Imagined Journeys A series of small mixed media studies

Below: A Grimsby Girl’s World Tour continues • Stopover Brooklyn. Image credit Pitcher Design. Hand and machine stitch study

Below: Another Time, Another Place and In Another Life were selected for The Broderers Exhibition The Art of Embroidery 2022

Detail of Another Time, Another Place :image credit Pitcher Design

Detail of In Another Life image credit Pitcher Design

Another Time, Another Place image credit Pitcher Design

In Another Life 2021 continues a Grimsby Girl’s world tour with a stopover in Madrid . Size 48.5 x 59 cms • Hand/machine stitch with applied fabrics

Born in 1913 she was not able to travel during her lifetime and had very few opportunities in life to pursue her artistic and musical interests. She left school aged 13 and was apprenticed to a tailor. It was a hard life with no recognition of her skill as a seamstress. She loved singing and was a talented contralto. Here in another life, alongside her best friend she travels to Madrid to study music, dance and theatre.

Another Time, Another Place 2021 • Size: 48.5 x 59 cms

Hand/machine stitch/applied fabrics.

Born in a time when women had no right to vote and many left school at 13 or 14 years old. Ordinary women without opportunities to work after marriage or to travel abroad. Combining images of unknown people from the family album with images from the Alcázar Real in Seville, Spain; symbols of heritage combine with memories to make the composition and bring together an imagined journey to another time and place.

Below: Made in Grimsby was selected for the 62 Group exhibition Connected Cloth

Made in Grimsby • image credit Pitcher design

Detail of Made in Grimsby image credit Pitcher Design

Made in Grimsby • The documenting of a small lifestyle clothing brand called Anywear. 1975 • in an Edwardian shop premises, womenswear was designed & made in Grimsby from cloth that travelled from far and wide. During the lifespan of the business the need to become more commercial had replaced the ‘one off’ designs. By 2002 the designer had had enough of designing other people’s clothes and Anywear closed its doors.

Materials :linen and recycled clothing fabrics, cotton and linen threads

Techniques: hand and machine stitch, appliqué, piecing, drawing

Size: 139 x 87.5 x 2.5 cms

Photos by Pitcher Design

Below: Portrait of Mrs P •a head and shoulders portrait of Constance Howard MBE 1910 – 2000.

Portrait of Mrs P aka Constance Howard • image credit Pitcher Design

Size: 30.5 x 38.5 cms (12 x 15ins)

Techniques: hand embroidery & appliqué. Materials: recycled cotton, linen & silk fabrics, cotton embroidery threads & wool yarn.

Portrait of Constance Howard MBE (1910 – 2000) who established the influential Embroidery department at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She had a huge impact on contemporary embroidery in the second half of the 20th century.

Constance was a small, charismatic person with bright green hair which she sported from the 1930s up until her death. She was always known to her students as Mrs P.

Below: A Step into The Unknown

Detail of A Step into the Unknown • photo credit Pitcher Design

A Step into the Unknown • photo credit Pitcher design. Size 116 x 84cms (46 x 33ins)

A Step Into the Unknown is part of the Imagined Journeys series • mixed media – Size: 116 x 84cms (46 x 33ins)

A series of small portraits

Study of a man - hand stitch with appliqué

62 Group’s 62nd Anniversary: My Works at Salts Mill

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Discover my works “Coalescence’ and ‘Integrated’ at the 62 Group’s ‘Making as Learning’ exhibition. Read more about the 62 Group I’d love you to visit the exhibition in person to see the amazing work of the 62 Group members.

This wonderful exhibition is taking place in the roof space at the historic Salts Mill in Saltaire, near Bradford, Uk. It runs from 8th September to 3rd November 2024.

‘Making as Learning’ is an exciting exploration of how the creative process itself can be a journey of learning. I’m thrilled to be showcasing my work in such a remarkable space. Salts Mill is open from 11am-4pm, Wednesday to Sunday. Read more about Salts Mill

For this exhibition, I’ve created two double-sided pieces ‘Coalescence’ and ‘Integrated’. The work establishes a dialogue between the visible and hidden aspects of the composition. This dialogue transforms the making process into a voyage of discovery.

Coalescence

This work is a construction of teaching samples and studies for completed pieces. It showcases a diverse range of techniques and explorations. Each piece is distinguished by additional stitching. This stitching leaves a distinctive footprint on the back, adding a unique element to the artwork’s structure.

By including self-portraits, I pay tribute to the late Audrey Walker; artist, and educator. Audrey was a former 62 Group honorary exhibiting member who was known for her stitched portraiture and still life compositions.

This homage highlights the inspiration drawn from Audrey’s legacy and influence. It also calls attention to the personal and introspective nature of artistic expression. The blend of teaching, experimentation, and tribute really encapsulates my creative journey.

Materials: Linen, recycled clothing , cotton thread, wool yarn, paint, InkTense pencil
Techniques: Hand and machine stitching, appliqué, painting, waterproofing, fabric weaving

Size 63 x 182 x 2 cms – double sided hanging

Integrated

This work consists of digital prints of finished pieces that have been showcased in 62 Group exhibitions. This artwork is uniquely marked by additional hand and machine stitching, visible as a distinctive footprint on the back.

This stitching not only adds texture and depth but also symbolises my commitment to blending modern and traditional techniques in my creative process. The integration of these elements highlights my approach to contemporary art, creating a dialogue between the visible and hidden aspects of my work, and inviting viewers to explore the layers of meaning within each piece.

Materials: Digitally printed waterproof fabric, Cotton threads, linen fabric
Techniques: Digital printing, appliqué, hand and machine stitching

Size 63 x 182 x 2 cms

A footnote: I waterproofed both pieces of work because the roof in the roof space leaks! It’s good to be prepared for all eventualities!

What is a Portrait?

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People and Their Stories

Sunday May 26 to Saturday June 1 2024

Hudson River Valley Workshops, USA

The aim of this workshop is to encourage exploration and experimentation and to question what we really mean by portrait.

We usually think of a portrait as an artistic representation which captures the likeness of a person but even more important is to capture their personality and tell their story and in the case of a portrait of more than one person to capture the interaction or lack of interaction between them.

I’d love you to join me in the USA and have fun telling your stories with needle and thread.

For more information & enrolment please go to: https://www.artworkshops.com/workshop/people-and-their-stories-with-sue-stone/

Retrospective – an Archive of work made in 2023

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Fred in Suits and Muriel May Stone • She Tailored the Clothes They Wore 2023

Fred in Suits shows Sue Stone’s Dad in the 1930s and 1940s

Sue Stone grew up surrounded by tweed, serge, and worsted fabrics. She learned to sew at an early age and the word ‘Tailored’ has a very personal meaning for her. In 1928 aged 14 her Mum, Muriel May Stone was apprenticed to a tailor. She trained professionally and then worked in the bespoke tailoring department of a large department store in her hometown of Grimsby until her marriage. Muriel may have had to stop going out to work when she married but she never gave up tailoring and so Sue and her sister, Jean wore the Sunday best suits, coats, and jackets that Muriel lovingly made for them.

Sue’s Dad, Fred was a picture of sartorial elegance and always wore a fashionable suit. He wore a 3 piece as a young man consisting of ultra fashionable plus fours, waistcoat, single breasted jacket and Argyll socks around 1929/30, and double breasted and chalk striped in the 1940s usually wore with a white shirt and a tweed or silk tie. He wore a suit everyday until his retirement when he reluctantly donned a more casual sports jacket or cardigan and slacks.

She tailored the Clothes We Wore 2023 -Panel 1 – hand and machine stitch

She Tailored the Clothes We Wore – Panel 2 – detail – mixed media

3 new self portraits 2023 no 68, 69, 70 – mixed media – part of Sue Stone’s installation of 70 self portraits which each measure 26 x 30 cms (10 x 12 ins)

A Grimsby Girl’s World tour – Bergerac 2023 – mixed media

A Grimsby Girl’s World Tour series has included imagined journeys to Bogota, Colombia, Tokyo, Japan, outer space, Copenhagen, Denmark, Madrid, Spain, Brooklyn, NYC, USA, & Vancouver, Canada.

The Grimsby Girl is the artist’s Mum, Muriel May Stone who was born in an era when women had no right to vote. She had no chance to travel abroad in her lifetime and very few opportunities in life to pursue her artistic and musical interests. Muriel loved singing and was a talented contralto. She left school aged 13 and was apprenticed to a tailor. It was a hard life with no recognition of her talents as a seamstress. Here, in this exhibition she visits Bergerac in SW France.

Below: Small studies for the Textileartist.org Stitch Club Workshop July 2023

Cards and small studies for my solo exhibition Shifts and Allusions at the Hub, Sleaford, Uk

Getting Started with new work

New Article on Textileartist.org

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Delighted to be included in this fantastic article on Textileartist.org

Representing people: Portraits in Textile Art

Retrospective – an archive of work made in 2022

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A Grimsby Girl’s World Tour version 1 30 x 30 cms & version 2 • 33 x 28 cms

Version 1 was shown at the Uk Knitting & Stitching shows in the 62 Group of Textile Artists Essence exhibition celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Group.

These are very poignant pieces which capture the essence of my creative practice: textural stitch, appliqué and paint combine to create the allusion of a journey to another place and time. It is a poignant work depicting the visit of grandmother to a grandson she never met. He was born 3 weeks after she died. The Grimsby girl, my Mum, Muriel is shown as a child in this piece. She never had the opportunity to travel outside the UK in her lifetime; here she travels to Copenhagen where her grandson, Sam currently lives with his wife, Eliana.

A Step into the Unknown 2022 – revamped version • mixed media • 74 x 52 cms

Lost in a Strange World 2022 • mixed media – 74 x 52 cms

A selection of samples made for my Cast of Characters workshop for Textileartist.org

A selection of samples made for my Off the Grid workshop for Textileartist.org

Do you have a story to tell in stitch?

Fancy joining me in April 2023 at Hudson River Valley Workshops, in New York State, USA?

Dates: Sunday 16 April to Saturday 22 April 2023

This experimental workshop will focus on combining several images to create a real or imagined journey. The aim of the workshop is to encourage exploration and experimentation to capture the spirit of the journey and the people, real or imagined, who will accompany you on that journey.

Here’s the concept behind the ‘Journey Through Time’ workshop

Brooklyn:Recollection, Return & Repartee 2021

Your journey could take the form of a Travelogue as in my USA Travelogue work Brooklyn: ‘Recollection, Return & Repartee’ (above) or it could take the form of a journey through life by incorporating more than one image of a specific person as in ‘My Portrait of a Grimsby Girl.’ (below)

You could push your imagination and take a real person on an imagined journey. In ‘A Grimsby Girl’s World Tour’ series I take my Mum to places she was never able to visit but that I think she would have loved.

A Grimsby Girl’s World Tour – Copenhagen

Or ask ‘What if?’ And make a portrait of yourself or of your chosen person in another time or place .

Enjoy historical details by asking ‘What if I visited the Tudor period?’ or a different culture by asking ‘What if I could go to Japan? ‘A Grimsby Girl’s World Tour – Tokyo’. Or simply ask what if I take some 1930s Grimsby Girls to modern day London as in ‘RIP Grimsby St E2’ as in RIP Grimsby St E2 which is set in the east End of London.

This is primarily a hand/machine stitch workshop but you will have the option to focus entirely on hand stitch, or machine stitch, choose to combine both techniques or add appliqué and mixed media.

The techniques used in this workshop are suitable for all abilities.

You are asked to bring a selection of drawings or photographs, text or anecdotes you wish to include or use as personal inspiration for your work. A full guide to choosing suitable images to work from will be sent out in advance of the workshop.

Enrolment is now open for my 5 day narrative workshop.

I look forward to meeting you in the USA!

https://www.artworkshops.com/workshop/4210/

Shift : A change in direction.
Allusion: A suggestion or hint that calls something to mind without mentioning it.

Sue Stone Solo Exhibition ‘ Shifts & Allusions’ 2023

Venue: The Hub, Navigation Wharf, Carre Street, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, NG34 7TW

formerly the National Centre for Craft and Design

Exhibition runs from14 January to 12th March 2023 in the ground floor gallery.

I have been busy sorting out the work to show in my Shifts & Allusions exhibition and in this exhibition I will be inviting you to find the stories behind my compositions and work out for yourself what they mean.

Most of my work contains a nod to my Grimsby heritage. The fish has become my signature and it often appears somewhere in my work. This exhibition includes a selection of larger narrative works made between 2013 and 2022, some of which haven’t been shown before. They are shown alongside some new smaller studies and a selection of tactile handling samples which show some of the techniques I have used in the finished pieces.

I will be giving a gallery talk at 2pm on Sat 18 February 2023 and a teaching a one day workshop at the Hub on Sunday 19 February

‘A Focus on Faces • an introduction to illustrative portraits

womanwithafish

sue stone textile artist

Join Sue Stone’s Weekend Workshop in Cardiff

About the weekend workshop

Pre-Workshop Preparation

About Sue Stone

Don’t forget to add these dates to your diary!

62 Group’s 62nd Anniversary: My Works at Salts Mill

Coalescence

Integrated

What is a Portrait?

Retrospective – an Archive of work made in 2023

Getting Started with new work

New Article on Textileartist.org

Retrospective – an archive of work made in 2022

About the weekend workshop

Pre-Workshop Preparation

About Sue Stone

Don’t forget to add these dates to your diary!

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Coalescence

Integrated

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