Next summer we look forward to welcoming Emily Jo Gibbs and Selvedge Magazine to Chateau Dumas for Emily’s Illustrative Pictures, 22-29 August 2020.
Emily is a British artist who has established an international reputation for her delicate textiles. Between 1993 and 2006 Emily was the Creative Director of her own luxury handbag company. Her work changed direction in 2005 when she won an award from Craft Central to create a new body of work. The award enabled her to explore new techniques alongside many of the skills she’d honed making handbags. Determined to make work that was personally and creatively rewarding she began a series of embroidered portraits of her family. Emily’s latest body of work The Value of Making, exhibited at Contemporary Applied Arts in London last year depicts makers through their tools in hand-stitched still life portraits. Emily says "The work celebrates the skill, dexterity and the creative problem solving of people who make things, recognising the value of clever hands in an increasingly digital and cerebral age. Concerned about the position of making in the hierarchy of skills we value as a society and how this is exacerbated by the decline of making in schools, I have made a series of portraits of contemporary makers to reflect how proud I am to be a member of this creative community. The idea of illustrating the tools of seven makers gave the viewer an intimate glimpse into the lives of the people portrayed which went beyond what a traditional portrait might do."
Emily will share her techniques and you can make a portrait or stitched still life of your own. We have a few places left on the workshop so drop us a line to find out more or join us.
