The Textile Study Group

The Beetroot Tree gallery's latest exhibition by the Textile Study Group is a vibrant and sophisticated blend of textile pieces. 

Artists represented: Ruth Issett, Sian Martin, Penny Blackburn, Jenny Burnfield, Janina Evans, Sheila Mortlock, Kay Greenlees, Jean Draper, Rosemary Campbell, Sarah Burgess, Ann Wheeler, Mary Sleigh, Bobby Britnell, Shelley Rhodes, Angie Hughes, Dorothy Tucker and Alison King.

It was really hard to chose which of the amazing pieces to write about, so I decided on the following artists at random. 

Ruth Issett's work is stunningly colourful.

Layers of dyed and printed fabric are stitched and cut back to form natural foliage forms. 

I really liked the textural effect of cutting back to the fabric layer underneath combined with adjacent stitching of the same colour.

Her foliage series look to me like wheat fields in varying light: dawn, blazing autumnal afternoon and evening fading into night. 

Ruth Issett

I adore Jenny Blackburn's Serendipity series. I wanted to set up a deck chair and pour a glass of Pimms. I could almost hear the bees humming as they moved from flower to flower. 


The sheer detail in her work is awesome. Layer upon layer of texture take you on a journey into the garden.

Penny Blackburn

 She works by layering dyed and printed fabric and then using delicate machine embroidery to show the foreground structure. Details are picked out in metal thread stitched by hand. 

Sian Martin 

Sian Martin's pieces are inspired by the Japanese technique of Shibori, in which cloth is bound, stitched, folded, twisted and compressed before dying.

Sian uses fabric and paper stitched together to make new textile surfaces. In the piece on the right she has used free range eggs to create the form of the inner, fragile shapes. Sian uses recycled materials in her work to reflect her concern for the environment.

Penny Burnfield

Penny Burnfield's work is influenced by her fascination with history, both social and personal. She uses any material that best express her ideas. The 3D piece Starry Night is a woven structure that incorporates images by Van Gogh, the words of Don McLeans' famous song, scientific information on spiral galaxies and text about Henri Dutilleux's orchestral work of the same name. Dazzling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyYJOi3X898