Embroidery trends

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33941, 6 September 1975, Page 6

Embroidery trends

Even embroidery', it seems, can play its part in the fight against pollution.

Two embroidered panels depicting a polluted river shown by Miss Winifred Clayton, an embroiderer from London, to the Canterbury Embroiderers’ Guild, on Thursday evening, were graphic reminders if the environmental tragedy.

Happily, the rivers in Britain, especially the Thames, had been cleaned up considerably since the panels were embroidered about two years ago, Miss Clayton said.

The two panels depicted varying stages of pollution. The first one showed murky grey water, choked with weeds and littered with rubbish, including a bottle. In the second one the water had turned an

inky black and the bottle was broken.

As well as embroidery, Miss Clayton had used other materials, such as leather and real pebbles, on the panels. Miss Clayton is an advisory teacher in creative craft for the Inner London Education Authority and a tutor with the Embroiderers’ Guild, London.

She said embroidery was on the “up and up” in Britain and that the emphasis was on texture.

with tassles, hanging threads, beads and other materials being used to achieve this.

Britain also had its share of exotic and avant garde embroidery with a group of young embroiderers called The ’62 Group producing some very unusual pieces.

But in the area of education, especially adult education, there was still a demand to teach the more conventional embroidery for tablecloths and wall-hangings.