Out of the Ordinary - An Arts Award Bronze Course in Needlecraft - Claire Hignett

Needlecraft with Claire Hignett

I had booked a recent graduate, Lauren Heakin to teach model-making in this mid-session, which was to collide with the half-term holidays.  Fortunately for Lauren, she had landed a post in commercial television, but unfortunately for us, she was unable to join us.

We were extremely fortunate, however, at very short notice, to engage the services of a very fine needle craft tutor, Claire Hignett.  The following is a snippet from her professional CV:

"My work fits very well into the heritage sector. Recent residencies at Islington Mill and Ordsall Hall Tudor Manor House have used the fabric of these buildings, their contents and stories to create a permanent piece at the hall and and an Installation - Secret and Sacred- in the gallery at the mill. I have also worked on a project with DIY Theatre Company "Picking up the threads" and with St.Clement's Church in Ordsall both funded through the Heritage Lottery Fund As part of the Happy Museums project I was involved in running a small art project at the Imperial War Museum in the North and I currently work for Retracing Salford on their recently acquired archive of glass plate negatives from the 1950's, again funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, "

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/claire-hignett-a2a15736

For the project which Claire had devised for the course, the pupils were asked to draw ordinary objects of their choice.  

 Next they were given five squares of felt 300 x 300 mm in different colours.  The pupils were allowed to choose the colours to use, except that one layer had to be black.  Each felt piece was layered on top with the black square on the bottom.  The pupils were asked to stitch around the edge of the square through to the bottom layer, in order to keep the layers together.  Each individual design was transferred to the top layer of the felt sandwich.  The pupils were asked to stitch around the outlines of thier objects and then to cut part of the design away so as to reveal a different colour and a part of the design as a whole.  One young person, Olivia,  was asked if she wanted to embroider a design on to reverse applique piece.

One or two pupils took their work home over the half-term holiday in order to work a little more on the felt designs.


There was a range of very different designs, all brightly coloured. and the results were stunning!

Destiny cutting out her design

by Olivia

 by Fanni

 by Destiny

By Naomi

Français: Les élèves ont essayé leurs mains à la couture. Certains d'entre eux n'avaient jamais fait ça avant et trouvé difficile même pour enfiler une aiguille. Toutefois, ils ont persévéré et sont allés de l'avant pour créer de superbes oeuvres d'art. L'un d'eux, la verseuse, a été transformé en un petit coussin.

Deutsch: Die Schülerinnen versuchten ihre Hände zu nähen. Einige von ihnen hatten noch nie getan und fand es schwierig, selbst an Gewinde eine Nadel. Nähen braucht viel Geduld und Entschlossenheit, und es ist ihnen zu verdanken, dass die Schüler nicht aufgeben, und alle haben ihre eigenen kleinen Meisterwerke

Polski: Uczniów spróbowało swoich rąk podczas szycia. Niektóre z nich nigdy nie zrobił tego przed i okazało się, że trudna nawet do nici igły. Sewing trwa dużo cierpliwości i determinacji i nie ma już na swoim koncie, że uczniowie nie poddawac i wszystkie utworzone własne małe arcydzieła

Español: Los alumnos trataron sus manos en la costura. Algunos de ellos nunca había hecho esto antes y le resultaba difícil incluso para enhebrar una aguja. Costura toma mucha paciencia y determinación, y es a su crédito en el que los alumnos no se dio por vencido y todos crean sus propias pequeñas obras maestras