On Sunday, June 9, 2024 1PM Eastern, Krista West will be joining us for her virtual lecture Mediterranean Folk Embroidery: A Brief Tour of a Vibrant World.
Registration for this live lecture is now open to EGA members and closes on June 7, 2024 1PM Eastern for $5. This registration period is only to attend the live virtual lecture on Sunday, June 9, 2024 1PM Eastern. Registration for a recorded version of this lecture will happen separately at a later date for $5.
Join designer and owner of Avlea Folk Embroidery, Krista West, as she takes us on a tour of folk embroidery in the Mediterranean world. Learn about the importance of textiles in the ancient world and how Classical and Byzantine motifs and colors made their way into folk embroidery. With her trademark energy and enthusiasm, Krista delights in sharing ancient beauty with the modern world!
Krista West delights in bringing ancient beauty to the modern world with embroidery designs inspired by traditional Mediterranean folk textiles. Introduced to traditional folk embroidery on one of her trips to Greece, she fell in love with the vibrant colors and historic motifs, and began stitching textiles for her own home. She quickly realized there was still much interest in this historic craft and she opened Avlea Folk Embroidery to share the beauty of folk embroidery. She happily spends her days in the workshop of her 1923 home in Salem, Oregon, designing patterns and making kits for customers and shops around the world. See her work at www.avleaembroidery.com, and follow her on YouTube and Instagram (kristamwest).
Click here to register!
In Case You Missed It: Last year we announced changes to our Virtual Lecture Series process, which among other things includes an exciting update allowing up to 500 members to participate and access to some recordings of our virtual lectures!
Virtual lectures Coming Soon
Coming Soon: The Needle’s Art: Women’s Embroideries from the Great Plains with Susan Curtis — The Great Plains region of the United States is home to women from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Each of these cultural groups embellished their lives with some form of embroidery, from the women of the Native American Plains tribes who created with quillwork and beads to the settlers who brought a variety of embroidery traditions with them to their new homes. Many of these embroideries are now found in history museums but have little information on the maker. Susan Curtis, curator of collections at the Emily Reynolds Historic Costume Collection at North Dakota State University, is working to uncover these anonymous women and bring their history and hand embroidery to light, illustrating the rich tradition of embroidery found in the Great Plains. Live Lecture Date: Sunday, August 11, 2024 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: July 22 – August 9, 2024 1PM Eastern Get a reminder!
Coming Soon: Measuring Millimeters on a Napoleonic-Era Dress Coat with Liz Tapper – Liz Tapper was commissioned in 2021 to recreate the embroidery for a military dress coat. The coat was to be a replica of that worn by one of Napoleon I’s aide de camps in the early 1800s in France – the original now held in a museum. It was to be worked in goldwork using a variety of metal threads and to very exacting dimensions. This is the story behind the process. Live Lecture Date: Saturday September 14, 2024 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: August 19 – September 12, 2024 1PM Eastern Get a reminder!
Coming Soon: The Life and Art of Jessie Catherine Kinsley with Thomas Guiler — Born into the Oneida Community, Jessie Catherine Kinsley was raised amidst ideas of free-love, gender equality, and Perfectionism, by a group of people who believed they were bringing about heaven on earth. She lived through the tumultuous years of the breakup of the Community, entered into traditional family life, and became a regionally famous artist. Though she dabbled in many media including drawing, painting, poetry, and children’s books, she is most known for her braidings. Kinsley invented an artform that used discarded dresses and fabric to create gigantic braided mosaics that depicted scenes from literature, scripture, nature, and history. Live Lecture Date: Saturday October 19, 2024 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: September 16 – October 17, 2024 1PM Eastern Get a reminder!
Coming Soon: An introduction to Early Medieval Embroidery in England with Dr. Alexandra Makin — In this 50-minute talk we will be introduced to the exciting world of early medieval embroidery in England. We will learn about the fibres used to make the thread and where they came from and the stitches used to create motifs, why they we used and their deeper, hidden meanings. Live Lecture Date: Saturday November 9, 2024 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: October 21 – November 7, 2024 1PM Eastern Get a reminder!
Coming Soon: Pushing Boundaries: Embroidery + Book Arts with Celeste Chalasani — In this lecture, Celeste describes her journey as she explored combining embroidery with book art techniques for the National Academy of Needle Arts Teacher Cum Laude program. She’ll show you six different book binding methods she learned and how she has been able to use embroidery in her art practice. You’ll also see the tools and materials needed, as well as what worked and what didn’t. Live Lecture Date: Sunday, December 15, 2024 1PM Eastern Live Lecture Registration: November 18 – December 13, 2024 1PM Eastern Get a reminder!
Virtual Lecture Recordings Available
Recording Now Available: Curiously Wrought – A Closer Look at Needleworked Buttons with Gina Barrett —Using thread to create and decorate buttons has a long history. This talk will look at the types of needlework found on buttons, with a focus on those found during the 19th century. We’ll take a look at examples in Gina Barrett’s collection, and discuss the people who made these little works of art. Get access to the recording!
Recording Now Available: Samplers of the Netherlands – or not! with Susan Greening Davis — Habsburg Netherlands, Dutch Republic, Batavian Republic, Kingdom of Holland, The Netherlands……so many names AND SO much needlework! From The Isle of Marken, Amsterdam, Black Samplers, and Friesland/Leeuwarden, to name a few. Darning, Stoplappen, Merklappen, and Stickmustertucher – Souvenir Sewing Rolls – such a wealth of samplers! The Dutch had very specific meanings for their motifs and what type of work was done in what region. Susan looks forward to sharing this with you. Recording now available!
Recording Now Available: EGA history from 1960 to 1980 with Ann Strite-Kurz — Anne Strite-Kurz shares a look at the beginnings of EGA! Margaret Parshall founded a needlework school in Millbrook, NY and recruited Erica Wilson in 1954 to be the first teacher followed by two other Royal School of Needlework graduates along with Olga Hansen from Denmark. In 1958 Mrs.Parshall became the nucleus in establishing a branch of The Embroiderers’ Guild of London (founded in 1906) in New York. In 1970 EGA withdrew from the London Guild and The Embroiderers’ Guild of America came into being with headquarters on Lexington Ave. Get access to the recording!
