students

Hawthorne & Heaney lends a helping hand

April 18, 2018 by Claire Sarah Barrett

Its that time of year again, fashion and textile graduates will know what we mean.

Your design tutor who has finally signed off on your incredibly ambitious embroidery design for your final collection / portfolio. They love it and have uttered the immortal words “but I want to see more”.

After a few brief moments of relief the creeping panic begins to set in. A look over the calendar confirms it. There is just not enough time for one person to achieve all this for deadline !

Don’t worry we are here to help !! Hawthorne & Heaney specialise in fast turnaround and as a larger percentage of our work is made in London ordering, design changes and pick up/drop off are streamlines to cut days of standard lead times.

Hawthorne & Heaney have helped many students over the years at graduate level including Claire Barrow and Ashley Williams !

Give us a call 020 7637 5736 or drop us an email info@embroidery.london

Hawthorne & Heaney for Young Designers

August 11, 2016 by Natasha Searls-Punter

At this time of year we are lucky enough to get a sneak peak at some of the freshest fashion talent around as Students from all over contact us with their ideas for their final collections. This insight into the future of fashion is always so exciting to see and often pushes us beyond our usual style or way of approaching a project. This year we have been working with designers such as Mary Ashcroft, Naomi Bartling and Palmina Cerullo.

Mary Ashcroft has a bold aesthetic, using machine embroidery also to add large strokes of texture to her piece emulating a paint brush. With this piece she brings together multiple textures of fabric as the embroidery act as the seam between Mac plastic, Velvet and Felt. This exposes the way the fabrics react differently to the introduction of the embroidery with the punched out nature of the plastic and the way the pile of the velvet peeks through the heavy stitching on the velvet areas.

Naomi Bartling took a very different approach to the other graduates, using embroidery to bring together many different elements to built a multitude of colour texture and interest. This eclectic approach to her embroidery created some really eye catching pieces as we took apart existing hair pieces and corsages, and reassembled them. We also produced this moss covered piece for her, embellished with a range of 3D beaded motifs.

Palmina Cerullo from the University for the Creative Arts went for a more traditional embroidery route, with her hand embroidered blue bullion work chair designs. The punchy colours of the bullion stands out wonderfully against the suiting fabrics.

If you would like to get in contact with us about a project you are working on, please drop us an email, we would love to hear your ideas…

Hawthorne& Heaney on CSM BA 2016

July 8, 2016 by Natasha Searls-Punter

As the academic year is coming to an end, Central Saint Martins, a college in University of the Arts London have hosted their whole school degree show. The university has been transformed into exhibition rooms presenting a small selection of every student’s final collection.

CSM Degree Shows 2016

Each department have presented their work in an appropriate way from glamorous fairy lights in BA Jewellery design to sturdy pieces of scaffolding in BA Fashion. Some stunning examples of embroidery were presented from the BA Fashion students, and as expected all collections portrayed real hard work and creativity to be individual and stand out from the crowd.

BA Fashion – CSM Degree Shows 2016

Fashion student finalist Santiago Garcia Trias featured sequin embroidery heavily in his final collection forming very complicated areas of handmade sequins of all colours and textures.

Garment Close up – Santiago Garcia Trias – CSM Degree Shows 2016

A wide range of materials have been used to create this unusual surface for example metallic paint has been applied over the sequins to create an extra sheen. Santiago has contrasted the highly embellished areas with black silicone and rubber to create the structure of the garment. The close up above is a section of one of his works featuring a range of distorted summer florals. Each garment in his collection has a floral element, the emphasis on the contrast between busy embellishment plain dark fabric helps to emphasise the detail in the embroidery.

Santiago Garcia Trias – CSM Degree Shows 2016

Many of the students have chosen to concentrate on unusual techniques in their projects. Textile Design finalist Molly McAndrew has based her project on woven beadwork and tapestry weaving developing a range of samples using crystal beads from collection sponsors, Swarovski.

Exhibition Space – Molly McAndrew – CSM Degree Show 2016

The fashion accessory collection explores ‘The Adventures of Neko Chan and Gingham Man’ taking real inspiration from people in Japan. The geometric nature of the woven beadwork really creates an innocence and simplicity to the pieces in the collection and it is clear to see that the main influence is Japanese manga art in various forms. A very justifiable collection of work appreciating the laborious yet honourable work of an artisan.

Visualization – Molly McAndrew – CSM Degree Show 2016

As well as delicate intricate work catching the public’s eye throughout the exhibition CSM’s degree shows had a wide range of bold colourful pieces. Jina Park really explored the concept of large handmade sequin work throughout all of the garments in her final BA Fashion collection.

Jina Park – CSM Degree Show 2016

A wide range of paper materials have been used to create this heavily embellished neck piece. She has duplicated the same motif in a range of sizes and colours and used it throughout the collection.

Jina Park – CSM Degree Show 2016

Jina has made the sequins out of a reflective materials which really has really helped with portraying movement and fluidity in such big accessories. To see more garments from her collection visit www.jinapark.co.uk

By Philippa Martin

Hawthorne & Heaney loves the London Embroidery School’s Christmas Stars Goldwork Workshop

December 15, 2015 by Natasha Searls-Punter

This weekend, Hawthorne & Heaney’s sister company, The London Embroidery School hosted a special Christmas Goldwork Stars Workshop. The students were eager to learn more about goldwork techniques so the opportunity to combine new skills and festivities was too much to miss!

Here are a few photos from their progress through the day:

They start by preparing the fabric, transfering the design and padding some areas with felt.

Some of the students edge their stars with pearle purl, covering the padded areas with cutwork in a combination of rough and smooth purl and filling the flat area with bright check chips.

Others used a combination of purl and check for the padded area and crystals for the flat.

The lovely Pearl teaching (and posing)

Some of the tools used during the day including wax, tweezers, scissors, size 12 needles, purl, check, pricker and bright check chips on the bullion board

Deep concentration is necessary for work like this

A table full of stars (and slight creative chaos)

Some of the students feeling a little bit pleased with their progress

At Hawthorne & Heaney we are always delighted to see people taking an interest and learning about these specialist embroidery techniques. We feel that it is important to preserve the knowledge of how to create these effect so that the crafts do not get lost in generations to come so if you would like to learn more about some of these specialist embroidery skills, why not join the London Embroidery School ladies for a course and see what you can learn!

London Fashion and H&H

June 4, 2014 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Hawthorne & Heaney always watch the emergence of new fashion graduates with great interest and feel its very important to encourage young designers in order to propel fashion forwards. Over the last week there has been plenty of new talent coming through and this talent has been displaying a range of extremely innovative embroidery. Starting with CSM and RCA and working into graduate fashion week there has been plenty of techniques on display.

Olga Kuryschuk displayed a delicate silver and white collection, with lace applique and a swathe of crystals strewn across the garments in a nonchalant manner.

Amie Robertson and Richard Quinn opted for bolder, structural applications of large shaped sequins or floral pieces for a more 3D effect.

While Flora Cadzow incorporated fine machine embroidery into her sheer fabrics.

London is always such a haven for young designers because it is so open to embracing the experimental, innovative and the quirky. Therefore finding new and exciting ways to present embroidery and reinvent old techniques in fashion gives is very exciting and challenging. In the past, we have had great fun working with emerging designers, like these graduate may go on to be.

We work with the designer right through from the initial idea, translating drawings into embroidery during the sampling process, development, placement and finally the realised products in production. In collections past we have worked with designers such as Isa Arfen, Reem Juan, Sibling, and Claire Barrow just to name a few.

Free Falling Crystal and Bead Tassels from Isa Arfen

Delicate Silk shaded body suit from Reem Juan

Islamic Inspired floral goldwork cap from Sibling

Fully couture beaded dress from Claire Barrow

Being a London based studio, we provide a more inclusive approach to embroidery for fashion as well as being able to modestly boast 15 collective years of industry experience. If you have an idea about some embroidery that you would like to have done, but don’t have the capacity to make it happen, contact us and we can see what we can do to make it a reality. For more examples of fashion embroidery by Hawthorne & Heaney, have a browse of our pinterest board