workshop

Hawthorne & Heaney for London Craft Week Part 1

April 12, 2017 by Natasha Searls-Punter

For the past 3 years, London Craft Week has become a highlight of the creative calender with all sorts of exciting workshops, demonstrations and talks taking place across town. These celebrate the most unique and interesting craft skills London has to offer. Ranging from whisky tasting to watchmaking to weaving there is something to interest everyone. This year, we have been invited to take part in London Craft Week and are excited to be hosting two workshops in the studio to showcase our own skills. In these workshops we will be teaching one of our stable skills, monogramming which we regulally use on shirts, suits and accessories from our tailoring clients.

You can join us to learn the delicate art of monogramming and leave with your own monogrammed handkerchief or cufflinks at the end. Follow the link to secure your place as spaces are strictly limited, tickets are £60 plus VAT and can only be bought directly from the London Craft Week Website.

Hawthorne & Heaney in Conversation with Laura Lees

April 5, 2017 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Fellow embroiderer, artist and designer Laura Lees is usually found creating highly colourful, fine art pieces furniture pieces but she took a little time away from her usual pursuits to speak with us about her work:

Hawthorne & Heaney: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today, we’d like to start by asking you the question we get asked quite a lot of how did you get into embroidery originally?

Laura Lees: I applied for a city and guilds embroidery course when I was 17 and fell in love with it then. I found my skills at drawing not exceptional but confident. I found a new level of ability with the needle and thread superior than that of drawing with a pencil.

H&H: And what is it that inspires you?

LL: The way you can transform something from the ordinary to the extraordinary. I love the feel of the threads, the sound the scissors make when they’re cutting fabric, the quality of line and the battering noise and speed of my beloved Bernina industrial sewing machine. most importantly, I love the clarity of heart and mind, the skill involved and the the fact that i am always learning.

H&H: What would you like your students to take away from your class?

LL: A real sense of achievement, pride and enjoyment.

H&H: Where can we see more of your works?

LL: I am preparing for an exhibition to take place at the end of the year, inspired by dutch author Joris Luyendijk s book ‘Swimmimg with Sharks’ which demistifys the financial world of the city banks. This resonated deeply with me, having amongst many others lost my fashion label in the 2008 crash. I explore the ‘smoke and mirrors’ architectural language of finance by descending on what must be the least understood environment in Europe: the City of London. Taking the habitat of the so-called and self-described Masters of the Universe as my inspiration and translating the visceral world that lives and survives by opacity into tangeable abstract textiles.

H&H: Anything coming up in the pipeline you can share with us?

LL: I have recently launched The Mighty Stitch corporate workshops, The Mighty Stitch embroidery workshops teach teams a new skill, engendering engagement and motivation, ultimately creating a bespoke embroidered piece of art for your workplace. • Simple, supportive instruction • No experience needed, anyone can take part
Participants are encouraged to be playful and experimental – the workshops facilitate collaboration, communication, storytelling, mindfulness, and, most importantly, making a mess! Enhanced work environment we all need a bit of that, i think .

H&H: Thanks again, I’m sure we will be seeing much more of you with all that come up!

Laura also has a Workshop coming up in April which will give the participants the opportunity to be a part of Laura’s work as the pieces created on the day will be encorporated into a new piece which will be exhibited at the RIBA as part of the London Festival of Architecture. Follow the link to secure your place for this intriguing and unusual opportunity:

‘The Riba workshop is a full day, immersed in urban embroidery. We will focus on how a city evolves through its inhabitants by learning freehand machine embroidery, hand stitching and applique. The outcome is to create an embroidered image of a building or architectural structure.

Afterwards, I will explore how a city is fabricated by stitching together the individual and diverse pieces made by workshop participants into a new work to be exhibited a the RIBA as part of @londonfestivalofarchitecture.

All artwork will be returned to the participants after the exhibition.
This workshop is part of the programme of events inspired by the exhibition ‘Mies van der Rohe and James Stirling: Circling the Square’.

Urban Tapestry with Laura Lees, 22 & 23 April, 11am to 4pm
RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD
Booking at architecture.com/Workshop ‘

All images credited to Laura Lees

Hawthorne & Heaney for Carne Griffiths, Embroidery in Art

September 5, 2014 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Once again, Hawthorne & Heaney has had the pleasure of working with the artist Carne Griffiths on some of his new pieces in preparation for his upcoming solo exhibition. Griffiths’s addition of embroidery suit his drawing style and use of colour very well as the stitches are absorbed into the piece and are accepted as another stroke or mark. The use of the embroidery draws on Griffith’s own history as a gold wire draftsman which is demonstrated in his subtle and considered choice of stitch.

A range of Griffiths’ work will be on display at the Ink’d gallery in Brighton for his solo exhibition called ‘Origins’ from the 6th September to 5th October 2014. This follows his previous successful exhibition with them back in 2012 and will feature some of the hand embroidered pieces along with a range from his collection.

There is also several opportunities to get involved and meet the man himself, there will be a raffle held throughout the exhibition if you fancy the chance to win a commission by Griffiths which will be selected at the end of the show. He will be holding a 3 hour workshop on working with tea, alcohol, pens and ink spills in his distinctive style. The workshop will be held in the Ink’d Gallery on the 27th September, 11-3, places are limited so don’t delay if you want a place!