Maria is a visual artist and an art and design lecturer living in the West Midlands. Primarily but not exclusively working with stitch, print and paint; Maria's art explores different modes of communication and the relationship between the written word and drawing through embroidery.

Ninya Mikhaila established her business making reconstructions of historic costumes for museums and heritage sites in 1994 after studying costume at the London College of Fashion. Her clients include Historic Royal Palaces, The Royal Armouries, The National Trust, English Heritage, The National Archives and Gainsborough’s House. Ninya recently featured in the BBC television series A Stitch in Time.

Angie is a textile artist and tutor, who lives and works in Ledbury, Herefordshire. She has been interested in textiles since she left school although only discovered creative embroidery in 1994 when she began studying City & Guilds at Malvern Hills College. Her artwork is inspired by many themes but particularly poetry or text and the natural world, particularly plant forms.

Many people find it hard to get started with ideas for making textile and embroidered pieces especially through the difficult times we are living in at present. In this talk, Angie explained how she begins a project and works through solving problems, researching and experimenting with materials and ideas, looking at books and Artists that inspire….

There are two sides to creating, the technical know-how and the ideas generation. As children we instinctively start with an idea and then problem solve how to express it using the tools at our fingertips. As we get older and more interested in specific techniques, we immerse ourselves more heavily in the technical ability. For stitch enthusiasts this often includes learning through books, workshops, kits and patterns. We seek out those skilled in the thing we want to be skilled in and see how they are doing it. We “copy” what we like and while an excellent way of learning and developing technical proficiency, the original driver of creating as an expression of our own personal ideas and take on the world may get lost along the way.

In this talk Nicky invited us into her process of staying creatively curious which, while disciplined in its execution, is playful at its heart. She shared how imagery and ideas for her textile work come through drawing, painting, printing and other artistic media to give those looking to find their own style, ideas on how they might start exploring their personal vision of creatively different.