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Super fun and summery vintage 1980s fabrics have been added to the website today! Fresh fr0m my supplier this morning and on the website by lunch time! All the fabric are stretch and perfect lengths and widths for making your summer and holiday ensembles.
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I have spent the last 2 days desperately seeking the source of a image posted on facebook. Flickr, cargo collective, various articles and facebook searching finally brought me to the brink of online stalking in order to make contact with Mr Jose Romussi. To say I have work envy and a slight unprofessional stitch crush is a understatement. In the past I have wrote about events, exhibitions, reviewed books and shops but this is the first time I have felt compelled to write about one man and his needle. I have not interview said artist, all the information in this feature is based on assumptions after hours of online admiration.
Jose Romussi is a Chilean Multi-Media artist living in Berlin, enough said?! Let me continue. Take a quick (or elongated) look at Jo2e’s photostream on Flickr and you will discover a world of adventures both on and off the page. Travel, humor, life, beauty, nature, people, places, spaces, textures and colors, must all play a prominent role in a passion for the combined contexts of his work. We love neon colours? Yes. We love beautiful dancers? Yes. We love vintage photography? er, yeah! and finally everyone loves embroidery (or a least anyone worth knowing), so it can be no surprise that Jose’s current work “Dance” appears to be capturing the essence of vintage and contemporary craft across the critics, trendsetters and mere passerby’s.
I am sure it is a social faux pas for me to even mention this but I cant help myself to say that I am pleased that more and more textiles related work that has me staring at my screen in jaw dropping amazement is made by a bloke. I say this because I recently spoke with the only male jewelery designer at a vintage craft fair who said he often felt on the periphery due to being the minority. I have worked in industry, teaching and as a independent designer and can say that although it is obviously much more integrated, the role of men and women within sewing, fashion, pattern cutting, tailoring, manufacturing and craft are still stereotypically divided. You can’t ignore that the world of craft is predominately populated by the female, but have sexist and social prejudices come full circle when men embark on needle craft? Hmmm maybe this is a separate article all together.
Anyway for now I am in admiration of Jose’s humorous and strikingly delicate styling, which appears to have a consistent fluidity throughout his work and captures the resounding energy of each photograph. And for the love of god, how cute are the polar bears?!!!
PLANNING A PARTY? Whether you’re planning a hen do, special birthday bash or just a fun get together, Spinster’s Emporium can arrange a cool crafty party for you and your friends!
What we do? WE HEART FASHION and believe in recycling and loving what you already have. All our Haberdasher Me parties are taught using hand techniques and are suitable for beginners as well as craft enthusiasts!
Haberdasher Me – Bring a garment and learn how to update, re-love and unleash your creativity for fashion. Customise your garments using Spinster’s Emporium vintage buttons, beads, trimmings and fabrics, we supply visuals for inspiration, templates, materials and tools. All you have to do is choose your weapon of mass creation for the day, embroidery, applique or beading?!
Images credits for inspiration 1. Love Maegan 2. Stephanie Weston-Smith for Spinster’s 3. Spinster’s EmporiumAt your place or ours?? You can come to the home of Spinster’s Emporium in Nottingham or we can come to you! Parties last from 3-6hrs and are priced from £25-35 per person depended on the location and size of the group. Minimum 5 people per group.
HOW DO I BOOK? for questions, ideas and more information contact Donna at hello@spinstersemporium.co.uk or 07595515902.
1. Pick your preferred date, Saturdays and Sundays are best for us but other days are also possible depending on availability.
2. Let us know your choice of craft and for how many people.
3. Pay your non refundable deposit of 30% for your group in order to secure your booking.
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Spinster’s at Nottingham Trent University!
Contemporary Crafted Textiles, Mondays 18:00 - 20:30, 10 weeks. 1st October 2012 – 3rd December 2012
This course aims to encourage the development of handcrafted skills, which may feel lost in today’s world of technology and mass production. Drawing inspiration from various cultures and traditions the course intends to give you the confidence to interpret visual research and explore textiles in a creative “free for all” environment.
Learn variety embellishment and fabric manipulation techniques such as hand embroidery, macramé, smocking, tucks, appliqué, beading and quilting. CLICK here to find out more and book your place.
Different techniques will be demonstrated each week using diverse materials and presented alongside inspirational visuals, experimental samples and step-by-step handouts. You will spend time between sessions exploring these techniques via homework projects and collecting visual research to develop your own design individuality. In the final sessions you will concentrate on writing your own brief and project thus producing a final outcome be it for fashion, interior design or the decorative arts.
All abilities are welcome, from students and designers looking to broaden and investigate their skills further, as well as beginners seeking an introduction to start a new hobby.
By the end of the course you will see the endless possibilities of how these skills can be used in the contemporary world of art and design, have a wide collection of samples along with the knowledge to continue these timeless techniques and pass them on.
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Affordable One to One tuition available!
Are you stuck with a project? Want to learn a specific technique? Need some inspiration? or just want some crafty one to one time with a professional Spinster? Learn from the head Spinster Donna, a qualified Fashion and Textiles teacher with a 1st class degree in Fashion Design and 4 years teaching experience in Further Education.
What ever your needs just drop me a email and I will see what we can do. My 1:1 day rate is starts at £120 for 6 hours (minus travel and materials) and special hourly rates can be negotiated upon request. All budgets taken into consideration, please ask.
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This time last week I was in Berlin, on a much needed break from the chaos of March and April. It is a difficult time of year to manage teaching, my PGCE, Spinster’s Emporium and love, life and general domestic duties! So i hopped on a jet plane and mooched around the German capital of good vibes, forests, Turkish food, street art, parties on the river and abandoned buildings.
Berlin’s street art scene puts London to shame, everywhere you go, walls, shutters, buildings, under grounds and parks are adorned in graffiti and illustration, maybe that’s why every year the world’s leading and largest Festival of contemporary character culture is held there. I good friend of mine and the designer of the Spinster’s Emporium logo Alex Godwin recently up shores and skipped over to live in Berlin and hasn’t looked back since. Alex was approached to exhibit a collaborative piece with design duo Low Bros, They transformed a abandoned fire station in the center of Berlin into a dark forest populated by strange characters that like to surprise city dwellers in the dead of night!
One of the best things about Pictoplasma is the Character Walk, a line-up of numerous exhibitions and art events spread throughout the city that are open up to the general public, a city wide tour and its free! I moseyed along in the sunshine sipping strawberry beer (because you can drink outside in Berlin) sucking up the atmosphere. This year the craft platform super giant Etsy sponsored the event which give way to a host of multi disciplinary experimentation, seeing illustration off the page and into 3D. I was inspired and over impressed to see the amount of contemporary and unique creative characters made from textiles, including felt, knit, embroidery, applique and string.
Artists included Melissa Godoy Nieto , Emdal Colorknit , Felt Mistress , Nina Braun, Joshua Ben Longo + more + more, it is a incredible list of creatives and one of the best exhibitions I have been to i a long time. I felt very excited about the concept of collaborating on a piece myself if it wasn’t for the teaching, PGCE, life, domestic duties etc etc that keep getting in the way. For more information see the Pictoplasma and be sure to visit next year.
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I wish i lived in Brighton, sun, sea, sand and Super + Super has just recently opened it’s doors! The delightfully talented Miss Amy Phipps who has previously worked with Spinster’s Emporium has embarked on a creative project of brilliant proportions with a group uber special Brightonians. Super + Super is Brighton’s first creative hub, featuring hot desks, vintage shopping, crafty classes and parties for everyone, including the super hero kids craft club!
I am yet to pay them a visit and self indulge in some macrame making but the space itself looks like a breath of fresh air! Clean, open, bright, light and lovely, the events are varied and of a high caliber, including swap shops, pop up fairs, blogging and letter writing parties, stitch and bitch, crochet, embroidery! The list of excellent events to participate in goes on and on.
Pay them a visits at 7 Kings Road, Brighton and check out the Super + Super website for the blog, calender of events and more information! It doesn’t take a physic to predict big things for this place, sew stitch up, cut sharp and get involved!
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We have added four new vintage and retro wallpapers to the website today, all hand printed from the 1940s-70s, colourfull, pretty and stripey designs starting at £2.50 for a A3 sheet. Customize your sketchbook, artwork, fridge doors, what ever takes your fancy , just get crafty with vintage paper!
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Check out this weeks new vintage buttons from the 1940s and 50s! Very adorable styles in circles, hexagons, flowers and rectangles, prices start at £1.00!
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My friend sent me this picture last week, she got a real job after we graduated and now travels the world, earning a living and keeping up to date with all things that are fabulous and fashionable! To her delight and my surprise (or is that the other way around?) she sent me this picture last week. Turns out the huge trend forecasting agency WGSN has included the Spinster’s Emporium Haberdasher Me embroidery kit (bottom left corner) as a example of top knitwear trends for next autumn winter! I’m pretty chuffed with that, more please x
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I will treat myself this week, i have long been wanting to put my vast collection of vintage head scarfs to grand use. I came across the most beautiful blog called Interior Alchemy, full of tree houses, fairy lights, vintage fabrics and flowers! A very varied and pretty collection of stunning homely abodes. This project should be very quick and easy (she says) i will post details later this week. I have had a very busy past few weeks and cant wait to get going on a few new projects which have been hiding up my sleeve. I need to do some bits around the house, like this lovely vintage scarf curtain and maybe a charming bedspread to match!
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It’s a go! Mollie Makes hit the shelves yesterday featuring a new long awaited Haberdasher Me Project from Spinster’s Emporium!
White lace is a most welcome trend to be parading down the catwalks this Spring! Our project shows you step-by-step how easy it is to customise a sweater with vintage lace doilies, hand embroidery and pearly white beads!
If you haven’t heard of Mollie Make then I am not sure what you have been doing! They curate the best craft from around the world into a tactile, collectable and totally irresistible magazine. They love to make and can’t resist hunting down treasures in thrift stores, then customising, re-covering and embellishing their finds with ribbons, buttons, fabrics and felt.♡ Making ♡ Thrifting ♡ Collecting ♡ Crafting.
Readers can subscribe here or sign up to the newsletters on the blog!
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