Creative Allsorts: C&G Module 6 Chapter 4 designer 3

Designer 3

Lindsay Taylor

Lindsay Taylor is a textile maker and even as a child designed her own doll’s clothes. She took courses in pattern-cutting and embroidery and eventually set up her own business designing wedding dresses.

She continued throughout this period to develop her embroidery skills attending classes and began eventually to experiment with three dimensional art.

Lindsay was elected as a member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen and is now a highly respected designer-maker whose work is exhibited in prestigious galleries throughout the UK. Her work continues to evolve and she draws inspiration from the natural environment where she lives on the Isle of Wight.

From looking at Taylor’s work, she sometimes uses fabric and embroiders op top rather than always using water solubles as a basis for her work. She does say that she uses water-soluble fleece for some of her work. Taylor also enjoys using a soldering iron to distress her work where needed.

She has exhibition and entered competitive work for around the last six years that I can find from her biography on her website. I could not find any reference to her age from anything in her book or web information.

Widowed early in life with a young family, she has made her way in the textile designer world and her book launch in 2013 ‘Embroidered Art’ ISBN 978-1-84448-778-3 is very descriptive of her work both in photography and textual description

Exhibitions

Solo

Nov 2014 Endangered The Knitting & Stitching Show, Harrogate

Oct 2014 Endangered The Knitting & Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace

May 2014 Solo Showcase Aspex, Gunwalf, Portsmouth

Apr 2012 Dutch Masters Wallace Collection, London

Mar 2012 An Embroidered Garden Haanderbejdsbladet, Denmark

Nov 2010 My Secret Garden The Knitting & Stitch Show, Harrogate

Oct 2010 My Secret Garden The Knitting & Stitch Show, Alexandra Palace, London Oct 2009 Embroidered Greenhouse The Knitting & Stitch Show, Alexandra Palace

May 2008 Bloom Dimbola Lodge, Isle of Wight

Open

Feb 2010 Climate Change Rhyl Gallery, Rhyl, Denbighshire, Wales

Group

May 2014 Coded/Decoded, PRISM Mall Galleries, Mall, London

Apr 2014 Pour L’Amour Du Fil Nantes, France

Mar 2014 The Art Of Craft The Gate House Gallery, Harlow, London

Mar 2014 Inorganic Brighton, West Sussex

Mar 2014 Art & Archaeology QuayCrafts, Red House Museum, Christchurch

Feb 2013 QuayCrafts Farnham Museum, Farnham

Aug 2012 Gold, Bronze, Silver Shire Hall Gallery, Staffordshire

Jan 2012 I Do Heart Gallery, West Yorkshire

Jan 2012 Designer Crafts At The Mall Society Of Designer Craftsmen, Mall Galleries

July-Sep 2011 Another Time Another Place Quay Arts Centre,Isle of Wight

Apr 2011 Royal Wedding Smythson, Bond Street, London

Apr 2011 Embroidery & Textile Exhibition Ramster House, Surrey

Oct 2010 The Place Between Pelham House Gallery,Isle Of Wight

Oct 2010 Janice Blackburn “Small Show HUGE TALENT” Kiddell Gallery, Sotheby’s’

Jan 2010 Designer Crafts At The Mall, The Society Of Designer Craftsmen, Mall Galleries

Jan 2010 Janice Blackburn “Old Friends New Directions” Sotheby’s, Bond Street

Nov 2009 A Feast For The Eyes University of Bradford, Gallery II

Nov 2009 A Fairy-Tale Christmas Craft shop, Royal exchange, Manchester

Sept 2009 Tea Potty SDC Gallery, 24 Rivington Street, London

July 2009 Time And Place Ventnor Botanical Gardens, Ventnor, I.O.W

May 2009 Craft Shop Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester

May 2009 Art Space Barn Gallery, Henley on Thames, Oxon

April 2009 Embroidery & Textile Art Exhibition Ramster House, Surrey

Dec 2008 Late The London Museum, London

Oct 2008 I Do Bonhoga Gallery, Weisdale, Shetland

Sept 2008 Landscapes Bury St Edmunds Art gallery, BSE

July 2008 In And Out Of The Garden Saltbox Gallery, Helmsley, York

Jun 2008 Creative Focus University of Portsmouth

Jun 2008 I Do Heart Gallery, West Yorkshire

Sept 2007 Glorious Colour The Art House, Wimborne, Hampshire

Dec 2007 Coastal Creatives Russell Coates Art Gallery,Bournemouth

Five pieces of Lindsay Taylor's work

Free embroidered flowers to make a hat

A free embroidered and fabric chair covering

Free embroidered 'cabbage' shoe

Free embroidered cup and saucer

Terrarium contained free embroidered decaying shoe

Free embroidered poppy

In the embroidery world, Taylor is probably not breaking huge boundaries in her work although the chair - there was also a lampshade - is moving away from the usual. Her terrarium contained shoes, of which there are more examples turn what it usual free embroidery work into something more unusual.

Her materials are thread fabric and in the encased shoes, she is adding another dimension. She also encloses other elements into these glass cases to enhance her work.

The innovation is the addition of unexpected and unusual elements such as glass but also she makes more unusual pieces, particularly chair covers and lampshade.

Some of her pieces are quite representative, but as she runs her own business on a small island, it is likely that she keeps her more unusual, allegorical work, such as the glass encased shoes for exhibitions to show what is possible. There is, at a stretch some symbolism in her work. The decaying shoes may represent some women's need for shoes which seem to be hugely expensive and 'must have' items, but many are unwearable so sit in a wardrobe 'decaying'

I took the poppy as the sample to create in her style and free embroidered the petals and leaf. The centre of the flower was overstitched in purple with free embroidery. Then the stem was made from zigzagged sari silk and the centre of the flower from velvet, folded in on itself and stitched by hand to hold it.

The back of the flower which becomes the seed pod when the flower dies was made from free embroidery as the petals and leaf, on water soluble fabric and then lots of stamens were made from thick cotton thread and the little end bits of the stamens, sorry no botanical name, were made by tying a knot at each end.