Back from BATB

I had a great few days in Adelaide, attending Beating Around the Bush. I arrived on the Tuesday afternoon and set up my stand for the market day. I had shipped across two boxes of books and took a suitcase full of other stock, and samples to display on the wall. It meant that my stand was very much more sparsely populated that at the Sydney craft show, but still, it was not too bad.

After setting up, I took myself on a little excursion to Eastern Silk on the Western edge of the Adelaide CBD. I had heard of the shop and hoped to fit in a visit, but wasn’t sure whether I would have time. Fortunately the stand didn’t take too long to set up. I had a wonderful time at Eastern Silk, which I’ll tell you all about another day.

Wednesday was market day. We planned to launch “Sardinian Knotted Embroidery” during the day. However, as time went on, they were running late with the things on stage, so we put the launch off until later in the day. Later in the day when it seemed like a good time to do the launch, I’d sold all the books except two! So we decided that we’d go without the launch. It had been an excellent day, regardless!

As well as selling many books (and signing all of them), I met with people who have enjoyed my work over the years, read this blog, and who were just really interesting people. Some came from nearby, and some came from afar, including USA, Indonesia, the UK and Ireland.

In the evening, most of the tutors got together for a tutor dinner. I really enjoy these sorts of events, as they’re often the only opportunities I have to “talk shop” with other people who do the same sorts of things as me. I had some great conversations with some of the other tutors.

Thursday and Friday were my Mountmellick class days. I had a small class, but we enjoyed ourselves. Each of the students did an excellent job.

On Thursday night we had the opportunity to attend a viewing of the Silk Legacy Exhibition, as part of the Adelaide Oz Asia Festival. The exhibition featured traditional Chinese embroidery and was put together by Margaret Lee, and included works by her, her students and others. There were also historical examples collected from some of the Australian embroidery guilds.

I hadn’t known what to expect from the exhibition. Chinese embroidery isn’t something I’m ever likely to try, but I thought I’d go because you never know what you’re likely to learn or be inspired by. It was amazing! Margaret Lee is an incredible embroiderer. Her work was head and shoulders above the other examples. I wandered around the exhibition, with my mouth dropping open. The embroidery was astonishing. If you have the chance to see the exhibition, I really suggest you do!

On Friday evening after the conclusion of the classes, we had a gala dinner, where Jenny Adin-Christie from the Royal School of Needlework entertained us with an enjoyable talk on the life of a professional embroiderer. It was another chance to enjoy the company of the other tutors.

During the week, I had the opportunity to talk with Kristian Fleming, the new owner of Inspirations magazine. It was great to see the respect and awe he has for both the magazine, and the people who do the embroidery in its pages – both the creators of the embroidery and the stitchers who make their own versions of the projects. I wish Kristian all the best as he leads his team into the future. The world would be a poorer place without Inspirations magazine, so I really hope that it survives.

As a contributor to the magazine, I picked up a copy of Issue 83, which features, amongst other things, an article by me (“The Velvet Weavers of Venice”) and a project by my twin sister, Prue Scott. It is rather nice to have both of us in the one magazine!

I really enjoyed the privilege of teaching again at Beating Around the Bush. Thank you to Fiona Fagan, Kristian Fleming and the rest of the team for creating such a wonderful embroidery event and for allowing me to be part of it.