Suzie Frizzell
Suzie has hand stitched and worked with textiles all her life, and in 2006 finally became the proud holder of a City and Guilds Diploma in embroidery and design. Since then she has been working mostly in felt and machine embroidery and has exhibited works in a number of venues in Northern Ireland, as well as Dublin and Galway.
Carol Mackey
Carol’s work brings together a unique blend of traditional and contemporary design emphasised by and adventurous use of colour, her major specialisation being the creation of miniature quilts. An award winner at the Festival of Quilts, Birmingham and the winner of the California Gold Medal at RDS, Dublin, she is a regular exhibitor at major quilt shows and many exhibitions in the UK, Ireland and Europe. She is a member of the Northern Ireland Embroidery and Quilters’ Guild.
Alma Martin
Alma has concentrated on textile art since taking early retirement from teaching City & Guilds Fashion. Her recent work, which includes accessories and jewellery, is based on interpretations of the landscapes of Iceland from the volcanic fields to the colours of melting icebergs.
Ruth McAllister
Ruth originally took up working with textiles as a distraction from her day job of designing software, only to discover that there was just as much design work involved in textile art! Her pieces are strongly influenced by her interest in science fiction and astronomy, with strong mathematical shapes and dark colours.
Joanna MacMahon
As a child, Joanna was always interested in her mother’s sewing and was eventually allowed to use the sewing machine – as long as she didn’t alter the tension! As a teenager of the sixties, sewing her own clothes was a wonderful skill. Buying the material on a Saturday morning, cutting out and making the dress/shift in the afternoon and getting your mother to sew the hem while you dried your hair! Then, about 6 years ago she discovered the joy of Creative Embroidery. After an illuminating year of cutting and slashing, nappy liners and other interesting techniques, she started on the City and Guild route and has loved it ever since. Her interest in all things Art/Textile has not waned and she gets most of her inspiration from nature and all its quirky variations.
Irene Miller
As a Flower Arranger tutor and External Verifier with City and Guilds Irene visited colleges throughout Northern Ireland to look at students’ work. Often the colleges displayed work of other crafts such as Embroidery and Patchwork. She admired this work and thought that some day she would love to learn more about it. When Irene retired in 2004 she decided to join the City and Guilds Embroidery class at Castlereagh, which started her off on a new adventure. Irene loves learning new techniques of embroidery – a whole other world that she hardly knew existed. The colour and texture of threads and fabrics are fascinating; learning how to adapt and use them to produce interesting pieces of work is a never ending adventure. She has not yet developed one particular style and says she may never do so, but keeps on experimenting. She loves being able to translate an idea into embroidery and particularly likes working by hand.
Lila Reid
Embroidery has played a significant part in Lila’s life for many years, beginning in the conventional way using traditional stitches. More recently her work has become progressively less formal, mostly finding inspiration in nature. She likes to experiment with new products to achieve desired textures and finishes.
Olive Rodgers
Olive has developed her own style over the past few years using heat and cutting techniques as a means of altering surfaces of stitch. Her focus for inspiration is mainly found through looking at historical atrefacts and architecture around her, both old and new. She combines materials such as foils, paper and plastics with techniques such as layering, fusing and bonding to create innovative mixed media art pieces.
Christine Young
Since her retirement as a Civil Servant in 2007 Christine initially studied Machine Embroidery before moving on to Creative techniques in textiles. Although still experimenting with new techniques and materials in mixed media Christine wants to specialise in Machine embroidery. Her current work is inspired by architecture, usually sourced from her own photographs. She particularly likes the work of the Austrian Architect and Artist, Frederich Hundertwasser, whose use of bold, vibrant colour reflects in her work.
Anne Hardcastle
Anne has a lifetime of `making` behind her. She sewed doll`s clothes, then her clothes; crocheted and knitted inspired by Kaffe Fasset and Sacha Kagan, embroidered tray cloths and cushion covers in traditional stitches and discovered patchwork in the 1970`s. These interests continued alongside her career as a biology lecturer and now retirement has allowed her full rein to explore and pursue adventurers into textile art by gaining a City and Guilds Certificate.
She is a founder member of the N.I. Patchwork Guild and Loose Thread Quilters, a former Trustee of The Quilters` Guild of the British Isles, and a member of the N.I. Embroidery Guild and the Ulster Guild of Sinners Weavers and Dyers.
She dabbles with many techniques; patchwork, quilting, X-stitch, embroidery, felting, braiding, knitting, crochet and spinning, inspired by her love of the natural world and gardens.
Her outdoor pursuits include walking, hedge laying, coppicing, dry stone walling and woodland restoration.