Mandy started her talk by explaining that she came from a large family and her Aunt Kate taught her to crochet. At secondary school her needlework teacher set high standards and visits to London galleries were obviously exciting with Anwar Shemza, another teacher and an artist in his own right, influencing and encouraging Mandy greatly. He told her “you are only as good as your next piece of work” and she treasures the hand made Christmas cards which he sent each year. Using the Encyclopedia of Needlework written by Teresa Dilmont she taught herself tatting, how to make bobbin lace and various other stitches and techniques.
Mandy was a member of the 62 Group of textile artists and the Textile Study group and retired from lecturing on the foundation course at the Art College in Stafford four years ago. In 2015 she had a joint exhibition with Vivienne Prideaux, is involved with various NHS projects and is currently a volunteer at the National Trust property, Sunnycroft near Wellington where she has been learning to archive.
Mandy draws and paints in colour but her actual work is hand stitching using neutral threads on transparent fabrics. We were shown a variety of her work some of which is shown below.
My memory of Mandy will be someone who rarely had a needle out of her hand and even chatting to members before and after her talk she was busy stitching.
Report and photos by Ros