.jpg)
Embroidering …the Future
Towards the end of 2007 a group passionate about embroidery and textiles in general gathered at the PowerHouse Museum in Sydney for the Hand & Lock international conference, prize giving and exhibition titled ‘Embroidering …the Future’.The panel of speakers included experts from the London College of Fashion, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal School of Needlework, alongside Australian embroidery artist, May Brown, and others. Topics discussed covered everything from preserving the art of hand embroidery to using digital technology for surface design and the use of embroidery by stage and screen costume designers.
Amy Nightingale’s work
Central to the day’s proceeding was Carne Griffiths, the youthful and stylish Director of the UK company, Hand & Lock. He accompanied the Chairman of the company, Alastair Macleod, to Australia for the conference and it is Carne probably more than anyone, who represents the intriguing and exciting state of modern embroidery.
Carne Griffiths in ‘General’s Jacket’
Hand & Lock is a fusion of two long established embroidery firms, namely M. Hand & Company Ltd (established in 1767) and S.Lock Ltd. (established in 1898). The Hand Company were traditionally “gold lacemen”, weaving ceremonial military braid and later embroidering in gold wire and threads. S.Lock Ltd. was a leading embroidery firm based in London’s West End – embroidering and beading for some of the world’s leading bridal designers and couturiers such as Catherine Walker and Hardie Ames.
As Carne describes it, “Having such a prestigious range of clients meant that the two companies crossed paths many times through their work. At the wedding of the Prince charles and Princess Diana, ‘Hand’s’ gold wire embroidery and lace was alongside ‘Lock’s’beading and embroidery and their work met again as the Queen, wearing a beaded dress, greeted HRH the sultan of Oman adorned in goldlace and embroidery designed and produced by M. Hand & company. So it seemed a natural coming together when the two firms joined in 2001, forming Hand & Lock, an embroidery firm which could now boasts the most esteemed client lists of any embroidery firm!”
The Conference and the Hand & Lock Prize for Embroidery are the brainchild of the charming and witty Alastair Macleod. “In actual fact the Sydney Conference was the first of its kind although the Prize itself is now in its ninth year,” Carne explains. “The conference and price work hand-in-hand to show the importance of hand embroidery and its use within the fashion industry. By inviting specialised speakers from a wealth of a backgrounds the conference aims to illustrate just how essential it is to understand not only the importance of traditional embroidery techniques and methods but how to use these in a modern context. The prize reinforces this method of thinking by inviting students from all over the world to use their creative talents to produce an embroidered item based on a brief set by the company.”
This 2007 prize aimed to forge closer links with the fashion industry, culminating with a fashion show for the 25-30 finalists at the London College of Fashion and, hence, led to two of the panellists in sydney haling from that College – Polly Kenny, Senior Lecturer in surface Textiles who spoke on the topic of ‘Digital Craft: Surface Textiles’ and Anthea Godfrey, Principal Lecturer for the Postgraduate Portfolios at the College, who discussed the use of embroidery in couture fashion, aided by an overwhelming and beautiful array of wonderful slides from international designers and graduating students.
The panel at the conference at Powerhouse Museum
Carne’s own background is a unique one. His primary duty at Hand & Lock is as a designer for gold wire embroidery and he describes it as a “hands on role” that demands a good knowledge of traditional techniques. “I have basically built the role around my own love of drawing,” he says. “With wire embroidery being such a versatile medium, it means that I get to design for a whole host of different clients. In 2007 I worked with asprey’s designer, Stephen Lisseman, to produce embroidered garments for their first ever fashion show, I’ve been instrumental in the design of Regimental and Presidential Standards for a number of countries worldwide and had the opportunity to study and re-work a cap of maintenance for Exeter City Council which was originally embroidered in the early 16th century. It is this sheer diversity of projects undertaken by Hand & Lock that make the role of a designer at the firm so desirable.”
Carne studied at Maidstone school of Art, an establishment with well known past graduates including modern artist, Tracy Emin, and Carne’s contemporary, the fine artist and rising star, Dan Baldwin. We studied illustration at Maidstone and I specialised in animation work as well as exploring a love for automatic drawing and writing,” says Carne. “The course was a real chance to develop a personal vision and I think it was a particularly good time to be there. I was given a fellowship by the college and consequently was offered a studio space in which to work for a year after graduating. At this time I was further exploring my interests in automatic drawing but I felt it was really time to move on both terms of where my drawings were going and in terms of what career I would follow.”
Attendees at the conference examine winning works on display
It’s fair to say that many would consider embroidery an uncommon pursuit for a young man and Carne, himself, confesses that “if you told me nine years ago I would be working in the textile industry I would have laughed”. Nevertheless, after a year’s fellowship at Kent Institute of Art and Design (KIAD), a move to London felt like the next “logical step” for Carne and it was then he began looking for work as animator or freelance illustrator.
“Commissions were scarce for the type of work I was producing and necessity forced me to take on a job at Emerson Nelmes, a trimmings firm based round the corner in Leyton,” he says. “This was really my first encounter with the textile world, albeit one that was seen from over the top of a monitor whilst entering data. I had learnt how to hand twist a piece of cord, make a handmade bullion fringe and how to cover a tassel mould but couldn’t really see a creative future for myself in trimmings or passementerie (the art of making elaborate trimmings or edgings of applied braid, gold or silver cord, embroidery, coloured silk, or breads for clothing or furnishings).”
A friendship between Carne’s boss at Emerson Nelmes and Mr. and Mrs. Hand (running M.Hand & company at the time) led to his involvement with his current employer. “I was sent along to meet draughtsman at Hands, Mr. Ken Miles, who had been preparing embroidering patterns for over 50 years,” says Carne. “There was very little not to like in this building which was something like an old curiosity shop. In every nook and cranny you would find an exquisite piece of goldwork or an annotated drawing some 200 years old lying amongst rows and rows of cardboard boxes…There were no computers or any other concessions to modern technology to be seen in the building except for a small fax machine. As I had spent my whole time at college deliberately avoiding computers, it was refreshing to find a company that thrived using traditional methods and found no need for databases and spreadsheets! I left that day feeling I had discovered a lost art and hoped that I would have the chance to visit again.”
About six months after this initial meeting Carne received a phone call from Ken Miles asking if he would come along to meet the new family who had taken over the company. “They were looking for a draughtsman to start an apprenticeship at M. Hand & Company under Ken Miles and things just moved on from there,” he says.
On top of his demanding workload at Hand & Lock, Carne adheres to his belief in the importance of keeping up an active interest in drawing and draws at home on a regular basis “ but as far as projects and commissions go my main focus is now with the work I undertake for Hand & Lock,” he adds. And no wonder with current clients including people such as “the wonderful embroidery designer Philippe Cecille” who is grandson of Francois Cecille – designer to Napoleon Bonaparte.
“Philippe runs an embroidery studio in a small town called Joigny in central France,” says Carne. “His archive of work from his own portfolio and that of his grandfather is simply stunning and underlines the importance of studying embroidery techniques as there is always something new to be found.” Also of interest to Carne is the work of Sandrine Pelletier whose embroidered pieces have an illustrative feel and closely resemble her drawing style. 2Her work has an immediacy that breaks people’s preconceptions of how embroidery is executed,” he says.
Get Creative, April 2008
Feel free to comment on this post: