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Oh the wonderful work of Tilleke Schwarz



I was in my element two weeks ago when I joined Tilleke and 13 other talented artists in an embroidery workshop hosted by the Maiwa School of textiles in their beautiful loft studio on Granville Island.

Together we spent three creative days stitching, sharing and collaging wonderful nothings on cloth and with paper. I say "nothings" because the joy and beauty of Tilleke's work is the "nothings" she notices on signs, in the newspaper or maybe overheard conversations. Her international sense of humour and unexpected cynicism was as amusing as her work is honest.

What I love about Tilleke's style is the graphic randomness of the elements. Her work feels raw, unstructured and energetic.

The image on the top of this post, is one of my collages from workshop. The exercise was to collage a flower using one colour (and tones/shades of it) from supplied magazines. Being a pretty colourful person, I decided to stretch my comfort zone by executing the exercise in only black and white. I'm pleased with the result and plan to incorporate a version it in my classes.

If you get the chance, treat yourself to a class with Tilleke. You'll come away with a new appreciation of embroidery.

Keep creating! 
~ Kathryn




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