Classes with Niamh Wimperis
Niamh Wimperis is one of the most colourful and dynamic embroidery artists currently practicing. According to Niamh, she's "all about feminism and plants", and finds a lot of her inspiration from her vast collection of house plants, and childhood memories of her grandparents house, Selsley Herb and Goat Farm. Her work has evolved from ultra political - - with her feminist pieces featured in Ms Magazine, Buzzfeed and The Huff Post - - to this more calming botanical style. In 2018 Niamh was chosen to be on the BBC2 programme, The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts. This was a "living history" reality show in which Niamh and 5 other talented crafts people lived in a William Morris-esque arts and crafts commune for a month, complete with wearing Victorian clothes, eating Victorian food and using Victorian tools. The 4 part BBC2 show aired in January 2019. You can read more about her experience here, and watch the series here.
Signature Technique:
Botanical Embroidery
Top Tips:
- Use the Satin Stitch for a shimmer and shine effect.
- Stitch on two layers to avoid warp and seeing stitches on the back.
- Keep your fabric tight as a drum in your hoop or your piece will pucker.
- Nothing in nature is perfect, so don’t be afraid if a stitch appears strange or off the centre line. That’s how it appears in real life.
- The Fly Stitch is wonderfully versatile; use it for pine branches, flowers and leaves.
- If you find your thread is suddenly shorter, you probably have a knot. Use your needle to pull the knot apart.
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Herringbone Stitch Embroidery Workshop with Niamh Wimperis
This stitch is created in a sort of zig-zag fashion and Niamh says it is one that doesn't look like much, until you get going with it. She really likes to use it to create leaves in her embroidery.
Niamh also has other stitching workshops from the same sampler.
Click here to learn about Satin... -
How to Use an Embroidery Hoop Correctly with Niamh Wimperis
Niamh explains why she likes to use two layers of fabric in the hoop, as it avoid puckering when doing the stitching and also allows for less 'peak through' when moving your embroidery threads from one section of the embroidery to another.
An embroidery hoop has two sections and the top one ge...
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Fly Stitch Embroidery Workshop with Niamh Wimperis
Niamh believes the fly stitch is a close cousin to the lazy daisy embroidery stitch. This is because it is created with a V stitch rather than a loop.
She has used it in the centre of leaves, to create pine branches and flowers.
You also get to see how to sort out a really knotty problem wi...
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Sampler Wreath Embroidery Workshop Satin Stitch with Niamh Wimperis
In this embroidery workshop Niamh shows how to fill in the iris flower. This simple stitch has the threads laying closely next to each other on top of your work. Niamh guides you through the starting and finishing off. There is also a really clever tip on how to remove your stranded thread from i...
