Creative Embroidery Class with Maria Tapper

In the past I rarely described myself as creative, I think that’s because I felt that applying the adjective creative to anyone implied they had stellar levels of talent. And stellar levels of talent, for anything, I definitely don’t have. However, I have finally accepted, what everyone else probably realized all along, that we are all creative in our own way.

Over the years I have surfed the swell of my creative urge by attending evening-classes in diverse disciplines: painting, jewellery-making, dressmaking, patchwork, photography …. I didn’t enroll in these courses because I thought I had any special aptitude for any of them but because I believe that most things are teachable, at least to some degree. Although, I have yet to put that theory to the ultimate test by signing up for to singing lessons (I am totally tuneless)!

Upstairs at The Constant Knitter

When I spotted details, on the net, of a two-hour creative embroidery workshop I filed it to the back of my brain; I was in two minds about going. But when I had breakfast at The Fumballly the Friday before last and realized that I was just around the corner from The Constant Knitter in Francis Street where the class was going to be held and that the class was taking place the next day I took it as a sign from the universe that I was meant to attend. So I hot-footed to The Constant Knitter and luckily there was a place left and I booked it.

The class was given by the very patient and talented Maria Tapper, a costume designer (link here to Maria’s blog). I thought it was excellent value at €25 for a two-hour session with all materials supplied. Maria had so obviously put a great deal of effort into her preparation for the session and she also brought along a mini-library of lovely books for us to browse through including one of her grandmother’s old pattern books. The initial plan was that we would learn some basic stitches for the first hour and then start on a small piece of work. But the minutes whizzed by and by the time we had all learned ten different stitches and done a small sample of each we were over the two hours.

In the distant mists of the closing years of the last century I attended a night class in embroidery but I had mostly forgotten what I learnt and badly needed the refresher in stitching. The short session whetted my appetite and I am thinking I would like to do some sort of sewing related evening class next winter. maybe embroidery, maybe patchwork. I cannot make up my mind – still I have the summer, if it ever arrives, to decide.

Maria is, I think, planning to hold a further session at The Constant Knitter and I hope to make that. The Constant Knitter also hosts other types of classes such as knitting, crochet … (check their website for details). There is a visual below of my small sampler not, as you can see, a work of genius or perfection but a start on the stitchery road. I am musing at the moment over what I might make, the ten easy-to-learn stitches provide endless creative combinations. Obviously the work in the other images is Maria’s.

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As well as re-learning some embroidery stitches I also realized how much the push and pull of daily life tamps down our creativity and how important it is to tend the creative spark..