Getting serious in embroidery/ textile arts career

[worksofhands]

Update: October 16, 2009
Hi everyone!
As you can read from my blog, although I did not get an apprenticeship this year, I have not given up on my dream of learning techniques from textile masters.
I just enrolled in an online tutorial in making tibetan silk thangkas or appliqué thangkas from www.silkthangka.com. With a regular job starting November 2009, I hope to finance embroidery and textile making courses myself. That is the great plan. lol!

Enjoy stitching everyone,
Vincent
http://worksofhands.wordpress.com/

Update: August 27, 2009
Hi everyone! I am now writing from a castle of a baron somewhere in Westfalen, Germany, where the workshop of this antique textile restorator is a few meters away.
I had a wonderful visit at the atelier and very enlightening chat with the restorator about what I want to do and some tips about how to go with my plans.
Restoration is a really serious job, collectors pay a lot for the restoration of their textiles. One of their most important work is a 2000 year old carpet from the owner of Hyatt hotels.

I already knew beforehand that I would have to dye the finest silk threads myself to match the antique colors.
And because I know that I am color-blind, I am not fit to work in the atelier. Nevertheless, I still want to see how restoration is done. The restorators were so friendly and they showed me and my friend what happens in the several cases they are working on. My friend is an artist who lives in the castle. She told the restorator about me and my passion for needlework and invited me to stay at the baron´s castle for a couple of nights, during my visit to the atelier.

The workshop does not only restore antique textile. They also catalog museum articles and reproduction.
During my visit, there was a set of Biedermeier chairs, each fully embroidered with a different needlepoint design. It is yet to be decided whether the owner wants to have them restored or reproduced. If they are to be reproduced, I would have to take over the stitching job. The atelier will produce the chart and the dye the wool themselves. If the owner decides to have the chairs repaired, the restorators will do the job.

Another service they offer is making museum exhibit display molds, on which textiles would be lay fitted. These are exactly cut to the pattern of the articles, and are made of steel covered in batting and velvet.


So I am not going to be an apprentice at the atelier. But I will still continue my search for that school or textile master who will train me.

Or I will have to be that master, that is inside each and everyone of us.

Besides that news, I would also like to share how I finally got contacts from the german embroidery guild. That there is indeed one and the members in Berlin would like to create a chapter in Berlin. The most active of these Berliner members paid me a visit last week and asked me how about joining together for a Berlin embroidery guild. It was a wonderful news. We will be able to support each other and start "waking" more embroiderers in Berlin, who are yet to discover their passion for embroidery.

I thought if I can´t find that stitching paradise here where I live, then I will have to create one myself. LOL!

I am learning a lot, about being patient about what is going to happen. meanwhile I can develop my own taste in design and colors. Just have fun stitching...

--vince



Hi! I am Vincent, 30 yo, living in Germany, born in the Philippines. I studied theater arts(performance major and backstage as costumes master or stage manager) and music (voice major), but never got to finish both of them. I tried getting into art school to major in painting, but my taste is too traditional for german art schools ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/vincentvaliente/sets/72157615373305915/ ) . This year, I started to think about being serious in having a career as an embroidery teacher and textile artist. Since 2004, I have been exploring various needlework techniques as a hobby learning from books and from a couple of mentors, who are so generous they did not charge me any fees at all. I thought if I am going to teach, I need to have a certificate or a diploma that I can teach embroidery, which means I should start paying for lessons. I thought, I could learn Japanese embroidery phases until I qualify for a teacher´s diploma. Aside from liking the techniques, I also like that it has a master-apprentice system. I live in Berlin and needlework is so "RIP" in Berlin. There is a Japanese embroidery teacher in Köln. She charges 500€ for Phase 1 course (4 days lesson) including materials. This is my idea of getting started, enrol in an embroidery school and get certified. Do you have more ideas how I could become an embroidery teacher? Are there more affordable courses around europe, if not in germany? Is it possible to just learn from books and offer courses later on without any diploma hanging on the wall of the studio?

[Elizabeth]

Hi Vincent, gruß aus England (my hubby is German)!

Yes, you can indeed become a professional textile artist and teacher without any qualifications and by learning from books etc as many big names have done just that! Try looking on the websites of a few well-known embroiderers and you'll often see in their 'About me' pages that they don't have formal training. You don't need to have any expensive certificates and, to be honest, most people who take certified courses are doing it for the achievement and as a serious hobby, not a career move. If you are really keen to take one though, perhaps one of the distance learning City & Guilds ones may be good. Of course, that's not Japanese Embroidery, (which I understand is rather a strict discipline that requires a degree of formal training in order to really teach it officially), but it really depends on what you want to do.

I sympathise with the art school problem. Here in the UK it's the same for us. There's no point in even trying to get into art school etc as no-one teaches traditional styles and techniques (textiles is usually as bad too) and it seems only those who come up with something outrageous get anywhere!=(

[worksofhands]

Hallo Elizabeth! sprichst du auch deutsch gern? oder lieber auf englisch? vielen dank fuer deine antwort.
I would like to learn more about City and Guilds. Did you take it yourself? Is it reasonably priced?

[Elizabeth]

Ich bin Engländerin, deswegen spreche ich lieber englisch!!! Better to talk in English on forum anyway so eveeryone can understand OK, although I can read German quite well.=)

City & Guilds you would need to do by distance learning and there are really only 2 companies that are going to be offering it for the foreseeable future as one has recently closed and the other's leader is retiring soon. Try: School of Stitched Textiles and Distant Stitch. Also, here's the C&G page for the Stitched Textiles Certificates and Diploma syllabus, which should tell you lots more about the courses. The two places above offer the 'Embroidery' programme at Level 3 Cert & Dip and SOFST also offers level 1 cert stumpwork. More stumpwork is available through WSTouchbase, but that will close late 2010, so you would need to start soon and work quite fast with them.

Yes, I've been studying for the certificate recently, but thanks to constant illness I got too far behind to carry on and have, sadly, had to give up.=(

[worksofhands]

Thanks for the info Elizabeth!
Are the C&G courses valid for applicants from other countries?
I will go over the pages and think hard about it, compare prices and plan. :)

Vincent

[Elizabeth]

Yes, you can do C&G from any country. Almost all distance learning courses are open to students anywhere.=)

Another option I thought of later was the Open College of the Arts from which you can get a BA degree in fine arts with half and half painting and textiles or specialising in one with some courses in the other. Their course information seems to suggest that you are expected to really learn to paint, rather than just throw it at the wall!!=)

[worksofhands]

Thanks for the OCA link Elizabeth! Seeing the courses offered, I felt inspired again. It is actually my childhood dream to study so many things in art. I took piano lessons, voice lessons,ballet (LOL!), oil painting workshops, embroidery, weaving lessons, street fighting (asian style defense arts), etc. I still want to learn dollmaking, sculpture, printmaking, etc. I guess I will earn money to fund my hobbies until the day I die. LOL!

[Elizabeth]

Hope I've been able to give you some useful ideas and leads, Vincent!

Alles gute!

[Lisa]

This is a great discussion! Elizabeth, thanks for this information on City & Guilds. I have checked out both of the sites you referenced, and I am seriously thinking about taking some of the courses through School of Stitched Textiles. I am always looking for ways to learn and improve my skills. :o)

[Chris Evans]

I have completed the Diploma in C&G Embroidery after doing the foundation and the certifate first. Its better if you can get to a college where you meet like minded people but that is not always available to you. There is another distance learning course that does C&G and that is space2create.net. The tutor is very good she has taught me an awful lot in the last 5 years. She has retired from class education but is running online classes. Hope this helps

[worksofhands]

Thanks for the link Chris! Online distance courses -- a great idea! --vince

[Elizabeth]

A couple of posts back I gave you 2 or 3 more if you want some choice.=) Some are more obviously contemporary than others and I know you like the more traditional style, so you might want to look at their student galleries etc before registering. Space 2 Create seemed one of the most contemporary to me, so I didn't mention it in my first post about distance learning C&G.
Hope you find something that really appeals soon!

[Cate Field]

Hello.. just a quick note to say that I am currently studying for my C&G Level 3 in Embroidered Textiles with Distant Stitch... Sian, the tutor is really excellent...