Emery Smith Studio

Creating my own maps of where I live with fabric and stitch. Not too concerned with accuracy but have enjoyed tracing the curves of rivers, railways, and roads with my needle and scissors. I do have a small penchant for old maps. I can spend hours trying to find the similarities and differences between the past and present. One of things I love about the UK is how many layers of history we have in our towns, and how organic and disorganised it all is. Visually it does remind me of patchwork and mending.

I took my newest woven band and sewed it onto the edge of this wrap top (also hand made) as it was accidentally just the right length. The band is made from cotton so it should be ok to wash regularly. 

The pattern on the band is a replication of a similar pattern found on a narrow woven band found in a Viking ship burial site in Oseburg in Norway.  I used the Elewys of Finchingefeld youtube channel to learn the pattern.

So now I’m calling this my viking tunic 😀

My latest finished woven band. I’m finding tablet weaving quite satisfying to learn because I’m making noticeable improvements with each new band.

I had some help this time from my four year old daughter. She is a quite prolific producer of paintings and drawings, but has recently become interested in my fibre crafts. She said recently “I want to be a knitter like you mumma when I grow up’. (Everything textile-related, she calls knitting at the moment, whether it is embroidery, sewing, weaving etc.  I’m actually not much of a knitter myself!)

My eldest (now 11) was never that interested in arts or crafts, so it’s been a  surprise to me to have a second child who actively chooses those things.  And I realised how much I’m looking forward to teaching her.

Tablet weaving with my little helper.