About Niamh
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.
Niamh achieved a Masters Degree in Contemporary Craft in 2017 from Plymouth College of Art. Her final piece, an interactive installation titled ‘A Feeling Of Safety, Perhaps’ was exhibited in the MA show and as part of Dwell, a two woman collaboration for Plymouth Art Weekend at Plymouth Art Centre.
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.
Niamh now lives in Camden Town with her partner Alex, a watch maker. She is currently writing her first book, continues to make work (including commissions), and has launched her #WEStitchKit – a monthly embroidery kit subscription box. You can find about more about her kit subscription 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.
Videos
Books and Patterns
Posts
To mark or not to mark your quilt.
We are talking about quilting here; and I have always thought that if I can avoid adding any marking lines to my quilt that's the best option - nothing to remove and therefore worry about. However in today's world and if, like me, you can't draw, then marking can become necessary and there are many marking pencils and pens and chalks on the market for us to choose from - the latest of which are the Frixion Pens.
Festival of Quilting 2015
Back home, exhausted but happy after five full days at Festival helping Isa at Creative Quilting on H17 ; always great to catch up with everyone and everything and see so many wonderful quilts - and not all of them entered into the competition - there is always so much inspiration on the stands too. Sadly I failed to take a camera that had any power (!) but that didn't stop me shopping both for myself (threads and fabric) and for Justhands-on.tv !!- so keep an eye on the shop for LOTS of new products from lots of our contributors, which include Angela Daymond; Janet Clare; Lina Patchwork; Lorna Bateman; the return of Mandy Shaw and a lovely new pattern from Kjersti Smith featuring Dinosaurs.
7th August 2015
Videos In Jennie’s latest book – Stitch Bits – see [...]