CONtINUUM - WORKS BY CANADIAN EMBROIDERERS' GUILD

Canadian Embroiderers' Guild, London - A Textile Art Group Celebrates 45 years of creativity, innovation and tradition.

This vibrant and talented group, about 180 strong, (all women at the moment but men are welcome) have been meeting for classes, workshops, outreach projects, fun and friendship for 45 years. It began as a group of like-minded women who wanted to share a creative and supportive environment focusing on their love of stitching and textile art. It is arguably the largest and oldest textile arts guild in Canada. Over the years, the guild has grown and evolved into a strong presence in London's creative community. It prides itself on being a teaching guild using primarily inside talent as teachers. CEG, London boasts a bursary program that encourages members to go into the field to bring back new ideas and techniques so that we are always experimenting and exploring. With such a large membership, the spectrum of interests is very broad and ranges from traditional embroidery to cutting edge fibre art. The public is invited to an event each April to come and enjoy the works produced in the past guild year as well as have an opportunity to buy hand stitched cards that supports the bursary program. This anniversary exhibition CONtINUUM highlights the long history of embroidery and shows how the contemporary builds on the creative endeavours of stitchers and artists before us. Another display of hand work called "Celebrating Our Circles" is also on at the Strand Gallery. This body of work comes from a set of workshops led by Canadian textile artist Judith Martin. The symbolism of the circle in the square is explored by hand stitching traditional circle motifs on vintage handkerchiefs