Megan Ivy Griffiths is a pattern designer, illustrator and embroiderer who is based in the glorious green countryside of Hampshire. She harbours an ardent passion for the beautiful and unusual and is inspired by whimsical fairy-tales and calm ambles through forests and fields. Her work is a concoction of tenderness, gentility and intricacy. Megan makes fabric animals that seem to have jumped out of mythical worlds. They include farmers, mermaids, lions, llamas and rabbits - all dressed in Megan's beautiful decorative folk embroidery. She also creates characters inspired by folk tales, including tales from Kurdish culture. In this way, her stitches tell stories; as a trained illustrator she has been taught to draw, as well as using a pen or pencil, she uses needle and thread to create captivating characters.
Embroidery is something that brings Megan calmness; she enjoys the rhythm of stitching and finds that it helps to rid her of anxiety or stress. That's not to say that her workspace or her pieces are minimalistic - if anything, Megan's creations seem to pack as many stitches as can possibly fit onto the smallest scrap of cloth.
Next month, Megan will be leading a workshop on making a spring flower maiden doll. Participants will be taught a variety of stitches to embroider a flower crown and add details to their doll using cottons, metallic threads and embroidery silks. Students will have a choice of patterns to follow which will be drawn onto calico or will be able to create their own design if they wish. After the hand embroidery is finished they will be shown how to transform it into a three-dimensional doll.
