Hand-Stitched Clothing Workshop
All images (c) Gabriela Martínez.
It’s your last chance to buy tickets for our hand-stitched clothing workshop with Mexican designer and textile artist Gabriela Martínez, running Saturday 13 & Sunday 14 February 2021, 2-5pm GMT. Gabriela is creator of Ofelia & Antelmo, a textile art project that studies hand embroidery. The project was one of the participants in last year’s Selvedge World Fair, with Gabriela’s workshops being a highlight of the event. In the workshop you will learn to hand embroider the stitches Gabriela uses in her work and how they can be used to create surface patterns and manipulate fabrics for garment construction.
A self-taught embroiderer since 2014, Gabriela’s work is governed by the philosophy of the Slow Movement, a cultural revolution that aims to calm human activities, a reaction against speed by valuing enjoyment and savouring life. She explains, “Ofelia and Antelmo is more than a brand, a lifestyle that invites slower living. I seek to take up traditional techniques and translate them into the contemporary, giving main priority to the elaboration time that the artisanal processes require. I'm interested in the exploration of textures through meticulous textile techniques, which invite you to stop and contemplate. In protest towards the speed of the 21st century, I propose a fair speed that artisanal processes demand and thus, find new joys in doing with the hands.”
Gabriela explains how she chose her brand’s name: “Named in honor of my maternal grandparents, O&A was born as a proposal that explores hand embroidery and its capabilities as a graphic protagonist applied in different textile formats. Ofelia represents community, since with the help of more women, artisan objects and garments are born, designed to be one-size, reversible and timeless. Antelmo represents more of my personal work, they are the canvases where all the creative exploration of techniques, formats, fabrics, textures and colours arises. Together we form a family of textile pieces where each one is unique and a continuity of the previous one.”
Tickets are available here: Hand-Stitched Clothing, Virtual Workshop with Gabriela Martinez
