Unlock your creativity as you embroider your unique take on Adriana Torres iconic sweater chair
We are beyond delighted to be welcoming BuenosAires-based illustrator, designer and embroiderer Adriana Torres who is in the UK briefly for a series of embroidery workshops and has added some extra dates to her workshop tour to visit us in Bristol and share her beautiful world of embroidery with us.
If you love embroidery but don't know what to design or feel blocked when it's time to embroider, this workshop is for you!
Whether you're an expert stitcher or have never held a needle in your life, this class could be the opportunity you've been waiting for.
Through a fun game, Adriana will guide you to create your own sweater-chair, reframing any insecurity as energy that guides your creativity and imagination.
In this 5-hour workshop, you will learn a bunch of embroidery stitches, including brand new ones like the Argentinian Knots and Picot, which Adriana, who is coming all the way from Argentina, will share for the first time on this tour through Europe, America, and Asia.
During this very special session, you will have the first-of-its-kind opportunity to embroider your own version of Adriana’s renowned sweater-chair while joyfully immersing yourself in the creative process.
Adriana started embroidering chairs with sweaters in 2008, when she made the first drawing combining two everyday objects she liked most. Her fascination for designer chairs reaches back to when she was an architecture student, discovering the Bauhaus and the designs of Marcel Breuer and Gerrit Rietveld. She thinks deeply about the phrase by Gaston Bachelard that says “without the unexpected crossing of two images there is no imagination.” For him, imagination is a process of the soul and can only be explained through the images themselves. Besides chairs and hand knitted sweaters, Adriana has always loved the different ~ the unique. The repetition of her sweater chairs shows her passion for the subject, just like the Dutch painter Klaas Gubbels repeatedly painting coffee pots and the Icelandic painter Storval painting mountains. Adriana is sure she will paint and stitch chairs with sweaters for the rest of her life.
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Both in The Forest Alphabet and Play & Stitch, students will acquire proficiency in identical embroidery techniques, including Colcha stitch, Towel stitch, Quaker stitch, Argentinian knot and square knot, and Argentinian Picot, among others. Despite this, the thematic content and the pedagogical approach to these techniques diverge entirely.
These classes were conceived as a two-day creative retreat and are intended to be complementary. It is, however, possible to enroll in either one individually.
Materials included:
All the materials are included, but you are invited to bring your favourite threads, needles and scissors.
Skill Level:
This is open for all skill levels including beginner stitchers. No previous knowledge is required.
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About Adriana
Adriana Torres, artist, illustrator and founder of Miga de Pan has studied architecture and graphic design at the University of Buenos Aires. Her collection was distinguished with the Seal of Good Design, an official distinction awarded by the Ministry of Industry to the national industry products that stands for innovation, for its commitment to local production, by its position in the market and its quality design.
Her label was selected by Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be part of the national pavilions at 100% Design London, Maison & Object Paris, and Pitti Bimbo in Italy representing Argentine design.
She received the first prize in the national contest of artisans organized by the “National Fund for the Arts”, which is part of the Cultural National Secretary of Argentina in the category "Contemporary Textile Doll Making".
Adriana has taught embroidery workshops worldwide including Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, Bilbao, La Coruña, Sevilla, Mallorca, Paris (at the Argentine Embassy), Berlin, London, Devon, Zürich, City of México, Boulder (Colorado), Santa Monica (California) and Philadelphia (at Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters HQ).
She participated with her embroidery artworks at several collective art exhibitions in Buenos Aires, Paris and Leipzig.
Her work was published by Thames and Hudson in “The New Artisans”, DPI magazine (Taiwan), Super Handmade (China), Stich•illo by Uppercase (Canada), Frankie (Australia), Selvedge (UK) and was the cover of Embroidery Magazine (United Kingdom).
Her embroideries are currently available at Mar Dulce gallery in Palermo, Buenos Aires.