Welcome to the wonderful world of New Zealand embroidery.
THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF ANZEG: THE ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND EMBROIDERERS' GUILDS INC
The Association of New Zealand Embroiderers' Guilds exists to promote, preserve and inspire the art of embroidery in New Zealand.
UPDATE: 23 February 2021
Young Persons' Virtual Exhibition viewers' choice winner announced
A 'hearty' congratulations to Nate Haisman of South Taranaki. Nate's entry, a Halloween-themed bag entitled 'Trick-or-Treat', received the most votes in the 2020 Junior Virtual Exhibition.
Nate stitched this last year, aged 7, and was the only boy to enter ANZEG's national junior exhibition.
He worked very hard on his entry, stitching all the pieces down - especially on the tree which he had position and stitch as he went. Nate is very excited to receive his prize money and extends special thanks to his very patient tutors Sue Wilson and Dorothy Hughes.
Voting has closed but you can still 'heart' your favourite pieces.
Once again, congratulations to all the young people who entered, and a huge thank you to their tutors and families for supporting them, and to ANZEG's generous prize sponsors.
UPDATE: 14 July 2020
UPDATE: 1 August 2020
The Viewers' Choice prize
goes to Claire North's
One Fish, Two Fish.
Congratulations Claire
and thank you to everyone
who voted.
The wait is over... our Virtual Exhibition is live
Offical Press Releases:
Focus on Stitch Virtual Exhibition goes
live on ANZEG website: www.embroiderynz.co.nz/gallery
Tuesday July 14, 2020 at 5pm
A fabulous selection of embroideries to enjoy - the next best thing to actually seeing them live at an exhibition! Check out our winners - enjoy the beauty and variety. Be amazed at the creativity!
The selectors Susanna Shadbolt, director of Aratoi: Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, Reverend Liz Greville, Masterton, and Jenny Hunter, Levin, were delighted with the variety, imagination and quality of the stitching, and hope you will all be inspired to create new embroideries for our next exhibition - whether it is virtual or physical!
Covid-19 may have put us all in lockdown but it didn’t shut down the creative impulse and the 51 embroideries on our website embroiderynz.co.nz are testament to this.
Although it might have seemed like a hassle to send the embroidery away to be photographed by Threads designer, photographer and website administrator Amanda Sherman - the quality of the photography means that you will all be given the best possible look at each work - short of actually viewing the embroidery.
A huge thank you to the embroiderers who took that leap of faith and entered their embroideries to create ANZEG’s very first virtual exhibition - a feast of colour and stitch - firmly putting the focus on what we do best - stitching. Congratulations to everyone who took part, not just our very deserving winners, the resulting exhibition is wonderful. Make sure you visit it soon at www.embroiderynz.co.nz
Trish Hughes ANZEG President
Felicity Willis ANZEG Exhibition Liaison Person and Publicity Contact
Email anzegtwm@gmail.com
Caroline Strachan Secretary, ANZEG Conference: Vision 2020
Amanda Sherman Threads designer, photographer + web administrator
PS: You can choose your favourite. Just ‘heart’ it on the website and at the end of July we will add up the totals and announce an overall viewers’ choice winner.
Selectors' Comments:
Overall we were pleased with the quality of stitch and the way exhibitors used stitch to convey the exhibition theme ‘Focus on Stitch’.
There was a wide and imaginative use of ideas, colour and media amongst the embroideries presented, particularly in the contemporary section and we were impressed with the way entrants were boldly using technology in their work.
The traditional section was particularly impressive because of the way in which embroiderers had managed to preserve traditional stitching in a modern way, always keeping the stitch and the beauty of stitch as the focus of their work. Words such as ’intriguing’ ‘stunning’, ‘beautiful’ and ‘gorgeous’ came to mind as we made notes on and viewed the works. We liked the way many recalled memories of former times, family members and friends, preserving those memories in stitch for the future.
There was strong consensus in deciding the winning embroideries in the different sections, although it was a slow process to reach that point. Otherwise excellent work was let down by poor finishing, a misplaced line, an over-complicated design, or poor colour choice. But overall the exhibition shows that there are some amazingly creative embroiderers who are bold enough to put their ideas and embroideries out there into the wider world for all to admire and be inspired by.
We would also like to have known more about the embroiderers’ thought processes in creating their work - some of the artist’s statements described processes and materials rather than why they had stitched what they did and we appreciated those statements that did give us an insight into the artist’s thinking.
Although initially hesitant about selecting an exhibition of embroidery (a tactile and three-dimensional art) virtually via the internet, we felt that by using the high-quality photographs supplied by Amanda Sherman which demonstrated each work from a variety of angles - in the way that each of us might look at the work in ‘real life’ we had a very accurate ‘feel’ for each piece and have been able to give each embroidery due consideration.
Susanna Shadbolt, director of Aratoi
Wairarapa Museum of Art and History
Reverend Liz Greville, Masterton
Jenny Hunter, Levin.
About the Judges
Our judges, Rev Liz Greville, Jenny Hunter and Susanna Shadbolt, were originally invited to select Vision 2020's Conference Exhibition. When asked if they would consider judging virtually in our revised pandemic-conditions exhibition, it was an enthusiastic Yes! We are grateful their support and expertise.
Here is a bit about them:
Rev Liz Greville is a member of Wairarapa Guild and has a long involvement with ANZEG. She is a past editor of ‘Threads’ and was Convener of the ANZEG conference in Masterton in 1998. Liz has been designing and teaching embroidery since the 1980s. She has been involved in a number of personal commissions as well as collaborative projects all of which demand skill in a wide variety of techniques. Her role as a priest in the Anglican Church has raised a particular interest and expertise in church embroidery.
Jenny Hunter is well known throughout New Zealand as an experienced quilter, embroiderer, tutor and designer. Her particular interest is in creating original designs unique to New Zealand. She conducts workshops for quilting and embroidery groups and has experience in both judging and designing exhibitions. Jenny owns a mail order textile art supply business and enjoys sharing her extensive design experience and love for colour, texture and stitch with her students.
Susanna Shadbolt has been Director of Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History since 2016 having previously held curatorial positions at Christchurch Art Gallery and at Te Manawa in Palmerston North. She gained her Masters and First Class Honours degree in Art History and Archaeology at the University of Cologne before moving to New Zealand and taking a Post Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies at Massey University as well as a Secondary Teaching Diploma. Susanna has a keen appreciation and eye for design and composition.