Patrons Evening at The New Craftsmen with Rosalind Wyatt

Last week our Patrons spent an evening at an arty venue The New Craftsmen with a British visual artist Rosalind Wyatt.

The New Craftsmen is an art gallery and luxury homeware store in Mayfair which represents over 100 British artists and craft makers. One of their makers, Rosalind Wyatt, generously gave our Patrons a demonstration and talk about her craft of ‘writing with a needle’ through combining her calligraphy and stitching skills.

Left: SS Gairsoppa letter to feature in Voices of the Deep exhibition
Right: Stitching of the letter, Rosalind Wyatt

Rosalind’s collages combine antique textiles and handmade paper. She is renowned for her extraordinary work of stitching letters from archival documents onto fabric and garments, including letters from Sir Winston Churchill. Having completed work for Selfridges, Burberry, Vivienne Westwood, as well as a special inscription for Jude Law’s costume for his performance of Hamlet, we couldn’t wait to meet her!

Rosalind demonstrating her craft

Inspired by our next temporary exhibition Voices from the Deep about the shipwreck SS Gairsoppa in 1941, we decided to use one of the survival letters for Rosalind to then stitch onto fabric during the workshop. ‘Sun 1st Dec, My Most precious sweetheart’ was the opening lines of the letter, which then came to life onto the fabric. Working completely from eyesight, Rosalind explained her craft and the processes involved in developing such intricate work.

‘Writing with a needle’ and bringing one of our letters to life

It was great to be able to take our Patrons to see documents from The Postal Museum interpreted in this way. Our archive is so broad and being able to integrate this with artists and craft makers is a fantastic way of sharing our collection.

A group of our Patrons engaging with Rosalind’s work

To find out more about upcoming Patron events, which include talks and visits to artist’s and designer’s studios to see the artistic process first-hand, intimate lunches and curator-led trips to other museums please visit our support page, or contact our Corporate Development Team on [email protected]

– Rhea Harvey, Development Events Officer