Wood, wire and wild stitching
October seems to have arrived at full speed:
The Autumn Exhibition has come down;
Chris Harvey has moved into the Sail Loft;
My workshop tables have reappeared;
I’ve got a new guest tutor on board;
The Christmas Shop applications are almost closed;
I’ve turned the Christmas baubles into kits.
And later this month, I’m putting my own work upstairs.
So this newsletter has quite a few different threads. Some of them literally.
Chris Harvey is back
I’m very pleased to welcome Chris Harvey back to the Sail Loft.
Chris is an old friend of NaviStitch and a previous exhibitor, and his woodturning is now upstairs until Saturday 17 October.
There’s something about woodturning that makes you want to look at a piece from every direction.
The natural grain and colour of the wood are still very much part of the finished object, but the maker introduces the form.
Curves.
Proportion.
Surface.
Shadow.
It’s completely different from having framed work on the walls, and the Sail Loft feels different because of it.
If you’re in Manningtree over the next couple of weeks, do come upstairs and have a look.
A new face at the workshop table
I’m also really pleased to be welcoming Claire Bentley Creative to NaviStitch.
Claire is a jewellery designer and craft tutor, and she’s bringing a whole new range of making to the Sail Loft, including wire flowers, jewellery, French beading and Christmas decorations.
Her first NaviStitch sessions are on Saturday 24 October.
In the morning:
Painted Wire & Beaded Flower
10.30am-1.30pm | £35
You’ll learn how to form petals and leaves from wire, add colour with paint and finish your flower with beaded details.
Then in the afternoon:
Learn to Make a Beaded Bracelet
2pm-4pm | £20
Choose from a selection of beads and learn how to construct and professionally finish your own bracelet.
Both are completely beginner friendly and all materials are included.
Claire returns on 31 October with:
Beaded Christmas Decorations, 10.30am-1.30pm | £35
followed by another:
Beaded Bracelet Workshop, 2pm-4pm | £20
There are already more Claire Bentley Creative workshops in the calendar for 2027 too, including jewellery making and traditional French beaded flowers.
You can book through the Claire Bentley Creative website.
It’s lovely to broaden what happens around the workshop table and bring another maker’s skills into the space.
My workshop table is back too
One of the nice things about the Autumn Exhibition finishing is that I’ve got my own teaching space back.
There are still several NaviStitch workshops coming up this month, including:
Coastal – 16 October
Coastal Collage – 18 October
Sew a Boat – 23 October
On the Shoreline – 25 October
followed by the festive paper-embroidery sessions.
Some sessions have already sold out, and the response to the autumn programme generally has been really encouraging.
If you fancy spending a few hours stitching, cutting, layering, drinking tea and making something with your hands, have a look at the current availability.
Baubles at home
The embroidered paper baubles have been getting such a lovely response that I’ve now turned them into kits with video tutorials.
There are four different options.
Christmas
Everything you need to make four Christmas-themed baubles.
Treasure
A set of four jewel-inspired baubles.
Coastal
Four designs with a suitably coastal NaviStitch feel.
And then there is the slightly less restrained option...
The Big Set
Everything you need to make all 12 baubles.
Each kit comes with the materials and access to video tutorials, so you can work through them at home in your own time.
They’re ideal if you can’t make it to a workshop, would rather stitch quietly at home, or are looking for a creative gift for someone else.
Although buying yourself a Christmas present in October is also perfectly acceptable.
Last call for Christmas shop walls
The response to the 6th NaviStitch Christmas pop-up shop has been fantastic.
So fantastic that table-top space is now full.
I do still have some wall space available, so if you know an artist creating giftable original artwork, or a maker producing something designed to hang, there is still a little opportunity.
Applications close this Sunday, 11 October.
We already have lots of familiar NaviStitch exhibitors coming back, alongside some new names, so it’s shaping up very nicely.
And for those of you who are customers rather than exhibitors, another date for the diary:
Christmas Pop-Up Preview Night
Friday 13 November: 4pm-8pm
Everyone is welcome.
After that, NaviStitch will be open every single day until Christmas Eve.
Yes.
Every day.
Ask me again how cheerful I am about that somewhere around 23 December!
Wild Sewing is coming upstairs
Later this month, I’ll be doing something I don’t actually do very often: I’ll be the artist exhibiting in my own gallery.
The Sam Luxford Wild Sewing Project Exhibition runs from: Wednesday 28 October to Saturday 7 November
The Wild Sewing Project is about the portability of embroidery on paper. Every piece in the exhibition was stitched somewhere unexpected. Instead of simply displaying the finished work, each piece will also have a QR code linking to a video of it being sewn in the place where it was created.
That part matters to me because the location is part of the piece. The finished embroidery is one half of the story. Where and how it was made is the other.
I’ll share much more over the next couple of weeks.
Before Wild Sewing
There is another familiar face returning to the Sail Loft first.
After Chris Harvey’s exhibition finishes, Anne Plummer will be back from 21-24 October.
So the next few weeks upstairs look like this:
🪵 Chris Harvey: 7-17th October
🎨 Anne Plummer: 21-24th October
🧵 Sam Luxford: Wild Sewing Project: 28th October-7th November
🎄 Christmas Pop-Up Preview: 13th November
It’s quite a run.
And somewhere between all of that, there are workshops, commissions, framing, cards, gifts, kits and the actual shop downstairs.
Perfectly normal.
Open this week
NaviStitch is open:
Wednesday to Saturday, 10am-4pm
Chris Harvey is currently upstairs in the Sail Loft.
Downstairs you’ll find stitched artwork, cards, gifts, books, paper embroidery kits, workshop supplies and whatever else has caught my eye lately.
Thank you, as always, for visiting, booking, buying, sharing, reading and generally encouraging me to keep finding new things to fill the building with.
Until next time...
Calm waters and plain sailing,
Sam
Comments