A Silver Thread in Every Lining…
DIVERSITY IS the name of the game for celebrated cartoonist Hunt Emerson – a living legend of the British underground comix scene, delineator of graphic novels, Beano contributor, album cover artist for The Beat and much more besides has spent some busy months this year working with the town of Walsall on its Silver Thread Tapestries Project, the results of which are about to be made public today.
From 10am to 3pm at the New Walsall Art Gallery you can view a work in progress; a series of tapestries if you will, derived from Emerson’s illustrations and depicting scenes from local history with cultural nuances particular to the town and the surrounding West Midlands.
Emerson created a series of huge 11 panels measuring 1m by 1.6m, along with colour guides, that were printed and then enhanced by Silver Threads’ assorted needle thread enthusiasts from the town and surrounding locality.
“This is a new medium for me, and the intricate, tiny stitches applied to what are pretty big designs is exciting,” commented Emerson. "Watching the work of the ladies making my drawings beautiful in coloured thread is lovely!”
To those who think stitching, sewing and the like are curious hobbies from a bygone era forget it – Shows like Sewing For Pleasure and Hobbycrafts at Birmingham’s NEC have twice-yearly attendance figures that dwarf comic conventions and popular culture shows.
Scheduled to be finished in January 2017, visitors to the New Walsall Art Gallery can admire Walsall Silver Threads’ works in progress themselves today while those further afield can keep up to date by visiting their Facebook Page.
News sponsored by Target Media.
