The year in review: 2019

How was 2019 for me? A bit of a mixed bag. Early in the year, I finished my Pope Francis gothic goldwork embroidery. He was one of the stars during my first solo-exhibition in Roßhaupten in August and in the exhibition organised by the Society for Embroidered Work in London in November. At the same time, I had to stomach the fact that I cannot be recognised as an artist in Germany since my medium is embroidery. And embroidery is a craft, not an art. Basta! Not deterred, I started my new art-embroidery: "On the shores of St. Nick".

Fortunately, I was able to travel a bit to see some spectacular embroidery up close. First up was my trip to Cheb in the Czech Republic to see the famous beaded Egerer Antependium made in the 14th century. I and my husband also visited the Schwalm Museum to see exquisite whitework embroidery and the Dommuseum in Fulda to see spectacular goldwork embroidery on vestments. And we went to Paris to see life-sized goldwork embroideries from Romania in the Louvre Museum. But my best trip was to Trento in Italy to see a temporary exhibition on Gothic and Renaissance embroidered vestments.

Late 2018, I took the plunge and developed four online embroidery courses: crewel embroidery, goldwork embroidery, Schwalm embroidery and Apenzeller fine whitework. They were never popular. Although the few people who signed up for them were very pleased with the products. Unfortunately, I sold so few, that it didn't even cover the expenses for the video hosting platform. I decided to stop offering them before my contract with the video hosting company was up for renewal.

Six students from Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland came to do a five-day embroidery course at my studio in Bad Bayersoien. Another four joined me for a workshop. We had great fun and some spectacular pieces were produced. They all have plans to return in 2020! For those of you living too far away to join me in my studio, I've started to develop new embroidery kits. Something I definitely want to expand in 2020.

What will 2020 bring? More teaching opportunities. It has proven to be very difficult to get potential students to come to my beautiful corner of the world. Although I have Munich airport within easy reach, accommodation is good and cheap and my teaching fees reasonable, students just don't come. I am therefore very pleased to be able to meet many more new students at the Stratford-upon-Avon retreat by the Crewelwork Company in March and the retreat at the Alpine Experience in September. I will also offer embroidery workshops for children and adults at my local open-air museum "Glentleiten" next year.

And I'll kick-off the New Year with travelling to see and study goldwork embroidery. You'll read all about those adventures in my first blog post of 2020! Happy New Year to you all and thank you for your support in 2019. Much appreciated!