Wednesday 19 November 2014

words of wisdom







I was inspired to stitch this as I wanted to elaborate on my idea of little reminders and make something more detailed, a tactile textile book of sorts. A hand stitched, handbook, a manual for life, something to treasure and keep and be sought out when needed.  It's hard to capture all the details and quotes I've included, hence so many photographs, but I hope I've given you a sense of it .... I'm already gathering ideas for a companion piece called  'words of comfort......






Thursday 6 November 2014

Trevethoe House


I spent a lovely evening on Tuesday with the ladies of  Shrewsbury Embroiderer's Guild, talking about my work and chatting to them. I took along some work to show them and this was one of the pieces I took.

I don't have a formal education in textiles, I've learned along the way over the years, and I can't remember a time when I wasn't making things. I used to regret not having studied art or textiles, feeling that it put me at a disadvantage, but I don't anymore. A lot of my work is very personal and draws on my experience of life and I don't think I'd be making the work I do now without having been on a personal and creative journey.

This piece is about a year of my life, in 2005 (although I didn't stitch this piece until later, in 2012). During this year, myself and my husband took a 'year out' from full time work to concentrate on our creative selves, after the sale of a home and a business and a long period of stress. It was during this year, and having this time to devote to my art that marked a turning point in the work I was making, when lots of different elements came together. We rented a house in a rural location, the first time I'd experienced living in the countryside, something which was to have a profound effect on my work and my creative process. The house was called Trevethoe House.