"A dozen or so pebbles arranged on a picnic-rug square acorn
cups, oak leaf saucers and petal plates weighted down with delicious morsels
of snailshell and seeds, set neatly for fairy tea: one of my earliest memories
of a creative childhood.
Out of doors was my favourite place to be. Playtime inside only appealed
on rainy days, when fairy tea parties had to be postponed, when pine needles
were to damp to 'sew' with, and camps in trees too bedraggled to be homely.
My love of the outdoors was encouraged by patient parents and grandparents, their own love of nature influencing my understanding and appreciation of it. Grandma would spend ours looking for tree men in the knots and furrows of wood and making special expeditions to visit spots where we were sure that we had seen fairies. This love of the outdoors and fascination with cloth of nature has grown with me and now finds its expression in my work as an Artist.
I studied at Loughborough College of Art & Design where, with excellent guidance from tutor Margaret Hall Townley, I was encouraged to express the fascination with nature born of my childhood. I was encouraged to 'play' with fibres with no preconceived idea of technique. A personal understanding of textile media developed and, with it, technique, not learned but natural and immediate to myself, enabling me to work intuitively.
I discovered fibres to be an exciting medium akin to the cloth of nature.
Woven and bonded cloth spun threads, a multiplicity of fibre types with
different responses to stitch, dye and manipulation-a tremendous resource
for artistic interpretation. I could create toadstools and stand them in
fairy rings, stitch my grimacing little woodsmen, make them a tree, translate
the fragility of a butterfly's wing. I continue to discover new in which
textiles respond, ways in which to interpret ideas and bring my imagination
to life.
At present I work largely with silk, which has a wonderful affinity with
dye, enabling me to achieve subtler hues and tones of colour. I enjoy sparing
use of synthetics for their translucency and for their texture when heat-distorted,
as with bubbled organza. Interpreting reflective qualities often calls
for snippets of metal-weave fabric, and gold and silver threads. I also
enjoy incorporating semi-precious stones, fragments of shell and iridescent
feather.
Space and freedom of movement are so vital to nature and therefore important
considerations as I work. Many pieces are suspended quite literally in
space from rods within carefully designed Perspex cases. They are often
composed of several sheer, cut-away layers hanging together with some distance
between each, Each layer is worked in such a way as to be glimpsed through
the next. I prefer to work by hand, slowly evolving each piece rather than
bounding on towards the finish, adapting ideas and changing my image of
what this 'finish' should be. Tiny stab stitches are favourite; to hold
fragments of fabric invisibly together or to couch threads across the surface
of a piece. The unassuming stab stitch is of infinite value to me: veining
leaves, defining the pattern of a butterfly's wing, or laying down the
metallic armour of a beetle.
I do use the machine to create delicate lacy cloths, stitching fine silk and
metallic threads over dissolvable fabric, often incorporating semi-precious
stone and fabric fragments as I work. I have more recently been weaving
and knotting threads together by hand, producing even finer 'single thread'
lace to incorporate onto my work.
The delicacy of nature so often inspires me. This delicacy does however needs
support, achieved by stitching inconspicuously into place. For example,
a wire behind a butterfly's wing enables me to lift it away from the surface
of the embroidery and 'into life'. Wiring also enables manipulation. For
example, the veins of a leaf, once wired, enable that leaf to hold its
shape when crumpled or twisted. Silk-bound wires, from the finest electrical
wire, are used throughout my work to interpret roots, stems and even pine
needles I 'stitched' with as a child.
Although I work intuitively, I study my subjects carefully in the field,
sketching, photographing and collecting specimens as well as referring
to natural
history textbooks. However, I rarely make plans for a piece in its entirety.
The strongest images of my finished work lie in my mind rather than on
paper."
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photos by Jane E Hall:
swans
Six Spot Burnet Moth
Hawker dragonfly