Ann Wheeler PSG :: Kitty Mason
From Shisha to Snowflakes
Kitty and Ann have been friends for some time and both belong to the Westhope Group. Kitty is a lacemaker who enjoys extending traditional techniques in an innovative way and Ann works with textiles having a particular fascination with the qualities of paper as a fabric.
The opportunity to work alongside each other was too good to pass over, however with Ann living on the South coast and Kitty in Edinburgh it was clear that working together regularly was impractical, so that electronic communication was inevitably going to play a large part in the collaboration.
Initially a treasured textile from each of their collections was exchanged. Ann sent Kitty a colourful embroidered purse thought to be made by the Hazara in Afghanistan and Kitty sent Ann the most exquisite piece of Binche lace, with a snowflake ground, worked with thread of unbelievable fineness.
Kitty was excited by the colour and history of the purse. She researched to find, from the evidence of blue beads and shisha mirror together that it was in fact probably from the Pashtun tribe.
Ann was somewhat daunted by the fineness of the lace and lack of texture. Research showed that the decline in the production of Binche lace was due to the length of time it took to produce because of that same quality.
The setting at Bankfield encouraged both artists to work on a larger scale, Ann keeping to white, using paper and texture in contrast to explore the patterns of the lace, while Kitty explored the colours from the purse in a range of threads with the addition of blue beads and shisha to retain the historical context.
Ann has resolved her final pieces with reference to the rhythm and pattern of lacemaking in the repetition of formal visual components to produce a whole.
Kitty has explored the use of colour in the embroidery and of features thought to
protect the textile and its valuable contents against the evil eye.
The finished work not only brings together the ideas of two friends but also different times and countries.
previous – Linda Tudor : : : top : : : next – Mary Youles