Textile Study Group blog

As we  try to navigate this uncertain period , we each find our own pathway. For some the extended time has given rise to creative endeavours, for others it may have come with increased stress and anxiety.   As artists our need to learn, share and grow will always  be important, along with being part of a community and  knowing we are not alone on this path.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and interest in reading our artists interviews.

Janet Edmonds

During  this project have you looked at a new way of working ?
My theme for ‘Insights’ remains largely the same as it has been for many years. I have always collected stones and pebbles and other items carried by the sea onto the beach as it invites thoughts about the processes by which they have arrived in that place and what enabled the erosion of their form and surface. The central focus of my practice is making and building in response to worn and eroded surfaces on dimensional objects, beginning with drawing to familiarise myself with the proportions, dimensions, shape and quality of the object.

I have been working with a fragile skeleton of a small piece of plant material that has inspired a collection of stitched forms, exploring crochet as a different method of construction. I am trying to capture the delicate, fragile nature of the structure with its quiet colour, whilst trying to say something about the unknown journey that brought it to rest on that beach.

Working with a small crochet hook allows me to construct in the round, backwards and forwards, up and down, to create the form. I then have a firm object upon which to add various appendages and surface texture using stitch. I aim to make a form using just thread that will be self supporting without the need to employ strengthening materials.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?
Although I am inspired by the whole process, there are two stages that I really enjoy. Firstly, I like drawing because not only is it a learning process but I like the feel of the pen or pencil in my hand and the sound and feel of the tool on the paper surface. When using ink or paint I like to see the flow of the wet medium reacting to the paper. Whether it is a loose expressive drawing or a detailed observation of an object, I enjoy the discipline of reproducing what I see on a two dimensional surface.

Secondly, I do like to get to the point where I can sit and stitch. Stitching can be a meditative process, when the creative decisions have been made and serious making can begin. The repetitive action of drawing thread through cloth is a deeply satisfying activity and to see a project slowly emerge towards completion is rewarding.

This week our  interview is with Jean Draper, her words are rather pertinent given our current situation.  Talk of  empty spaces, protection , social justice and barriers, a reflection of  society at the moment.

Jean Draper 

Are the ideas/themes for this project ongoing or are they new ?
Working towards ‘Insights’ was no exception to my usual way of working as it was my aim to show honestly how I work, rather than making one piece for the book and the exhibitions. For many years my source of inspiration has been landscape, usually barren and rather harsh areas where ‘the bones’, or structure, of the land is very evident. Whilst my source has remained similar, the work has changed and evolved as I have gradually developed ideas and different ways of seeing. A thematic way of working has huge advantages as it allows for absorption in the subject matter and the development of related ideas from one piece to the next. In the particular landscapes that ‘speak’ to me, with their huge, seemingly empty spaces, there is much to be found – many overlooked features – if one looks closely. In the past details of rock textures, crevices and cracks in rock and earth surfaces have been of great interest. More recently I have been paying attention to elements such as thorns and overlaying, dense, often dried plant forms, which seem to me to signify both protection and obstruction and can, sometimes, be quite menacing. Forms such as these, much simplified in my work, have become a metaphor for other issues of social justice that have concerned me for a long time and continue to prey on my mind. Many peoples’ lives are deeply affected by barriers and restrictions of many kinds which prevent them progressing, attaining and living a decent lifestyle. I had already begun to experiment with work made from layers of hand-stitched meshes, and now continue to develop these ideas, trying further to express my thoughts about barriers to progress and the restraints that many people experience in life.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?
I do not have a favourite part of the process of making. The whole creative process is important to me and occupies both my thoughts and activities each day. My research consists of reading, listening, making notes and drawing. My sketchbooks, a very important part of my work process, are a mix of drawing (both sustained and quick sketches) notes, and lists of ideas. I find it essential to have notes and drawings together to enable me to remember a moment, or to look back and regather momentum with particular ideas. Sampling different methods and with various materials in order to express my ideas, is another vital part of the process before I finally begin to make a finished piece.

I try to keep ‘finished’ work as flexible as possible for as long as I can, cutting, subtracting, adding, evaluating until I am reasonably satisfied. But I am never totally pleased with the results of what may be many hours of work, and see each piece as part of my development, a stepping stone to the next one.   

Over the last two months we have posted seven artists interviews, how times have changed since our first one in February . Today we are in conversation with Rose Campbell.

Rose Campbell

I am really looking forward to the exhibition at the Festival of Quilts where our Insight project will be on show.  It has proved to be very different project to anything I have done previously.

I’m used to writing to support narrative within my textile pieces.  I’ve had work publicised and written personal statements but this project was in a different league. My kind of writing is more to do with calligraphy although I am no expert, I’m rather fond of incorporating text within my work.

I’ve been asked  before on more than one occasion by students ‘Why don’t you write a book?’ and the answer has always been ‘No, not my scene’ but here I am, having written ‘a chapter,’ thanks to the major challenge set by the TSG .  It took me quite sometime to get my head around it. I won’t say more…it’s in the book! In the end I think I got there but I feel much more comfortable articulating visually rather than literally.

One of my latest pieces is inspired by the naturalist John Muir and his quote ‘Into the Forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul. It’s reflective piece, making use of mirrors to create shadow and mystery and is a follow on from my work connected to Glentress Forest. The initial work was inspired by the activities related to the forest and will be on show when we launch our book in Birmingham. The follow up smaller pieces use print incorporating branches from the forest itself. I flatten them by soaking them in the bath, dry them, paint them and wrap them. I personally love walking in a forest but it is easy to loose my sense of direction and so can have a darker side to it as well.

The Textile Study Group is a fantastic group to be a member of, lots of challenges, encouragement and friendship aplenty.

Isolation is the experience of being separated from others, either physically or emotionally.  Through our posts, we hope our small contribution of sharing our working practice allows us to  strengthen the sense of community. Hopefully the insights of our artists, will inspire you to continue creating or even maybe even start. This week we  bring you another revealing interview from member Sheila Mortlake.

Sheila Mortlock 

Are the ideas/themes for this project ongoing or are they new ?
During the beautiful summer of 2018 whenever I was out in the local countryside I spent time as I walked observing those areas at the edges of fields that mark the boundary between the cultivated and uncultivated, edge lands. However, it was a holiday that year to a much loved and area of enormous personal significance in the North West Highlands of Scotland that the idea for my project crystallised when I became aware of the boundary markers that set out the divisions between individual crofts. First visited as a child many years ago, the area at the time of our earliest holidays was predominantly Gaelic speaking; a community of crofts, small arable holdings that relied on sheep and fishing. The historical element of this project was important from the start as I investigated the issues surrounding the Crofting Acts of 1886 and 1919 when many of these boundaries were created. This body of work was inspired by the place, imbued with many happy memories of long ago and hopefully reflects something of the culture and heritage of a remote part of Scotland.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?
Had I not gone to art college I would have studied history. It is an interest that finds its way into all my work and so the early stages of any new project are always filled with days of investigation and reading, visiting and observing, an immersive process that will inform the textile work that evolves. I feel that a depth of knowledge of the subject is a critical part of my work’s development. For this project, after our 2018 holiday I visited the Highland Archive Centre in Inverness and had access to documents relating to the specific area around the time of the 1886 Crofting Act which for the first time gave security of tenure to the tenants. However, I also looked back at old photographs taken by my father in the 60s and 70s to back up my sketchbook work and the photographs I had taken to develop ideas. However the landscape in all its colours and textures were also important inspirations including the range of seaweed colours, grasses, rusty corrugated iron sheds and the rocks, the fabric of the landscape.  As I have worked into the textiles for this body of work I have drawn on techniques and design developments that explore the mark making possibilities in the subject and it has been important to retain the freedom of the marks achieved on paper, interpreting them on fabric and in stitch while exploring the fragility of fabric as a metaphor for the fragility of that way of life, the heritage of the crofts.