Page 11 - The Digital Cloth Issue 7

and free-motion machine embroidered with
images of the day-to-day horrors of trench warfare.
Although the images are WW1, I feel this piece
is timeless, the war to end all wars was not, yet the
sufferings of those involved in conflict still remains
the same. Trauma can become an invisible
punishment, causing continued suffering and
mental health issues such as PTSD, with all its
associated consequences.

Whether creating a background or the subject of
the piece, I like to work on silk or cotton, which
I paint first with watercolour or acrylic to give me
a base colour and a reference for light and shade,
then stitch intensively with free-motion machine
embroidery, (See ‘Marginal’ hare in meadow, both
threatened in the UK). Mine is a single needle
machine, so I build up quite a relationship with the
work over the period of stitching.