Page 48 - The Digital Cloth issue 2
P. 48

I spend most of my days in my little
                                                                       studio, a tiny box room in our home in
                                                                       a small village in rural Buckinghamshire.
                                                                       I like working from home. It has
                                                                       enabled me to enjoy the best of both
                                                                       worlds… bringing up a family and
                                                                       still following my passion for
                                                                       embroidery. I work at my machine for 4
                                                                       or five hours each day listening to news,

                                                                       sport and politics on the radio for
                                                                       company.  We are all fortunate these days
                                                                       to be able to easily promote our work to a
                                                                       much wider audience without ever
                                                                       leaving the house, through social media.
                                                                       I love the exchange of views and feedback
                                                                       from fellow textile artists from across the
                                                                       globe, something that artists of previous
                                                                       generations would never have had.



     comes for holidays, we are usually off to explore the             Over the years I’ve exhibited all over the
     beautiful coastline of the British Isles.                         UK, as part of prestigious textile groups
     Some of our favourite destinations include North                  and in my own right.  I’m a proud
     Devon, Pembrokeshire and the Jurassic coast.  However,            member of the Buckinghamshire
     my particular favourite is Norfolk.  The North Norfolk            Craft Guild where I exhibit and regularly
     coast has a character all of its own.  Its vast flat sandy        demonstrate my work.  I am fortunate

     beaches, the salt marshes and creeks, the gentle rolling          to have found a handful of galleries that
     countryside, the huge panoramic skies all give Norfolk            regularly exhibit my work and keep me,
     a very particular character, which I love and skies have          and my lovely old Bernina, very busy and
     become one of my favourite subjects.  I try to capture a          very happy.
     snapshot in time, describing the energy and
     movement of unseen forces. I also love the long, deep
     winding creeks in the marshes, hiding little boats whose
     tall masts seem to mark their positions like pins in a

     map.  Sometimes the little vessels are stranded and
     abandoned only to be taken back into the marshes
     gradually by nature; a process, which over time creates
     structural sculptures of decaying wood in the landscape.
     The fading colours of the once brightly painted boats
     blend back into the marshes with the patina of time and
     tide imprinted upon them.
     I work on a Bernina 801, a gift from my Grandmother
     when I was about 15, which has worked at least as hard
     as I have over the years and is feeling her age now. It’s
     probably time to start thinking about replacing her but
     she feels like an extension of me and we have such an

     understanding that I am loathed to move on.
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