Page 92 - The Digital Cloth Issue 3

The ocean has always been a source of For me creativity is a means of living.
inspiration. The vast expanse of water The ability to transfer memories and
for as far as the eye can see, the waves imagination with paper, thread and
crashing on the shore mingling with cloth enriches life. When creating work,
the shells and pebbles fascinates me. I rarely know where the process will
The mysterious world of the sea bed take me. Often projects are started and
and the amazing creatures that make it left with ideas to incubate to be
their home. In particular, the seahorse. finished months or years later.
Their curly tails and fragile beauty Occasionally I can have a prolific period
encapsulate me. Over the years I have where something is started and
created a large body of work aiming to finished relatively quickly. I find the
capture this, including embroideries, process to be the most enjoyable
lino and screen prints but more aspect, where the journey can be more
recently I have experimented with interesting than the destination with
etchings. I have enjoyed the the twists and turns make it exciting.
versatility of this technique enabling The unpredictability is my favourite
me to reproduce a delicately drawn part.
image on a variety of materials to play
with different surfaces and I hope that from viewing my work
compositions. Always trying to push others will be inspired to experiment,
myself out of my comfort zone, I like test and enjoy the capabilities of art
to take on projects that embrace new textiles.
materials. For example, the Lutradur
underwater landscape. With this
partly whimsical scene, I hoped to
bring attention to the bleaching of the
bright coral which are the
habitats for many creatures, including
the seahorse. The essence of the
process of heating the Lutrador
causing holes and a skeleton-like
texture reflects this fragility of the coral
and the seahorse itself.
For this piece, painted Lutradur has
been embroidered with colourful
patterns to reflect the coral. To add
depth, layers of free motion stitched
Romeo Aquafilm trapping fleece and
sari waste have been added to create
the habitat of the etched and
embroidered seahorse. When
making the seahorse, etching was used
to transfer the drawing onto the
Lutradur. Although the image wasn’t
clear, it provided a guideline for the
free motion stitching. The use of colour
helps to suggest distance in the piece
with the brighter corals in the
foreground fading to the bleached
Ruth
shapes further away.