Page 67 - The Digital Cloth Holiday issue 2

I had seen some posts online of people
thread painting with sewing machines so
I bought myself a budget sewing machine
and gave it a go. I was immediately hooked!
It was such a lightbulb moment for me and it
opened up a wave of possibilities.
I started making Animal portraits combining
techniques such as applique and needle
felting and overlaid them with free motion
embroidery. The process was so interesting
and I learned more from each piece I made.
Thread painting is an extremely technical
artform and it’s great to see it getting more
recognition. I love the challenge of capturing
an animal in my work and bringing it to life.
Over the past few months, I have been
making larger Art quilts focusing on animals
that are endangered or extinct here in
Ireland. I think it’s really important to try and
create awareness of conservation through
our work. We are so privileged to live on
such a beautiful planet surrounded by
fascinating creatures. I want to do
everything I can to highlight that. I have
been trying to implement the idea of reduce,
reuse, recycle into my work too. I keep
every scrap and selvedges of fabric and
often sew them all together to form the base
of a piece. I’ve also been experimenting with
using more unusual materials in my work to
highlight conservation and
environmental problems. I’ve been melting
and sewing non-recyclable plastic pack-
aging into my pieces and making a series
of pieces based on the problem of plastic
pollution and its impact on nature.

As well as making animal portraits I am still
drawn to the beauty of the Irish landscape.
Ireland has the craziest climate, it rains 90%
of the time, and if it’s not cold its damp, but
we have the most beautiful skies and
dramatic coastlines.
I love to capture these in thread. weaving
metallic threads with Angelina fibre’s and
blues to create angry oceans and layering
dyed Irish sheep’s wool to capture those
ever-changing skylines.
My studio is heaving with work in progress
pieces and I have sketchbooks full of
ideas. If you were to ask me what’s the
worst thing about being a textile artist, I’d
have to say it’s not knowing when to stop :)
I’m quite simply addicted to it!! and I couldn’t
be happier.