Page 87 - The Digital Cloth Holiday issue 2

The ancient sites of Stonehenge and
Avebury leave a deep imprint on your soul.
It’s not just the marvel of their construction,
it’s the sheer spirituality of the landscape
and stones and their importance to our
ancestors which call me back time after
time.

They have captured the imagination of
generations of creatives – Paul Nash and
John Piper both created images of Avebury,
while John Betjeman wrote poetry. John
Constable painted Stonehenge in 1835 and
Thomas Hardy called it, ‘the very temple of
the winds,’ in his novel Tess of the
D’Urbervilles.

As a textile and mixed media artist I am
lucky enough to live near both and I
continue to be inspired by this raw, open

landscape, the historic lives and creatures
that inhabit it. I am drawn to the moon,
dark ancient trees, hares and crows. They
feature repeatedly in my work as does the
coast of Suffolk, often bleak, windswept
and flat with grand churches standing on its
marshes and tales of black dogs.

I come from a long line of stitchery. One
aunt could turn sheets and curtains into the
finest theatrical costumes, while another
was offered an atelier apprenticeship at 14
years old - sadly my grandfather refused to
let her go – but she kept sewing. My
mother, the baby of the family, was also a
fine seamstress, and I even have some
napkins embroidered by my grandfather
when he was recovering from tuberculosis,
so it seemed likely that I would inherit some
sewing genes.

As far as embroidery and textiles are
Among the Stones and Crows concerned, I honed my skills on the City
and Guilds program while living in
Suffolk, but I often found the need for
By Sarah Maddison endless samples stifling – it was the same