Textile artist Karen Nicol was initially reluctant about becoming an embroiderer, which seemed unfashionable at the time, but has developed a hugely diverse career and works in gallery, fashion and interiors from her London-based studio.
Karen specialises in a variety of embroidery techniques including Irish, Cornelly, Multihead, beading and hand stitch, making complex layered and stitched decorative works.
Discover how being a ‘magpie’ has informed and influenced her, and come and enjoy her fascinating body of work.
A baptism of fire
What was your route to becoming a mixed media textile artist?
Karen Nicol: My mother and sister were both embroiderers. My mother stitched and painted and demonstrated flower arranging and is a Master in Ikebana and my sister went to MMU to study for a degree in Embroidery.
My mother taught us all the basics from square one; at the age of 14 she made us both a dress pattern block and said that she would buy us any fabric from the local market but no more clothes. This was baptism of fire, but brilliant.
At that age I had no fear. I would blithely swan around town in dresses held together with a bit of sewing but also staples and tape, and with large white swathes of fabric down the back because it was from the end of a roll of printing (this was the part of the fabric that had been sellotaped to the edge of the print table).
My father was a coal man but with the mind of an engineer; constantly designing and creating Heath Robinson-type innovative contraptions.
I desperately wanted to do something with more street-cred than embroidery, perhaps aiming to be a fine artist, painter or sculptor. Ultimately, I just couldn’t ignore the versatility and diversity of textiles as a medium.
I completed a BA (Hons) specialising in embroidery at Manchester Metropolitan University and then studied for an MA at the Royal College of Art.
Tell us about your techniques…
I use all sorts of techniques and any materials, whatever suits what I am trying to say. Everything used is with the utmost irreverence. I suppose my ‘chosen technique’ is loosely to push the manipulation of materials and stitch as far as I can.
I was fortunate enough to be taught all the traditional techniques from aemilia ars (needle lace) to trapunto and beyond. All of these techniques provide the most brilliant vocabulary to explore, explode and develop. My most used ‘tool’ is my Irish machine.
Countless different projects
You also work in fashion and interiors. Tell us more…
Designing embroidery commercially for fashion and interiors is quite focused on cost; the Holy Grail for both is to find a way of working that is quick to do but looks expensive, and I try to design things I can do the production of here rather than it going overseas. It’s useless creating a tiny time-consuming ornate embroidery cuff which you can’t see on a catwalk and prices the garment out of the market.
Another important consideration is that you must be flexible and versatile and enjoy the challenge of having to work in different styles and on countless different projects at once. I enjoy having to try to be constantly innovative.
Of course, in both fashion and interiors work the practicality and ability to clean the item have to be considerations, whereas with gallery work I do not have those restrictions.
Couture creatures
How would you describe your work?
I create ‘couture creatures’ – I use my animals to explore the the interesting dichotomy of man wearing animal skins and animals ‘clothed ‘ in skins inspired by human culture.
Tell us a bit about your process and what environment you like to work in?
My process changes depending on the work. I like to draw and experiment with materials then I tend to just jump in and start. The animals I draw first on tracing paper (so I have the reverse image if I am using a fusible like Bondaweb). Then I transfer the drawing to a large piece of fabric (the bears are about 2 metres tall and the monkey is nearly a metre). Then I begin to work, always trying to push the possibilities a bit.
I have a studio in my home in Hampton Court. My husband, artist Peter Clark, and I have taken over two floors for studios and showrooms. My studio is a really brilliant room with fantastic lighting and all my machines and materials and braids and beads etc to hand.
I work quite long hours (although not nearly as long as I used to when I worked in fashion) and usually 7 days a week. I’m extremely happy doing it. My mind is plotting and planning something to do with work most of the time. We walk down to Hampton Court Palace daily.
I also teach. I was senior lecturer on the mixed media course at the RCA for 15 years. Now I visit different art colleges to give lectures, which I love doing.
A magpie manner
What inspires your work?
The range of subjects I find inspirational is enormous. I carry a notebook and camera everywhere with me and I make images of everything that is visually stimulating for me. This isn’t always to inspire what I’m involved with at the time, but for the future, too.
It might be anything, from a roughly painted gate to the seam on the coat of someone sitting in front of me. I adore museums, art galleries, magazines, films and street style.
I also have a passion (or a problem!) with inspirational finds from car boot sales where I collect, again in quite a magpie manner, anything that inspires either in shape or quality or texture or technique. My book Embellished: New Vintage covers all this side of things.
At one point I was looking at cut glass, as I wanted to make a monkey artwork inspired by cut glass, exploring embroidery on plastics with transparent yarns.
Sculpture & wallpaper
How has your work developed?
My work has changed direction many times. Any freelance embroiderer earning a living from their work needs to stay focused on market trends. I am constantly learning, and the more I do, the more ideas I have.
But the basis of my work is still the same, always starting with a drawing.
I have explored many materials and developed many ways of working that I haven’t seen before and so that is exciting.
Do people commission your work?
People do commission my work and we just talk through what they want and what I can do. I have huge archives of work and portfolios of different possibilities. It’s no different from taking on a fashion or interiors project.
Commissions become an exciting collaboration where two minds meet to create something which is beyond either individual.
How do you choose where to show your work?
I show with the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London W1. She has two galleries in London and one in New York where I had a show in November 2012.
The gallery also travels the world showing the work in art fairs. I have shown in Paris and London, Hong Kong, New York and Toronto.
Artist website: karennicol.com
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