6 tips for building a better creative practice At the beginning of every January you make the resolution. “This will be the year I finally take time for me. For my textile practice. For my creativity.” And you start off with a renewed sense of excitement. You’re itching to pick…
And how a system can sustain your process I hope it works! I hope this piece is the one! I hope my personal visual identity will emerge this time! Isn’t hope marvellous? It’s that thing that gets you fired up at the inception of a new idea. The anticipation of…
I don’t like buying shoes online. That may seem like a bizarre way to open an article about textile art but stick with me. Looking at pictures on a website, you can get a pretty good idea of the tone of the leather, the height of the heel, the detail of the stitching….
Are you one of those textile artists who has constant creative epiphanies? When one artwork is complete, the muse magically appears to deliver a fully formed concept or design for the next. And does that ‘divine intervention’ stay strong and true as you sail through the making process? As you…
This is the story of Janie. Janie has just celebrated her 57th birthday. She’s an ‘aspiring’ textile artist. ‘Aspiring’ because she tends to ‘look’ rather than ‘do’. She spends hours browsing textile art online and ends up beating herself up for not being as skilled as the ‘professionals’. She’s filled with insecurities about…
appliqué |əˈpliːkeɪ| noun decorative work in which one piece of cloth is sewn or fixed onto another What do you think when you hear the word ‘appliqué’? The dictionary definition doesn’t quite do it for me. I guess, in the most basic terms, it’s accurate. But appliqué is so much…
A fable Once upon a time there lived a mother and a daughter. The mother loved textiles but hardly found time for her passion. She was too busy looking after her family and holding down a job. The daughter loved textiles too – she’d inherited that from her mother. One…
Think of a piece of textile art you admire. Really see it in your mind’s eye. Picture the intricacy of the textures. The complexity of the patterns. Do you feel daunted? Unable to fathom how to start building such beautiful textural effects? Such mesmerising areas of pattern? Take a deep breath and…
A rich inspirational seed. A seed that was planted when you were taught to sew. A seed that has persisted… but not quite blossomed? Maybe your love of textiles is stronger than ever, but creatively you still feel you’ve got a long way to go? Perhaps you struggle to bring your artistic vision…
How to get started and build a regular disciplined practice This is it. No excuses. Today is the day you start work on that idea that’s been brewing away for months! So you gather your fabrics. You gather your threads. You grab your pins and your needles and…and…and… And then…
