Detail from my beautiful bedspread I found at the lovely Gilded Lily Totnes, Devon.

Sera Waters

Australian artist, teacher and writer Sera Waters draws inspiration from the uglier, shocking side of life. After her studies, she received a grant which enabled her to attend the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace, where she furthered her embroidery skills. 

 

 Butchering : Meat Series 2009 

thread, felt, sequins, beads, cotton on linen (260 x 220 mm each)

 Much of her current work uses traditional embroidery techniques.  Black-work with its meticulous repetitive patterns gives light and shade to her chosen subject in the Butchering series. 

cross stitch sugar skull

I went for a meal round a good friend of mine recently, sitting in her loo I was met by dozen kitsch fantastic plastic Virgin Mary's, a dozen shades of tacky.

I've just started painstakingly copying out a cross stitched stag head from a vintage shirt I bought at Wolf & Gypsy in the Brighton a few years back. But the 3 shades of brown got me pinning for something a little more colourful.

This will be a challenge...

Mexican Sugar Skull cross stitch pattern from PaperSilor on etsy

minty knitting

Got some knitting yarn recently from John Lewis... don't know what to do with it though.

Luminous threads and mark making

There is something that excites me about fluorescent colours, none more so when its an accent in something fragile like textiles, as oppose to the luminous nature of a retro plastic visor or this new trend for eye popping neon satchels. Which, don't get me wrong now I L.O.V.E!

When it comes to 2D work, I prefer restraint in the use colour. Take Claire Heathcote's large scale embroidered portraits. Worked by hand with a combination of applique, screen printing and machine embroidery technics, alongside a selective colour palette, Heatcote's use of pattern and dynamic composition culminate in a bold, confident style. The stylised details of the sitters' clothing and hair is something I'm specifically drawn to. As individual components they can be seen as quite abstract, but viewed as a whole, the texture gives depth and a tactile quality, which provides something more tangible for the viewer to relate to.

Hannah, 2005-06, hand stitched and machine embroidered, applqiue and screen print (130 x 110 cm)

'I think it has a calm, thoughtful quality with a feeling that my subjects are caught mid-motion and I think the use of thread tends to lend the work this transitory effect that perhaps a line drawing or painting might not possess to the same extent.'

Portrait of the Artist by Sue Pricahrd - Embroidery May/June 2007 (pg. 23)

David, 2005, hand stitched on felt (90 x 76 cm)

I find the contrast between blocks of colour, repeatative kinetic pattern and bare fabric so satisfying.

Another contemporary practitioner whose work shows great exploration whilst staying true to their own visual discernment is that of Helen Carnac a maker, curator and academic who works in metal, with a preoccupation for pattern, and mark making, together with process lead experimentation.


Carnac has a strong appreciation for material qualities, this is clear by her working process. Carnac also draws influence from her imediate urban and natural environment.

Some of my favourite pieces show thread being Incorporated into enameled metal together with these examples of her paper Marquette's with stitched details, and cut outs.

Cluster 3 brooch

Trade Secrets Episode 2: Helen Carnac on approaches to practice from Artquest London on Vimeo.

linen envy

Working in the Linens section at a department store, being a lover of textiles & surface print, and mad for colour, it's becoming hard not to spend my pay cheque on our own products.

This Australian company Kas have some really punchy designs and they're youthful unlike some of the fussier florals we stock from the longer standing brands. The strip of machine embroidery running off centre caught my eye, that and the pintuck detailing used to balance it out. Gonna get me some fuchsia pink indian cotton to make a quilted bed runner from - I like it loud.

santa baby, just one more little thing...

This Christmas I rekindled a somewhat dormant passion for dressmaking, after doing a bit of a Gok with a sequined bolero from H&M and a beaded neck piece my mum had tucked away in her bits-draw. So, with the encouragement of a close friend, who I will refer to as the eBay queen, I'm going to make a kind of New Year's resolution to buy less from the highroad and haunt Brighton's vintage and charity shops more. I might even challenge my time with a few old Vogue patterns. But, first things first, I need a dressmakers dummy.

I also like to knit.

I also like to knit. I find when I work in textiles, I can allow myself to get a bit "cute". It's good to be girly sometimes!