Narrative and textile art work exceptionally well together.

Creative repair or visible mending is the art of repairing clothing with the intention of the repair being seen. It's good for the plant, saves money and means you'll have clothes that you'll wear time and time again.

the process of spinning fleece

Most of us have snippets of fabrics in our stash that are too small to use for projects but too precious to throw away. Rather than leave them in a drawer they can be used in many meaningful ways.

Preparing sheep fleece for spinning through combing.

samples of textured textiles There are so many ways to add texture to textile artwork and embroidery, as can be be seen in the video...

In May my solo exhibition Identity shows at Bottleworks in Newcastle. The exhibition explores the themes of identity and personality through emboidery and textiles. Stitch is the act of piecing things together; and through it, I piece together thoughts on identity and personality. The exhibition asks why we change our personality in different situations, and whether this is always for justifiable reasons. Just as the artworks are stitched together, the viewer pieces together

Applique is a textile technique in which smaller pieces of fabric are sewn or adhered to a larger piece of fabric to create a pattern, picture or similar. Applique is ideal for using up small snippets of fabric, to personalise textiles and as a creative repair or visible mending technique. There are many types of applique including reverse, raw edge, smooth edge and needle turn applique. This blog post covers how to create raw edge applique and smooth edge applique. This refe

Boro Boro, or Boro Embroidery is a Japanese embroidery technique, derived from necessity rather than for artistic pursuit. Boro Boro translated means tattered or repaired. The Boro technique is quite simple, yet beautifully effective and involves layering scraps of fabric and working a running stitch over them. Boro was developed from hard economic times and was a way of making clothing and other textiles last longer. The layering of fabrics gave the added benefit of warmth.

That's not an easy question to answer as every artist is different; some work as a full time artist and some have other jobs. Each artist has their own way of working. Some artists have help to do tasks such as admin and marketing and others do everything themselves. Whatever the individual artist's situation, one thing is for sure it's not spending all day everyday creating artwork! There will inevitably be tasks like applying for events, sending emails and more that only th

Values and making artwork that aligns with those values is very fulfilling, but not always easy to do. Sometimes those values that are very important mean that you have to turn down work or a commission or that you can't use the latest new thing or invention that is all over social media. We all have values and they are different for each person; some people may feel it is important to be sustainable whereas others find this less important. We may have similar values, but how

Research based arts practice is a term that is heard often, but what exactly does it mean?

Embroidery on unusual materials adds interest and meaning to textile artwork. Paper stitching, embroidery on balsa wood and metal.

Traditional Tudor blackwork embroidery as part of PhD research into experiences of recreating embroidered collections.

As a textile artist, I am inspired by hidden stories and memories, protecting and honouring them through stitch. I explore relationships not only with others, but also the wider world. My work is conceptual, and research based – I love looking for and using quirky, often overlooked facts. All of my artwork begins with research; it is fundamental to my art practice and often provides the meaning behind my work. Research can be gathered in many forms – I may research online, l