Below the Surface

Artist Statement

Textile embroidery for the artist was honed while studying the City and Guilds Diploma in Textiles (Embroidery) and other workshops particularly at Wet and Wild with Committed to Cloth (now closed). The latter allowed experimentation in many printing and dyeing techniques as well as paper lamination.

Below the Surface is based on a digital print on cotton linen of a photograph of a rock pool where kelp had been caught as the tide receded. The patterns created by the kelp are emphasised by running stitch resulting in a textured surface. A print of the same image was paper laminated onto fine organza with the resulting fabric image attached to the cotton linen over the initial embroidery using running stitches.

The photographic image was printed onto cotton linen then mounted on thin cotton wadding over a fine cotton backing. The running stitches use fine linen thread or three strands of stranded cotton following the lines created by the layers of kelp.