Part Three: An Introduction

Part three concentrates on working with fabric as the raw material, rather than stitch.
In other words - fabric manipulation.

The work will concentrate on activities in which stitch will be used as a means of assembling fabric pieces and holding structures together.
Shapes, colours and textures from my drawings and sketchbook work will be used as a starting point for ideas for development
Images have been created with fabric for centuries now: mending, patching, re-using, recycling.
Patchwork and embroidery have crossed the boundaries of class and culture: some may have started out of necessity - lack of money; others may have come to it as a hobby - a pleasant way of filling in their time.

The result is the same - beautiful creations that have become heirlooms over time.
Each piece with it's own story, a personal history.

I grew up at a time when it was usual, normal even, to hand down clothes to a younger child, to cut up clothes to make them into something new - now it is environmentally friendly.
Wearing your mother's old dress holds no horror any more - it's vintage clothing.
An old tea set can be up-cycled into something new and beautiful (see here)

On an entirely ironic note, about re-using and recycling, this is a quote from one of David Shrigley's work entitled "Artists talk about their work":

"I use a lot of found materials in my work. My latest piece is fifty identical pairs of children's shoes which I found in a charity shop. They're brilliant and they only cost fifty pounds"

The link to the cartoon is here, the 'all about David Shrigley' info is here.