Stitched: Textiles Open

4th July to 17th July

Textile art is art that uses varying materials and fibres to produce decorative, artistic objects. It's one of the oldest forms of art in history and has played a part in practical and decorative man-made objects for hundreds of thousands of years.

The South West region is home to many talented textile artists, many of whom held open studios that we were fortunate enough to visit during Dorset Arts Weeks this year.  

We were inspired by what we saw, and invited five of our favourite artists to collaborate in this exhibition, ‘Stitched’:

Aline Johnson
Primarily a talented glass artist, working on commissions with architects, interior and lighting designers, Aline has rekindled her roots in textiles and has developed her passion for cyanotype printing on textiles and paper. Aline’s range of vibrant scarves and cushions are inspired by rural Dorset.

Wendy Jump
Wendy is an artist based near Wimborne in Dorset. Her usual medium is watercolour but exploration and addition of other media, including collage, stitching and threads, often produces her best, unique pieces of art. She likes to use expressive mark making to create dynamic artworks.

We are delighted to show Wendy’s unique ‘Sunflower Reflections’ series, as well as other works and her beautiful art books.

Debby Kirby
Silk weaver Debby’s workshop is on the mezzanine at Walford Mill Crafts in Wimborne.  Her inspiration comes from many sources: architecture, skylines, colour in both nature and in the modern world. Debby has invented and perfected a method of hand weaving photographs and paintings, a wholly unique practice that has led to collaborations with a number of artists and photographers.  Three of the pieces shown here are collaborations with printmaker Robin Mackenzie.  All of the silk threads are carefully hand dyed and designed by Debby, which ensures that each woven piece is fresh and original. 

Kara Chambers
Kara’s work is intuitive and nature based, drawing directly from time spent in the Devon countryside.  The landscapes of her work are made from pre-loved textiles, some of which she has altered with dyes, paint, printing techniques and drawing pens.  Her subjects are developed from her own sketches of flora and fauna, to depict life-like representations using a selection of crewel wools and silk threads.

The pressed leaves were gathered locally and dried before stitching into the background. Kara gradually builds up the landscape in layers, hand stitching each collaged piece and adding further detail with a variety of embroidery stitches.

Amanda Graham
Dorset weaver Amanda is the maker behind ‘Lamb and Loom’.  Her clever use of colour and pattern in her scarves, baby blankets, towels, napkins and cushion covers perfectly complement the organic linens, soft alpaca wool, and bird’s eye twill she weaves.  Her scarves have been described as ‘like being cocooned in heaven’.

 Image:'Sunflowers on Green' by Wendy Jump