This falls under ‘book arts and text-based art’, so I’m including it here. It’s one of the loveliest and most wistful art pieces I’ve seen recently. It also launches me into an art rant, so be forewarned.
Irish fabric artist and writer Heather Richardson memorializes Kathleen Hutchinson, the aunt she never met, who died as a teenager in the late 1930s. Richardson’s two-year project led to research at the linen factory where Kathleen had just started working. That meant tracking down period dress and fabric patterns, crafting a mid-1940s dress of the type Kathleen would have worn for her 21st birthday…and delicately hand-stitching text expressing Kathleen’s thoughts and observations about her life.
It’s important to note that Heather Richardson wanted to approach the project with as much technical skill as possible, so she got training in text embroidery from a noted fabric artist and calligrapher.
I am a sucker for embroidered text, and I needed to read this story at this time. A swanky computerized embroidery machine is on my wish list. New, these things can go for $4000 or more. I’ve let myself get into the mindset of ‘An embroidery machine will let me sew better fiber art books faster’.
Richardson’s story reminds me that hand embroidery can be just as valid (and much more affordable to me!) My collectors like those handcrafted details. If I want to make better art, I need to focus on the fine-craft aspect, and not the timesaving technology and quick-n-easy hobby aspect of so much American embroidery.
In the States, artists like Jenny Hart get a lot of deserved credit for rescuing embroidery from the cultural thriftstore bin and making it cool in the last decade. But that largely came at the expense of tight, fine work.. The ‘hip embroidery’ movement often celebrates big threads and chunky stitches, which work up faster.
The older traditions of embroidery are breathtaking in their precision. They’re rightfully celebrated now as treasures in museums and private collections.
Ironically, that’s the same lesson I learned from beadwork and writing fantasy novels. Writing quickly to trend, or making a bunch of tiny and cheap bead pieces…never works as well in the long run as taking my time. Investing those materials and hours into something bigger and more insane. Even if I don’t have a patron, buyer, or grant to fund it.
Thank you, Heather and Kathleen for setting me back onto the fine-craft path!