Cotton and silk thread on cotton work glove

A number of threads run through my practice – work in ceramics, textiles, with found objects, and sculptural installation. I also work between spaces: a city house and studio, a place in the country, and on the road.

The strand most clearly reflecting this creative mobility within my practice has been the reworking of found or gifted gloves. Here, I’ve recently focused on the glove as a support for embroidery, constructing a narrative moment from the intersection of stitched image and the worn fabric of the glove.

This work uses gloves saved from a neighbour’s farm, which now carry embroidered portraits of their goats. In this context I see the work of embroidery in a similar way to sketching, aiming for an immediacy of image and stitch, rather than formal regularity – a kind of field work. It’s work which emphasises the honest variability of a craft approach to making – like the goat’s cheese made on the farm.

As I travel up and down the Calder Freeway, stitching away in the passenger seat, the delicate produce from the ‘Holy Goats’ travels the same road into the city to the ever popular farmers markets, where city briefly meets country on Saturday mornings.

 

Tags: between spaces, farming, found objects, textiles, travel