Inspirations

Recent Discoveries

Richard Saja - his 'historically inaccurate Toile de Jouy is funny and uplifting. Read an Etsy Blog interview.

Wen Redmond - lovely montages and constructed pieces

Lemarié, Lesage and Atelier Haute Couture Chanel (video) creating the collection 'Le Savoir Faire' for the spring-summer season 2013 - showing a variety of techniques.

Chanel Review, a retrospective (video) - more amazingness from Chanel with just a few quick snippets of thier techniques.

The Swelle's Life Design Skool - all manner of (to me) 'out there' inspiration.

Artists whose work I love

Arlee Barr - lots of natural dyes and reuse of textile scraps.

Debra Weiss - I'm always drawn to patchwork reuse of textile scraps with overlaid stitch.

Diane Savona - adore her 'archaeological' pieces. Heritage and heirlooms are a great interest of mine. When I was little I used to create mini museums at home.

Dorothy Caldwell - dense stitchwork and reuse of textiles. Dorothy's website here.

Catherine Bertola - amazing work with wallpapers and repeat patterns, very delicate but powerful at the same time.

Christine Mauersberger - Kantha-esque stitch work as well as lots lots more. More here.

Georgie Meadows - drawing with stitch.

Gizella K Warburton - paper cloth and thread creating wonderful delicate vessels.

Gwen Hedley - author of Drawn to Stitch.

Hannah Lamb - I love her cyanotype works and reuse of antique fabrics.

India Flint - does amazing work with natural dyes and printing techniques.

Interlace Textile - an amazing mixing of textile and concrete by Ruth Singer and Bethany Walker.

James Hunting - just like all his work.

Jane Dunnewold - author of Finding Your Own Visual Language - a practical guide to design & composition

Julie James Turner - I love 'un'-wearable cloths themes.

Karen Nicol - where to start? Her amazing sample 'sketchbook'. See a video of her describing her work.

Kirsten Hecktermann - delicate natural fabrics with stitch.

Kloe Peart Price - newly graduated, uses lots of colour and texture.

Kuniko Maeda - also newly graduated, builds forms that show movement

Lesley Bricknell - unwearable clothes.

Lotta Helleberg - natural dyeing and printing.

Louise Baldwin - fabulous use of colour and reuse of textiles. I'm lucky enough to have her as a tutor.

Maria Boyle - her use of colour is striking and no wonder, she's trained in applied colour psychology.

Maria Walker - I absolutely love her Altered Portraits. I was brought up on old family photos and mourn the disappearance of them since digital took over.

Marjolein Starreveld - humorous and detailed figurative work.

Matthew Harris - works in cloth, paper and with words.

Rosalind Wyatt - working in text and unwearable clothes.

Ruth Singer - wonderfully delicate work. Great use of Kantha too. See also the Interlace Textile link above.

Shelley Rhodes - love the natural colours and the patchworky effects.

Groups, Blogs and Online

Committed to Cloth - "helps people develop their ideas and provides teaching and facilities to grow their personal vision."

Mapping the Future - connected to Textile Forum South West (the link for which leads to a Japanese site!)

Surma Tribe - a native group inhabiting South Sudan and Southwestern Ethiopia who decorate their faces and bodies with paint and plants.

Textile Arts Directory - does what it says on the tin, functionally.

The 62 Group of Textile Artists - a long-standing group of world leading textile artists.

The TAFA List - The Textile and Fiber Art List is a membership association of handmade traditional and contemporary textiles and fiber businesses with over 500 members from 44 countries.

The Textile Blog - curated by John Hopper who doesn't really tell us much about himself but the content is great. Lots of introductions to new artists and their work. Plus a downloadable magazine called Inspirational that is really good.

The Textile Bursary Group - not updating their blog but interesting stuff on there.

The Textile Society - for the study of the history, art and design of textiles.

Interesting

Alaina Varrone - fun and naughty!

Ana Teresa Barboza - cannot underestimate the visual impact of tigers devouring humans, in stitch.

Henna Nadeen - amazing intermixing or images using basketry techniques.

Johnathan Fuller - works with sea-polished found glass. Teaching me to understand colour.

Kirsty Whitlock - was drawn to the disintegrating newspaper.

Leonore Tawney - impressive structural textile work.

Lisa Chipetine - not totally to my liking as most of her work is really rich and dense but I do like her Emotions series.

Marie Consindas - a photographer whose photos are rich with colour and texture and somehow look antique.

Peter Clark - always drawn to garments.

Rachel Parker - great work in cross-stitch and grids and use of colour.

Rayna Gillman - I like her memory pieces. She's also written an interesting book: Create Your Own Hand-printed Cloth.

Tod Hensley - his works are really rich and dense and I usually don't like that but something about his work is really attractive. He has passed away so there will regrettably be no new work from him.

Yinka Shonibare - mad, wonderful unwearable clothes.