Textile Abstracts Inspired by Traditional Welsh Smocking Techniques
Hearth and Home series, I-VI
37cm x 37cm x 4cm, embroidery thread on cotton duck, 12 oz. painter's canvas
After visiting an exhibit of traditional Welsh Smocks at the Ceredigion Museum titled “Smocks, Smocking, Smocked” I was inspired to auto-didactically learn the techniques. The museum exhibit, which featured Welsh men’s work smocks, primarily embroidered by women to be worn out in the field, in the forge, or wherever men were working (the cotton and linen was soaked in linseed oil to waterproof it, however most men would have a second ‘Sunday smock’ that was not oiled.) The patterns of the embroidery and the colour of fabric used came to indicate what type of work the man did and where he was from. The historic Welsh work clothes which seem strong, yet are delicately embroidered, were the inspiration for this work.
Embroidery thread drawings on canvas, handstitched.
Canuck Toque and Traces of Miners, 37cm w x 60cm h x 4cm d, hand embroidered drawings on raw stretched canvas are two images that don’t translate well to digital images as part of their charm is being able to see the hand-done individual stitches. The images are inspired by a whimsical exploration of national identity connecting headwear to country and landscape. While researching the historical textile connections between Wales and Canada I learned that Canadian beavers were turned into the 'traditional' Welsh hats while wool from Welsh sheep was being converted into the wool worn by people living in Canada...