Featured Book - Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art
By Claire Wellesely-Smith, a renowned textile artist, writer and educator, her book Slow Stitch overviews her beautiful, slow, contemplative stitch art.
Claire Wellesley-Smith
Claire Wellesley-Smith is a textile artist, educator and writer based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Specializing in using local, natural color, created from homegrown and locally foraged plants, Claire’s work is at once meditative and detailed. Working with dyes and stitches on reclaimed materials, slow processes allow for consideration of methods, as well as narratives of use. With archival research as the starting point for her work, Claire references locations and community stories, using cloth, dye and stitch as carriers of the natural and social history of place.
Taking inspiration from textile traditions such as American quilting and patchwork, Kantha quilts, darning and Japanese Boro, Claire Wellesley-Smith repurposes old textiles, re-piecing fabrics and building texture through stitching. Dying both thread and fabric with local leaves and plants, color stories are harmonious, as well as reminiscent of the local environment. Repetitive stitches create a rhythm, and thoughtful approach to textile practice, accented by ethereal and poetic, and dark and moody tonal combinations. Her book Slow Stitch published by Batsford, is a sensitive overview of mindful and contemplative textile art.
Website: www.clairewellesleysmith.co.uk
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/cwellesleysmith
Instagram: www.instagram.com/cwellesleysmith
Twitter: @cwellesleysmith
Facebook: www.facebook.com/clarabellacraft
