KATHRYN COULTER TEXTILES

ARTIST STATEMENT

As a passionate Textile artist, my work consists of a wide range of techniques. My current work focuses on creating and combining delicate hand-embroidery stitches, which create soft and subtle textures and movement, to using the sewing machine as a drawing tool, creating detailed whip stitch and surface embroidery.

My ideas began with drawings that are generated from first hand photographs of forests, as this is where I find comfort, safety and a new perspective in any situation I have faced before. It was here I began to develop a concept for my final collection ‘Place of Escape’.

As an artist, I pursue my own style of hand and machine embroidery, constantly building on what experience, techniques and knowledge I have gained throughout university.

I create with a desire to explore and subtly tell a story throughout my work. Using a camera, I am able to capture a personal feeling and moment in time highlighting the tranquil, magical and safe feeling I experience when out walking in forests.

My final collection and art-piece highlights many qualities, beginning with equipment such as the heat-press to capture, transfer and preserve the delicate petals of a flower, I then carefully create stitches using a very tight whip stitch that compliments and adds flecks of beautiful and natural colours along-side water-soluble, which creates an almost ‘crystalized’ look, capturing the enchanted and magical theme.

With the surface and machine stitches created I then begin to add hand-embroidery, this helps create a great texture, from soft, fluffy and natural to bright heightened reality stitches, I then carefully choose areas to softly tear and unravel alongside the embellisher machine to add more texture.