21st July 2022  

 

 My Embroidery Journey - From then to Now by Emily Notman

 

At school Emily was interested in art, particularly paint, she progressed to college where she studied 'fine art'. An 'accident' whilst painting led  Emily into textiles, she mopped up a spillage with a piece of fabric, the pattern created by this inspired her to use the fabric in her work.  

Emily studied a Textiles and Fine Arts degree at university where she learned to stitch and experiment with embroidery. She also specialised in weaving, ceramics and embroidery using bright colours in her work. A visit to Portugal led Emily to work featuring the natural landscape, beach, sea, shells etc and the colours associated with this. Barnacles inspired her work in ceramics and she uses paper clay like fabric, making holes in it then firing it and finally embroidering.

 

 

Emily also used ink and dyes on fabric to create pieces featuring shells which she printed and machine stitched producing wall hangings.Mussel shells with darker layers and shiny mother of pearl led to use of Batik, applique and machine stitch to create layers of fabric.

 

 

 

 

After university Emily wanted to work with clay and fabric, however kilns are expensive so she instead focused on textiles and was mentored at Unit 12 by Jennifer Collier. Here she started to develop smaller saleable pieces for example flower broaches and greetings cards.

 

 

 

 

She now creates wall panels featuring bleached and dyed fabrics which are layered and embroidered by hand and machine. Emily has developed a 'looped stitch' and also embelishes with a lacy effect produced by using a soldering iron, fraying edges and including dried flowers.

 

 

Emily is a mixed media artist combining painting and textiles,hand and machine embroidery and produces 3D cylinders/bowls inspired by gardens, smaller landscape pieces as broaches etc. She is currently artist in residence at a school and encourages use of various textiles including, net applied to bondaweb, needlefelted and knitted pieces which are worked into and applied onto fabric.

Social media has also led to on line workshops world wide.

Emily talking with members.