18th April 2024

'Gentle work'  emotions and stories in stitch a presentation by Christine Kelly.

Christine has always been creative and made items, initially using papier-mache decorated in bright colours, then moving on to introduce hand stitch and knitting in the making of rag dolls etc these were given to the family as presents.  

Christine did not have any textiles training until she took a City and Guilds course in machine embroidery. This led to her layering and stitching into paper using machine embroidery. She also collected vintage books,paper, lace, fabrics, traycloths etc all of which are pale colours - cream, ivory, beige, grey, which are calming. Her collection of fabrics and lace often provide starting points for pieces of work.

 

A move to the country allowed her to develop her work and creativity through the inclusion of nature, seasons, creatures, birds,feathers, acorn cups and then the incorporation of text/own words as part of the piece to tell a story. 

Christine finds the use of words powerful and people relate to them eg 'Words of Wisdom' favourite quotes (worked as a roll)and 'Working hard to make a life stitch by stitch' (book). She uses a water soluble pen to write the words onto the fabric and then hand stitches them with small running stitches and then whips the stitches following /emphasising the shape of the letters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christine finds stitching and her work comforting, they anchor her and express emotions.

She has made/used boxes putting words/objects inside to preserve memories, as keepsakes and as gifts.

 

 Projects undertaken have been the 'Collar Piece' where she was given a shirt collar to do anything creative with. She titled it 'White collar work' inspired by an extract from 'Toads' by Philip Larkin as inspiration applied papier- mache using old receipts, finishing with hand embroidery found objects and also made a bow tie to accompany it.

The next was 'Daphnes Glove' - they were given a vintage glove and a 'Cashes' name tape for Daphne Bryant' Christine created 'Souvenirs from the imaginary life of Daphne Bryant' by finding a photo to use as Daphne, using fingers of the glove to make a broach, the lace trim to make a bracelet, with additions of beads/jewels, an ear ring, a photo frame from rest of glove, for each piece she produced a back story and made a pocket to contain the items.