19th February 2026
Deborah Collum's presentation Embroidering the Truth: a light hearted amble through her textile art journey, considering why textile arts are beloved by many women and so few men, was interesting and a contrast to our speaker in January Mr X Stitch.
As a child Deborah always drew and painted however her career path took her in a different direction, although she became a teacher later in life and was head of Art. She retired due to ill health, but her work has influenced her creative process and retirement has given her time to explore.This started with Deborah painting on paper which she then tore up and sewed together, as part of the process she found the textiles community who shared ideas and support.
Her focus is very family and home based, her 1st pieces of work made use of children's cotton vests onto which she applied/attached various bits of toys, buttons, badges, key rings etc which she had kept in a drawer rather than throwing away.
Next Deborah used a simple house shape, rather like a childs drawing, which she made using various bits of old fabric, patchwork etc - this relates to looking after the family.
This led to the creation of books of textile experiments which are tactile and useful for ideas and reference.
World events like the 'boats' bringing migrants, the War in Ukraine which displaced people /children have led to creation of work which depicts this for example dresses embellished with scenes, a destroyed home fragile and patchworked together.
Deborah's work also features landscapes, the view from her window of her long thin garden, farmland with the earth/soil and sky.
During 'lockdown' Deborah created a self portrait the basis of which was an old tray cloth (the home connection).
