Finally, you decide that today’s the day! You’re going to start that creative project you’ve been dreaming about.

You gather some fabric scraps you’ve been saving. You find your old sewing box. You clear a space at the kitchen table and…

And then what?

You realise you’re not sure where to begin. So you think maybe you should look up some techniques first. You open your laptop to do some research.

But there’s so much information… Your inbox needs checking while you’re here. Oh, and you should probably put another load of washing on. And didn’t you promise to call your friend? And it’s almost time to start dinner anyway…

Another day slips by without creating anything.

You tell yourself you will make a start tomorrow, when you have more time. When you’ve researched a bit more. When you’re a bit more more organised. When life is less busy.

But you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in excellent company. Every accomplished textile artist started exactly where you are now, with a desire to create and uncertainty about how to begin.

The difference between you and them? They found a way to start. And today, we’re going to show you how you can too.

The time trap

“I’ll create when I have more time,” you tell yourself. But here’s the painful truth: That mythical expanse of free time will never arrive. Life has a way of filling every available moment – unless you decide to claim some for yourself.

Every day you put off starting is another day of creativity lost forever. Another day without discovering the joy that comes from working with your hands to make something meaningful and personal.

Laura Otten, a Stitch Club member, told us: “Before, I thought I had to have big chunks of time to put into making art.”

“Now I understand that’s not the case and I am working far more regularly because of it. I can get something done in 30 minutes or less, and then tomorrow, I can spend another 30 minutes.”

“And eventually, I’m going to have something to show for it.”

“Doing workshops online that I can revisit in my own time, helps me break things into manageable chunks.”

Laura Otten, Stitch Club Member

The overwhelm obstacle

You stare at blank fabric, paralysed by the fear of starting.

Or maybe your mind buzzes with too many possibilities about which technique to choose. Raw-edge or turned-under appliqué? Paint the background fabric first? Print photos on fabric? Finish the piece with hand stitching or machine stitching?

The questions keep lining up, until the weight of choices crushes your creative spark entirely.

6 simple ways to unleash your creativity (in small pockets of time)

1. Embrace the power of tiny

Forget masterpieces. Start with moments.

Celebrated textile artist Clarissa Callesen puts it perfectly: “When a child learns how to play the piano, we don’t expect them to compose an original symphony. They play Mary Had A Little Lamb over and over again, and then progress to more challenging tunes as they go.”

Try one of these ideas:

• A single experimental stitch during your coffee break
• Fifteen minutes of playing with stitch techniques or collaging colourful fabrics, first thing in the morning
• Make one small sample square per week

Your artistic journey begins with a single stitch – so why not pick up some fabric and thread and give it a go?

2. Fall in love with the process

The magic isn’t just in the completion of an art piece – it’s in the moments of creation.

And textile artist Monica Bennett discovered how even small creative moments can be productive: “Making samples gives me the confidence to tackle larger or more intricate pieces. I can try out a concept or thought beforehand, and then see how and where I could develop it.”

Try to imagine:

• The meditative rhythm of needle through fabric
• Asking yourself “What if I do this…?” instead of “What should I do next…?”
• The satisfaction of seeing your unique vision emerge, experiment by experiment, stitch by stitch

3. Use limits as launchpads

Complete freedom can be paralysing. Instead, why not try:

• Choosing just three colours 
• Working with only one type of stitch
• Using only the materials you already have

Watch how these boundaries can spark, rather than stifle, your creativity.

Sue Stone’s three-fabric, three-thread, three-colour Stitch Club workshop helps members avoid decision fatigue and unleash creativity.

Just look at the diverse, beautiful pieces created by Stitch Club members Linda Florio (above), Ruth Atkinson (below left) and Debbie Greene (below right) using these simple constraints.

4. The journey of discovery

Every perceived “mistake” is an invitation to:

• Let your “wrong turns” lead to new techniques
• Work with imperfections to develop your unique style
• Turn missteps into creative opportunities

Wendy Kirwood explains her breakthrough moment: “I wasn’t happy with the look that my pale threads were giving my piece.“

“So I started cutting the stitches to remove them, and things started fraying. But, actually, this looked really appealing, so I embraced my mistake, and kept the cut threads.”

5. Let structure set you free

Having a clear path forward doesn’t mean being inflexible or not instinctive, but it eliminates the energy-draining question of “What next?”. Your path could be:

• Following a workshop structure
• Creating your own step-by-step plan
• Setting simple daily goals

When you know what to do next, you spend less time thinking and more time creating. Your subconscious mind keeps working on ideas between sessions, leading to unexpected breakthroughs. 

6. On the shoulders of giants

Give yourself permission to:

• Learn from artists you admire
• Practice techniques that inspire you
• Combine influences to find your voice

Textile artist Sabine Kaner reassures us: “Being influenced by other people’s work is quite normal and it’s all part of the process of discovering more about yourself.”

“You will eventually pull away from that and start introducing things into your work that are unique to you.”

Clarissa Callesen adds: “Originality is a concept that we’ve put up on a pedestal as the ultimate.”

“But I think that when we concentrate too much on originality it stops us from following our own curiosity. Copying is normal as a starting point.”

“When you combine inspirations and techniques from different artists, you create the thing that is yours.”

Clarissa Callesen, Textile Artist

Your creative awakening awaits

That creative energy inside you? It’s not just a whim. It’s not just a hobby. It’s a vital part of who you are, waiting to emerge.

Every day you wait is another day of creative expression lost forever. But here’s the beautiful truth: You can start right now. Not when you have more time, or when you’ve mastered every technique. Now!

Think of it this way:

• Every textile artist you admire started exactly where you are
• Every stunning piece began with a single stitch
• Every creative journey starts with one small step

Take that step. Make that stitch. Join a community that understands and supports your creative journey.

Your artistic voice is waiting. Isn’t it time you let it speak?

The two artists had known each other for a long time so they quickly grasped the potential benefits of working together. Each gained insights from the other’s work while meeting online and in the studio.

Amanda was able to incorporate weavings made by Johanna, which added an extra element of interest to her compositions. And Amanda’s experiments triggered new ideas for Johanna. This co-working experience helped to motivate them both and accelerate their progress.

When you read on, you’ll find inspiration and ideas for working with others, and discover how collaboration can elevate your art to a new level. Through a productive phase of shared activity, Johanna and Amanda were able to release feelings of protectiveness of their own work, bounce ideas off each other, and allow their work to evolve into a cohesive gathering of exhibits. 

There’s more than one way to stimulate your creative ideas – and collaborative working might be just what you are looking for.

Accumulating, remembering, archiving…

Can you tell us a little about the art you make?

Amanda Britton: Utilising unconventional materials including paper, vellum, resin and plexiglass, the work I make is like intricate fabrics, ‘woven’ with a variety of techniques, colours, and constructions.

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of migration – moving towards some things and away from others. The ways in which we shift, change and create patterns, rituals and repetition. 

Creating intersections, remembering, and archiving the parts that are left behind, my work takes the form of sewn collages on paper, bringing together fragments of material, paper, and found objects – or casts of those objects. 

I’ve always been interested in the perpetuation of relationships between people and the exploration of families, place, narrative and language. Concerned with documentation and preservation, my work is personal in concept, yet quirky and humorous in delivery. 

Johanna Norry: My work employs the traditional techniques of weaving, hand knitting, coiling, embroidery and stitching. Often I create work that combines comforting materials with unexpected forms. I take a similar approach when I am collaging and working with photos, whether family snaps or found images, or mining memories – working with real and metaphorical archives. 

My artistic process is to respond to my research in a way that culminates with art and installations that are themselves a sort of documentation, whether an accumulation or manipulation of evidence. The resulting work might appear incomplete, and distorted, with only a fraction of the truth remaining, as revealed by my material interpretations. 

I used to see my textile work and my collage work as separate. Recently, those lines began to blur. It began with appliqué textile collage and quilted portraits, and morphed into woven photos, piecing together my hand woven and hand knitted material in the same manner as I might assemble various photos and papers into a more traditional collage. 

The metaphors of weaving, stitching and collage are always at the forefront of my art making thought process. My work is usually about my inner life, my identity, my values and obsessions, my connection to my family and ancestors, and I combine disparate parts as a way of illustrating how I am made up inside – different parts, different experiences and different inheritances, sometimes cohesive and sometimes incongruous. 

What initially attracted you to textiles as a medium? 

Amanda: My mother, Heather Britton, ignited my passion for textile art and design. I grew up falling asleep to the hum of her sewing machine – she’s a novice sewer and also worked in the carpet industry for more than 40 years. 

Johanna: My husband’s mother was a textile artist and weaver, with a weaving studio in Rochester, New York. She had several weavers who came to her studio each day to weave her commissions. Sadly, she died from cancer just a few years after I met her. I inherited everything from her studio including her loom, her tools, her yarn and her notes. 

I was pregnant at the time and the last thing I had time for was learning to weave. It all went into storage and I made myself a promise that I would learn to weave on the same schedule she did When my son turned five, I signed up for a weaving class. I was immediately hooked and took classes for several years. 

One of my weaving teachers suggested I take a dyeing class at Georgia State University. After just a few weeks I knew that I wanted to make art and be in the textiles classroom, for the rest of my life. 

While pursuing my Textiles BFA and MFA, my work expanded beyond weaving, and incorporated embroidery, knitting, digital processes, piecing and quilting, and felting. I chose the process that I thought best suited the concept I was exploring.

As an older student, others assumed that I already knew how to do all these things, but it was all new to me. The last time I’d used a sewing machine was when I got a C grade for a wraparound skirt made in my junior high home economics class. 

My gravitation toward fibres wasn’t based on familiarity of technique, but rather the familiarity with fabric. We adorn our bodies and homes with fabric, and the textures, patterns and colours can elicit memories and nostalgic longing.

My work with fibre may have started with the inheritance of a loom, but I really can’t imagine any other medium being better suited for communicating my ideas about the human experience.

Long term support

Tell us more about how this collaboration came about… 

Johanna: Amanda and I met in graduate school at the University of Georgia. For two years, our studios were next door to each other. It was awesome. And while I think I was subtly aware of the specialness of that time, and the luxury of devoting time to making our own work within a supportive community, I wasn’t quite prepared for how much I would miss it when I moved on. 

It turned out that Amanda also missed it and, fairly soon after she graduated, we decided to meet occasionally, if not regularly, to support each other and critique each other’s work. 

While our show’s name Common Thread refers to the relationship we began to observe in our current work, the truth is there was already a thread – conceptually, if not aesthetically – in our graduate school work as well.

Amanda’s work was tethered to her family memories and the ephemeral nature of memory itself, and my work was also rooted in family, in research, and unearthing hidden family secrets and exposing them to the light of day through my art.

We had both been regularly making and showing work in juried shows since graduation. But we were also both beginning to accumulate work that felt like it needed to be shown all together.

‘Our decision to work towards a show together, Common Thread, was so organic that I cannot even remember who thought of it first.’

Johanna Norry, Textile artist

Once we had decided to collaborate, it motivated both of us to flesh out work we had started, and to make more, knowing that if our proposals were accepted, we would need to do a lot of work to fill a gallery. As we were making new pieces, that’s when the collaboration conversation began – the intentional back and forth development process, responding to elements we observed in each other’s work.

Back & forth process

Tell us about the collaboration process…

Johanna: Amanda and I began to prepare for our first duo show at Berry College, Georgia, in the summer of 2023. Initially, we worked separately in our home studios, communicating by texting photos of our work to each other.

Then we organised several joint studio days where we would bring our works in progress – works we considered finished – as well as remnants, and uncommitted bits of cloth that we had created by one method or another. 

Pieces migrated from my table to hers, and vice versa. For example, I had a long and narrow woven test sample, which Amanda saw with fresh eyes; she cut it in two and incorporated it in an installation of dyed organza strips that she had sewn ephemera into. 

Our process was like a conversation – a back and forth. I would see something in Amanda’s work, like the way she was using family beach photos, shells and references to the migration of sea birds. I realised that I also had 1970s family photos taken at the beach that I could use, and my own collection of rocks and shells.

This led to my weaving together old family photos, pairing them with collages of woven remnants, and combining rocks and shells with off-loom wovens in plexiglass boxes, as companions to Amanda’s natural history display-inspired assemblages.

How did you achieve the collaboration, logistically? 

Amanda: Thankfully, both Johanna and I live and work relatively close to one another in North Georgia. Over the summer, my university’s facilities were open and available, which allowed us a central location to meet and make. While we did call and meet online, our most productive days were those shared in the same studio space. 

Our advice for anyone collaborating or wanting to initiate a collaborative project is to let it be organic. Partner with someone you respect and are excited by their work. Ask yourself if you see a connection in your work, while still being distinct from each other.

‘A collaborative connection might be the theme, process or an aesthetic. If there’s a connection between you, that you think others could see as well, then that’s a good place to start.’

Amanda Britton, Textile artist

While it was awesome that we could meet and work together in the studio, it would equally be possible to collaborate with someone in another city, thanks to Zoom and ease of sharing virtually.

Evolution & unification

Did the project’s exhibition feel as cohesive as you hoped?

Amanda: We had a lot of wonderful feedback from both students and staff at Berry College. The work covers so many different techniques, mediums and interests, including photography, textiles, sculpture and installation, yet it was unified by colour and archiving concepts. 

We wanted to push the visuals and create an unexpected viewer experience. I think we captured this with scale variations and colour juxtaposition of the work.

However, and I think Johanna would agree with me, as soon as the exhibition went up we knew the work would likely shift and evolve as it travelled to its next location. Edits and considerations have been vital throughout. 

How did you help your audience understand the connections built through the collaboration? 

Amanda: Johanna and I are very intentional about the layout of our travelling exhibition. Not only have we considered the space of each gallery (the Moon Gallery at Berry College is expansive with low ceilings, whereas Westobou is a tight space with high ceilings), but we are also interested in conceptualising new or alternative display methods. 

Like paintings, textile works tend to be displayed in very traditional ways and we knew we wanted to activate the space differently. Whether hanging woven pieces high and then paper collages low, we are intentionally and thoughtfully curating the works by colour, technique and concurring themes.

Also in this duo display, we’re not concerned with labelling every piece with its maker and materials – we like the idea of just letting the viewer experience the work as a unified whole.

Did you have any previous experience that helped prepare you for working on a duo project?

Johanna: In graduate school, Amanda and I, along with another textile artist and two ceramic artists, collaborated on a show called Undermined. The collaboration involved the ceramic artists making work, primarily functional objects, but also more sculptural and figurative work, then the three textile artists set about undermining the functionality of the objects.

We bound plates together with thread, which included my knitted tubes that connected the cups to each other, and a web of screen printed silk organza created by Amanda. 

Undermined was my first experience of collaboration as a sort of call and response process. The Common Thread collaboration was similar, but the conversation was more of a repeated back and forth process, rather than a simple call and response.

Other group shows I’d been in were different, in that I was invited because my work was perceived as fitting into an already existing concept. The artworks in those shows were pieces I had already made and had not been created in such a conversational way.

The benefits of collaboration

Could you choose one particular favourite artwork and share how the collaborative process improved it?

Amanda: Carapace Capsules is one of my favourite collaborative pieces in the show. The piece is small in scale but allows for an intimacy with the work.

Both Johanna and I are very interested in the concept of the archive: questioning what is collected and what memories are retained through these mementoes. These transparent boxes and trays felt like precious time capsules that combine both of our unique perspectives. 

Johanna: Possibly my favourite collaboration of the exhibit relates to how we installed our work together, and how we viewed our work in relation to each other’s art. 

We decided to install Amanda’s work Hereditary Smoker Series, a pair of plexi-trapped textiles and digitally printed vellum, next to my work Sapelo Dreams: Asleep in a Live Oak, a long clasp-woven cloth and a pair of woven collages I made from weavings on hand-painted warps.

I would never have installed these collages on their own in this way, higher and lower than usual. But it was all about the interaction of the work – we invited the viewer to see my work through Amanda’s work, which was mounted on hinges perpendicular to the wall. 

Amanda’s work was about her grandmother, and my pieces were about my own family memories of places (Sapelo Island, a favourite family camping spot) and about our lives as a process of repair, piecing ourselves (back) together from a combination of inheritances and experiences.

I think both our works were elevated by their proximity and how they interacted with each other.

What were the main benefits of collaborating and would you do it again (with other artists or with each other)? 

Amanda: Since this experience, I’ve been more receptive to both working with others and using techniques, processes and mediums that I’m not as familiar with. For instance, I am in the beginning stages of a collaborative project with a local sculptor for an outdoor sculpture installation. Without this experience with Johanna, I wouldn’t have been as easily persuaded to join in on this opportunity. 

Johanna: I’d collaborate again, most definitely. And I’m thinking of including a collaboration project in my textiles course next semester. I’d love to give my students an opportunity to experience the impact of working with another artist and the effect it can have on the direction of their work.

Do you have any tips for readers wanting to set up their own collaborative project?

Johanna: My advice would be to begin with trust. I already knew and trusted Amanda. I knew that while our processes were not the same, that they were compatible. A collaboration could be successful with two artists who were previously strangers, but you can’t go into a collaboration with a fear of the other artist stealing your ideas or accusing you of stealing theirs.

‘If you begin with respect, trust, and a commitment to honour each other in the work that comes out of the collaboration, I think it will be a positive experience and it will result in elevating both artists’ work.’

Johanna Norry, Textile artist

Amanda and I have a show coming up in 2025 where the curator has paired us with another duo of textile artists who know each other, but we don’t know them or their processes, and I am hopeful it will be successful and an uplifting experience.

Amanda: Setting and sticking to a timeline would be my biggest tip – deadlines for a show or an upcoming application can help with the planning of your timeline. 

Also, it’s handy for both contributors to be working on a similar scale or technique. For example, Johanna and I both knew we wanted to create long narrow pieces to have as a visual mirroring effect.

When she suggested creating an eight foot woven assemblage Sometimes, It Just Fits, that allowed a direction for my nine foot collection display A Sea of Sinister Dots. These pieces were displayed across the gallery from each other, and I love the effect of the scale and central placement.

How has the collaboration affected your own art practice? 

Amanda: Before this experience, I would say I was closed off to the idea of collaboration.

I am very goal-oriented and independently motivated, however, this experience has allowed me to see how collaboration is important for growth – not only as a person but to allow one’s art to grow as well.

It is amazing to have a partner to bounce around ideas for colours, techniques and concepts with.

Johanna: I’ve always sought feedback. Whenever I make something, at the very least my husband gets called in to look at it, and I value his response.

But I’ve also felt possessive about what I’ve made – or perhaps protective is a better word. Like I had some sort of parental responsibility to defend my art, since I had made it.

I think the collaborative, sharing process – where things I’ve made have been incorporated into Amanda’s work, and things she’s made have gone into mine – has expanded my emotional attachment to my artworks. I feel more accepting of what they become once they’re made.

You may be happy stitching, knitting, collaging, cutting and creating, whether that’s in a structured or more intuitive way. You might make art for your own amusement, for gifts, to exhibit or to sell. But, what if there’s an urge to take it further? What if you’d quite like to make a statement piece that conveys a message, or share your work with the wider world? 

If you’ve ever thought about turning your passion for textile art into a more serious occupation, the first step is to find the right mindset. We asked five professional textile artists, Shelley Rhodes, Danny Mansmith, Woo Jin Joo, Molly Kent and Trish Burr, about their own paths to success and for their tips on getting there.

Find your ‘why’

‘If we want to feel an undying passion for our work, if we want to feel we are contributing to something bigger than ourselves, we all need to know our WHY.’ – Simon Sinek, Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team.

First, ask yourself why you want to step up with your art. Are you looking to feed your need for creativity, perhaps after retiring from another career or to support your own mental or physical health? Do you want to earn a living from it? Are you keen to exhibit your work? Or craving the buzz and satisfaction of creating your own unique work but struggling to gain focus?

Once you’ve worked out your aims, you need to find the willpower to fulfil them. Adopting a professional mindset is quite different to choosing to do your art as a part-time hobby.

Danny Mansmith

Danny Mansmith began his art career in childhood. He was nurtured by his mum, his great aunt and his grandma who instilled in him the ability to see the creative possibilities in the things around them. Danny’s path wasn’t straightforward, but his self-motivation was key.

Teach yourself

Danny Mansmith: ‘I’m an artist who’s kept a conversation going with my sewing machine since the early 1990s. I spent a year at a small art school but I wasn’t very good at following instructions and so I left to teach myself instead. I became inspired to make my own clothes: the idea of looking and dressing in my own style felt important somehow. In the first month, I took apart almost all of my store bought clothes to try to follow the patterns and teach myself about garment construction.

‘Through the years I continued to teach myself how to use the sewing machine. When I finally felt confident, I got my first job sewing for an artist who made baby blankets and accessories. 

‘My boss encouraged me to apply for some local art fairs and that was a turning point for me, helping me realise that I could make my way in the world as a working artist.’

‘Making things makes me happy – working with my hands and creating a space where ideas are free to come out and manifest in front of me. The sewing machine is both an inspiration and the tool I use. My home studio is both a sanctuary and workspace, where I keep my love of drawing alive with my daily practice.’ 

Danny Mansmith is based in Burien, Washington, US and has a strong connection to the midwest and Chicago, Illinois. His solo show ‘We All Become Myth’ exhibited at The Highline Heritage Museum in Burien, Washington, March-April 2023. 

Artist website shop: dannymansmith.bigcartel.com

Facebook: facebook.com/danny.mansmith

Instagram: @dannymansmith

Take action daily

Making time each day to create is the secret to a committed and regular practice. Set yourself some boundaries and rules to guide you. This could be 20 minutes a day, or free play, daily sketchbooking, journaling or daily mindful stitching. Be realistic about the time you have available. Small daily actions will help you to overcome resistance and continual action will lead to inspiration and progress. 

Your creativity is likely to flow more readily if you can allow yourself space and time without any pressure. Unless you’re working on commissions, don’t try to make art to order, or pressurise yourself to be creating exhibition-worthy art at all times. Every action related to your art is part of your practice – just make sure you treat it with a professional mind-set.

Shelley Rhodes

Shelley Rhodes: ‘My daily Instagram posts began as a challenge to make me draw regularly. However, over the years I have shifted slightly, so my post might be a collage, assemblage, printing or mark-making, exploration of materials, a stitch sample, or ongoing work. This habit encourages me to notice and respond, then explore ideas and materials more fully. Some ideas feed into my work, but not always. 

‘Sometimes I simply take pleasure in drawing and recording what I see. In 2022, these posts led to an exhibition of my sketchbook pages The Sketchbook at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre in South Wales. A few years ago, I was asked if I would sell my daily artwork and this has become a great additional source of income. When I post my work online, I never know who is going to see it, or what it might lead to. My daily posts have increased interest in my work, which has led to sales of artwork and books, exhibitions and teaching opportunities.’

Shelley Rhodes is based on the border between Lancashire and Cumbria, England. She makes mixed media work focusing on fragmentation, reconstruction and repair. 

Artist website: shelleyrhodes.co.uk

Facebook: facebook.com/shelleyrhodesmixedmediaartist

Instagram: @shelleyrhodesartist

Stay curious

Having a professional attitude means developing the positive attributes of discipline, persistence and determination. Both Danny and Shelley maintain their commitment with a daily art practice. If you’re feeling an urge to be creative, then allow yourself the time to satisfy it. Set aside time to focus on making art – no matter what. If you make it a priority, rather than an occasional pleasurable activity, then you’ll create a regular practice through your discipline and determination. 

But how do you focus? With the plethora of information available on the internet, it’s easy to get bogged down with learning yet more techniques, rather than developing those you know. Guard against this temptation and concentrate on what you’re really interested in.

Trish Burr

Embroidery artist, educator and author Trish Burr started her craft when she was a young mother in Zimbabwe. She found cross stitch too limiting and so she began to experiment with thread painting. Because patterns and materials were not available and there were drastic foreign currency restrictions, Trish had to use whatever she could find. She chose pictures from books, postcards and calendars, trying her best to replicate them with needle and thread.

Trish Burr: ‘I had no formal training so I created my own style of needle painting – a new form of long and short stitch was born. This simple method, which I have honed and crafted over the years, is what I still use today.

‘When I moved to Cape Town I was asked to teach at some local conventions. My students struggled with the technique and were generally very nervous of it, so I made it my mission to simplify, simplify. I tried to put myself in the shoes of my students – I spent many months with a doodle cloth and notebook, making notes and thinking of different approaches which would make my instructions clear.

‘I think this was a turning point in my career – as my instructions improved, my patterns became more popular, and the demand for my work increased.’

Determination and focus

‘Another watershed moment was when I began to explore how colour affected my embroidery. Needle painting is known for its beautiful, shaded appearance, and I wondered why some works looked flat and dull while others had a radiant glow. I spent years researching and experimenting with how colours interacted with each other. I realised that there was a whole world of colour combinations – it was time to break free from traditional limitations.

‘Once, I was trying to recreate the vibrant greens of a bird’s feathers, when a man came to fix our television. It turned out he was an artist. He helped me to understand that you don’t need to use brighter shades of green, but if you create a contrast in the greens it will bring vibrancy. My explorations eventually led me to write the book Colour Confidence In Embroidery.’

Trish’s success can be put down to her determination and focus, which in turn brought about fortuitous events that she could not have made happen. The moral is – begin it!

Embracing technology

Trish’s challenges did not, however, end there. Trish had to overcome the era of technological revolution, which without determination could have been another cause for procrastination.

‘When I began embroidery, there was no internet, no websites and no online sales. Over the years I had to learn how to manage my own website, produce patterns in different formats for print and PDF, and ship my products worldwide.

‘I purchased the first version of the graphics software CorelDRAW and began to explore drawing my own diagrams and outlines for embroidery. This was life changing for me. I still use the same software program for my designs – I’ve become adept at drawing with a mouse, in fact it now feels awkward to draw with a pencil. I had to get to grips with social media and marketing. When I published my first book I pasted pictures into a spiral bound notebook and manually wrote out the text, but now it is done with computer software and digital photography.

‘It was a constant challenge to juggle my home life with my ever evolving embroidery business, as well as find time to sit quietly and stitch. There came a time when the increased demand was such that I had to choose whether to expand and employ staff, or stay small and personal. I decided on the latter because I wanted time to do what I love, which is to design, stitch and teach. However, I did need some help. The solution came when I attended a talk where the speaker mentioned the benefits of virtual assistants – they handle all the admin, which frees me up to focus on the core work. My assistants in India are always available to help, and I could not do without them!’

Trish Burr is based in Cape Town, South Africa. She is an embroidery artist specialising in needle painting and whitework embroidery. In the last two decades she has published 11 books, created embroidery patterns, tutorials and videos, and has taught both at home and abroad.

Artist website:  trishbembroidery.com

Facebook: facebook.com/needlepainting

Instagram: @trishburrembroidery

Overcome the negative voice

Much has been written about how to deal with the negative voice in your head. 

On her website, artist and author SARK talks about procrastination, as well as the inspiration, motivation and synchronicities that propelled her to success as an artist. 

SARK: ‘As someone who has sold over two million books in the last 30 years, it may surprise you to know that I too have experienced procrastination, perfectionism and fears about writing or ever sharing my unique gifts with the world.’ 

But SARK overcame that to go on to sell her art products and write many inspirational books, including Make Your Creative Dreams Real.

Author Steven Pressfield has written several motivational books including The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle and Do The Work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way. He is quoted as saying: ‘Most of us have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance.’ 

If you struggle with inner blocks, then this idea is worth exploring. As artists and many others have shown, it really is possible to put a stop to resistance. 

Internet addiction is a form of procrastination, distracting us from our own work. Do you ever scroll through Instagram while feeling like your work isn’t good enough to share? A great way to overcome perfectionism is by sharing your work, whether that’s on Instagram, Facebook or, like Shelley Rhodes and Sue Stone when they started off, by taking part in a small local exhibition.

Fighting fear and self-criticism

Keeping busy with other things and making excuses is a form of fear that’s often kept under the radar. Do you fear criticism and have low self-esteem, resulting in a feeling of imposter syndrome? Fear can be associated with doing something new, and can stop us in our tracks. But you can use fear as an ally – if you make a start, you will improve and your fears will recede. So take action in spite of fear. As Susan Jeffers wrote in her famous book, feel the fear and do it anyway!

In her motivational book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert says: ‘Fear is always triggered by creativity, because creativity asks you to enter into realms of uncertain outcome, and fear hates uncertain outcome. This is nothing to be ashamed of. It is, however, something to be dealt with.’ 

One sure-fire way of overcoming self criticism is to self validate. If you’re not happy with your artwork, figure out what worked, and what would make it better next time. If your attitude towards your practice needs improving, consider what’s holding you back. If you’re not creating enough time, look at what’s stopping you from making your art a priority. Examine your practice and find ways to overcome your blocks. For a quick start to your work sessions, finish each day by preparing for the next. Choose a thread and thread up your needle – then all you need to do is sit down and begin. What could be simpler?

Negative comments can knock your confidence and make you question the validity of your work. Do you fear negative comments from others? If so, try looking at it from another point of view. The people doing the judging may just be trying to provide well-meaning advice, or they could be envious of your work and want to protect themselves. Artists experience many rejections to exhibitions and galleries, so believe in what you’re doing and recognise that selection can be a subjective process. The key is not to over identify with your work – do keep telling yourself ‘you are more than just your art’. If you receive negative feedback, act like a pro and carry on regardless. This attitude will help you to keep going – soon you’ll find that ideas will start to flow.

Make your art your own

Making art is not a competition, it’s a form of expression, and you should never feel you have to be better than others. We can all make art, and there’s no sense in trying to work your way up an imaginary ‘hierarchy’ of artists. 

Remember, making art is unique to you, so create your art for YOU and YOU alone. If you choose to share it on social media, always create the work for its own sake, not for attention or applause.

Shelley Rhodes: ‘It takes a while to develop your own style and way of working, rather than an imitation of others. I always encourage my students to investigate, test materials and explore their own ideas.

‘I try not to make work just because I think it will sell or please others. Rather, I make from

the heart and to please my own artistic values. Having said that, another challenge when starting out on the path to becoming a professional artist can be the lack of money. I gave up full-time teaching to concentrate on my own work, but worked part-time in an administration role while developing my work, as well as teaching my workshops.’

Molly Kent

One textile artist who has overcome many challenges is Molly Kent. Molly’s work is concerned with representing issues around mental and physical health through rug tufting and weaving. She focuses on our contemporary existence regarding social media and internet living, and how this affects our perception of self. 

In 2018, while at university, Molly had a fall which led to a flashback and a return to ill mental health that had begun when she was 10. She was diagnosed as having complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), due to previous trauma.

Molly had experienced bouts of bad nightmares and strange cryptic dreams. As she researched the condition and understood her struggles, she looked into dream psychology. She was able to use these dreams as a visual vocabulary, to construct narratives within her work that allude to the traumas she suffered and her emotional responses to them.

Epiphanies and dreams

In 2019, her final year of university, Molly produced a body of work Doubt in the Digital Age, which represented her personal doubts within an increasingly digital realm. As the pandemic ensued, her work took on a greater meaning as channels of communication and connection were mostly online. Molly completed her degree and was then furloughed by her employer, so she had more time to focus on making artworks. 

It was then that she created Dream Weaving to record her CPTSD-related dreams and nightmares. She developed her tapestry weaving skills, not only to expand her methods of making, but also as a calm and meditative process, compared to the noisy and anxiety-inducing rug tufting process she’d used before.

Molly has a down-to-earth approach to her status as a professional artist – it mirrors the imposter syndrome or sense of fraudulence that some artists feel. 

Molly Kent: ‘In all honesty, I still find the label of professional artist to be a strange one, I don’t really know what I’m doing most of the time, and feel like I haven’t really got the hang of being a career artist yet. But, from the outside, I suppose it does look like I’m a professional. 

‘My journey hasn’t been linear or even consistent in many ways, most probably due to my mental health. But my CPTSD diagnosis, researching dream psychology and realising the effects of lockdown have propelled my work forwards in terms of the development of the digital aspects of my works.

‘I’m somewhat passive at going out and trying to seize opportunities first hand, so I’m grateful to many others for helping my development as an artist, including award bodies, private and public collectors, and fellow artists who have nominated me for awards or opportunities.’

‘I think the main thing that has helped my progress is simply continuing to create work in the face of multiple adversities, and making work that feels true to me.’

Molly Kent is based in Edinburgh, UK and has a MA from Edinburgh College of Art. Molly has exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2019), and her work has toured with exhibitions in Australia, Scotland and the UK. Her work is held in the University of Edinburgh’s art collection and the National Museum of Australia.

Artist website: mollyhkent.com

Instagram: @mollyhkent

Pay attention to the practicalities

Creating is central to your practice, but artists also have to spend time doing other things to support their work, whether it’s research, testing out techniques, sketchbooking, communicating with others, making applications, administration and accounting, or framing and hanging their work. So it is essential to figure out how to get organised and learn the technical skills you need. 

Though these are all important, don’t forget that your key task is to place the focus on your art practice – give your art a high priority, every day.

Woo Jin Joo

Woo Jin Joo is an award-winning mixed media artist specialising in soft sculpture. Her work challenges the value that humanity endows on objects in a materialist and consumerist society.

When she graduated in 2021 Woo Jin decided to become a professional artist. She felt some trepidation as she faced the responsibilities of balancing time, finances and the other practicalities that go with a career.

Woo Jin Joo: ‘I had initial uncertainties when deciding to be a freelance artist. Throughout my studies, I was completely absorbed in the medium and making – I knew wholeheartedly that my art brings me the most fulfilment. I was unsure about the financial viability of the move and having to navigate a career after being in formal education for so long.

‘However, I was really lucky to be awarded the Janome Fine Art Textiles Award at the Festival of Quilts in 2021, just a few months after graduating – it was exactly what I needed at that moment. It not only showed me that my work is appreciated in the professional world, but also gave me financial support to invest in my own free-hand embroidery machine and studio fees, giving me the extra courage I needed to make the transition.’

Part-time jobs

Initially, Woo Jin kept on her part-time job as a gallery assistant. She applied for opportunities to lead workshops and fulfil her desire to work in education. After a year or so she was able to leave her part-time job and now works as a freelance workshop facilitator, which helps to support her art practice. 

Woo Jin Joo: ‘I always try to prioritise my studio practice but it’s a constant balancing act, with the added task of searching and applying for exhibitions, residencies, commissions and funding opportunities. There are a lot of administrative and miscellaneous tasks taking place behind the scenes to make a studio practice happen, but in the end I’m excited and energised by the fact that I can bring my ideas to life as an artist.’

Woo Jin Joo is originally from Seoul, Korea, and moved to London in 2014 to complete a BA Textiles at Central Saint Martins, and an MA in Textiles at Royal College of Art. In 2021, she won the Janome Fine Art Textiles Award, and was shortlisted for Hari Art Prize and East London Art Prize. 

Artist website: woojinstudio.com

Instagram: @woojinstudio

Get support

Going it alone isn’t always easy, especially if procrastination has been a habit of yours – it can be hard to ditch. You may need encouragement to find the motivation to stick to a routine or get the discipline to put down your phone and stitch. 

This is where the benefits of joining a group can be enormous, whether that’s online or in person. When you interact with like minded artists, you begin to feel at home, motivated and supported.

Textile clubs and groups

Woo Jin was accepted into the 62 Group as an Associate Member, and Shelley Rhodes joined the Textile Study Group, which bolstered her path to becoming a professional artist. 

Shelley Rhodes: ‘Being part of such a respected, national group has helped me to raise the level of my work and to be seen by a national audience. It is a very special textile group, as we work alongside each other on two weekends each year, led by a renowned artist. So I continually learn and develop skills within my practice. Not everything is relevant to what I do, but I think it’s always good to be open to learning and resolving ideas in a new way.

‘The group also requires its artists to teach, which continues to stimulate me and feed into my work. Also, thanks to the generosity of my students, I often learn things when I teach.’

Our artists’ top tips

If you want to scale up your textile art practice, then adopting the mindset of a professional artist is a step in the right direction. The artists we’ve interviewed have shared some of their best insights into practical actions you can make.

Danny Mansmith: ‘Use the internet for simple things, like sharing images on Instagram or joining an art group or co-op gallery. Look for like minded people to connect with and share ideas. It takes time to develop all the skills necessary to be a working artist, just keep at it.’

Shelley Rhodes: ‘I believe that one thing often leads to another, so get your work seen and have a presence on the internet, whether that’s through a website or social media. I was first invited to teach in Australia because the organiser saw my work on Pinterest, which subsequently led onto other things. And when I first started out, I had some work in a small local exhibition. A gallery manager saw it, which led to a solo exhibition. I like to let things develop organically over time. Sometimes you have to pursue opportunities, but often they come to you when you least expect it!’

Trish Burr: ‘Don’t hide your light under a bushel! Set aside your self doubts and think about how much pleasure you are giving others by sharing your work. We’re all capable of much more than we realise. We all have a creative sense; it is just a matter of honing our specific craft. Creating something original is one of the most satisfying and rewarding things you can do. No matter how difficult your customers or followers are, always be kind and helpful. They will appreciate it and become your most loyal supporters. Read the book Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. It shows you how to live a life of passion and purpose, while literally delivering happiness to others.’

Molly Kent: ‘Try to consistently make and share what you’re doing, be it via social media, or by talking to fellow artists or curators. I find that people reach out when they’ve seen a new work on my Instagram feed, or through my website, which I update regularly. Also, have a sense of balance – despite being known as a professional artist, I don’t make a living wage from my art. It’s a balancing act: working enough to pay the bills, while leaving enough time to work consistently on my art practice.’

Woo Jin Joo: ‘Find a core narrative, interest and passion to drive and inspire your practice. Take time to rest, reflect and research – it’s not always about constantly producing. If you are looking to make your art your business, then register yourself as a sole trader, get a business bank account, keep a good record of your income and costs, and get public liability insurance. Maintain good working relationships with organisations, galleries, and people you work with. Don’t be afraid to put your work out there, you never know what could come of it.’

The power is within you

Many artists talk about finding a narrative. Reported as being one of the greatest films of all time, The Wizard of Oz is a fantasy containing many metaphors that may be worth remembering as we all tread our paths through life. 

When Dorothy reached the end of the yellow brick road she discovered that the wizard she’d sought was an ordinary man who didn’t really hold the power to send her home. Along the way she learnt that she’d already got all the intelligence, heart and courage she needed – the power was within her.

You have that too. So, are you ready to follow your own yellow brick road…?

‘My formula for success was very simple: Do whatever is put in front of you with all your heart and soul without regard for personal results. Do the work as though it were given to you by the universe itself – because it was.’

Michael A. Singer, The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life’s Perfection.

We hope you feel inspired to approach your textile art practice with new vigour and that reading the trials, successes and tips from our professional artists has given you some useful pointers. If you’re still wondering where to begin, read our article Getting started with a new piece of work.

If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

If you feel motivated to take your first step towards a more professional textile art practice, tell us more in the comments below.

Fortunately, I found a doctor who understood both my disease and artistic heartache, and together we figured out a plan to regain the use of my hands. Today, I stitch more slowly, and I can’t last as long, but I’m thrilled to say I’m still stitching.

I also have a new-found appreciation for my fingers and joints and the dexterity I still possess. As they push a needle through fabric, knot a thread or snip a frayed edge, I’m grateful for their continued partnership in helping me tell my stories in stitch.

We’ve gathered five textile artists who have also experienced illness challenges, and they’re sharing the works they created in response to those journeys. They describe how stitching helped support them during and after difficult times, as well as the physical and emotional impact stitching had in their recoveries.

Sonja Hillen starts us off with her stitched response to her husband’s cancer journey. Michelle Ligthart then shares her stitched book chronicling her decision to have her breast implants removed. Haf Weighton follows with her scary and ironic experience of becoming ill while working on a textile commission for a hospital. Linda Langley next describes picking up needle and thread to process her mom’s breast cancer diagnosis. And Jane Axell closes by sharing how mindful stitching helps keep illness at bay.

We’re grateful to each of these artists for sharing their stories and work in such candid and inspiring ways.

Sonja Hillen – A caregiver’s view

When a life-threatening diagnosis comes out of nowhere, it’s not just the patient who’s tossed about. Caregivers also experience their own challenges. Such was the case for Sonja Hillen when her husband was diagnosed with cancer and given about eight years to live. Their children were 12, 10 and 6 at the time, and it would be a five-year odyssey for them all. Fortunately, a stem cell transplant was successful, and Sonja’s husband is cancer-free today.

Countless doctor appointments and scary hospital stays happened across those five long years. And Sonja turned to stitch to help process her and her husband’s unfolding story.

‘We processed all the doctor conversations and treatments while trying to keep the family going as best possible. I felt like I was living on adrenaline, so I started stitching to help me rest a bit while sitting by my husband’s bed. For me, embroidery means working with the human dimension, and when I’m stitching, I’m in a bubble where time slows down.’

For better or for worse is a collection of five pieces showcasing pivotal times and places across what Sonja calls ‘our cancer rollercoaster’. Though each panel features simple black embroidery on a white linen background, the stories are massively poignant. Especially her depiction of her husband’s knit hat.   

‘I wanted the images about being sick to be as clear as possible and to embroider what needed the most attention. Every night when my husband went to bed, he threw his knit hat at the corner of the bed. He was bald from chemotherapy and very thin, so he got cold quickly. In the morning, he’d put the hat right back on. It touched me very deeply, and I knew I had to capture it in stitch.’

Sonja’s attention to detail and purposeful exclusion of people makes her work poetic and recognisable. For example, she chose the sofa and personal items to emphasise how small one’s world becomes when sick. The exam table paper accentuates the importance of a correct diagnosis and treatment plan. The tangle of hoses and pumps in a hospital room demonstrates the severity of treatment.

‘The last work is a waiting room filled with chairs, and one chair stands out. That’s my husband’s chair, as it’s his story. Still, all the other seats show how many other people are sick and dealing with their own stories.’

Sonja’s husband says her work was more about her cancer experience than his. He only served as ‘the occasion’ and seeing events through her eyes was ‘beautiful, powerful and impressive’.

Sonja is based in Nijmegen in The Netherlands. After working as a nurse for years, she attended the Nieuwe Akademie Utrecht (art academy) and graduated five years later. She is most proud of her group exhibition called Kwaadaardig Mooi (Viciously Beautiful) at the Tot Zover Museum (Amsterdam) chronicling their collective cancer journeys.

Website: www.sonjahillen.nl

Facebook: facebook.com/sonja.hillen/

Instagram: @sonja.hillen1

Michelle Ligthart – A woman’s choice

At age 60, Michelle Ligthart made a big decision: to voluntarily have her breast implants removed. She wasn’t ill, but Michelle didn’t want to worry about becoming ill in the future. To be sure, it wasn’t an easy decision. So, she chronicled her physical and emotional journey by creating a textile book called Book of Breasts.  

The book’s pages are filled with imagery bearing unique meanings and varied textile art techniques that Michelle learned in TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club. For example, the book’s cover features a trapunto technique featured in Julie Booth’s workshop. Many breasts in varying sizes are featured, and some have a scar.

‘When I started the project, I was obsessed with breasts. I’d even stare at other women’s breasts. I tried to reflect that obsession across three pages of text. The first page features a neutral definition of breast, and the second and third are filled with every synonym of breast I could find in alphabetical order. Some are funny, and some not so much. I stitched the synonyms for “tiny breasts” in red because that would be me after surgery.’

Michele also used rust printing techniques learned in Alice Fox’s workshop. That page features two breasts with scar stitches reflecting Michelle’s need to prepare herself for the stitches she would have after surgery. She also attached her first bra across two pages.

‘I got my first bra when I was 37, and I’ve treasured it for more than 20 years. My partner gave it to me, after telling the salesperson he needed a bra that fit “a handful”. It has some holes to reflect my saying goodbye to my dear breasts and bras.’

Michelle also included the bag in which she brought the implants home with her. She sewed a red cross onto the storage bag, and then she created stitched covers for the implants themselves that had emoticons on both sides to reflect her mixed emotions about the surgery. The book ends with a colourful page on which she stitched the words ‘proudly flat again’.

A week after her surgery, Michelle hesitantly shared her work in the Stitch Club members’ area. She worried members who were recovering from breast cancer might be hurt, since she wasn’t ill and had chosen to have implants in the first place. But the community’s response was overwhelmingly positive.

‘My decision really affected me, so making the book helped me process my emotions. It wasn’t just something to keep my hands busy. It was an artistic way to create meaning, and the slow stitching helped me reflect on the stages I went through preparing for my operation. I also wanted to create something beautiful out of my sadness.’

Michelle lives part of the year in the Netherlands, and the other part is spent touring South America with her husband in an offroad camper. She started stitching when she joined TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club, and now enjoys collecting old linens for her work. She plans to create a new textile book in the future.

Haf Weighton – When the artist gets sick

Imagine being commissioned to create a commemorative work for a hospital, only to find yourself hospitalised with an unknown illness during its creation. That’s what happened to Haf Weighton when the Rookwood Hospital in Cardiff, UK, asked her to design a work celebrating its history.

Haf’s symptoms stumped doctors, and ironically, she spent a month in a hospital run by the same trust that runs Rookwood. Eventually, she was diagnosed with a rare form of pneumonia that took over a year’s recovery. She stitched throughout that entire illness journey.

A tiled floor mosaic in Rookwood’s entryway bearing the word ‘Salve’ served as Haf’s starting point. Haf researched its meaning and discovered it roughly translated as ‘heal’ in most languages.

‘I mainly used hand stitch because I was working from my hospital bed. I decided I needed to find a way to heal that didn’t solely rely on modern medicine. This is how I learned the true meaning of “salve” in my illness journey. Stitching kept me strong through it all, and my creativity truly helped me recover.’

The background fabric in Rookwood is recycled cotton sheets. Haf thought sheets were particularly significant for a hospital where patients spend days, months or even years in their beds. Haf first painted the sheets with acrylic paints and then heat transferred her drawings onto the fabric. She then machine-stitched pieces together, followed by detailed hand stitching embellishment.

‘Recovering from an illness isn’t about taking medicine. It’s about finding ways to look after and be kind to yourself. So, for me, “salve” is about stitching. And I literally used that commission to stitch my health back together.’

While Haf beat the odds with pneumonia, she tested positive for Covid in 2022. It was frightening having already battled respiratory issues. But she again turned to making art, including an online daily drawing challenge that challenged her to sketch what she could see from her home.

‘We spent so much time in our homes during the pandemic. So, when I was sick with Covid, I reflected on the comfort of our homes. I used my creativity to help me recover by turning those sketches into stitched pieces. That body of work has now grown into an upcoming solo exhibition called “Cysur” which is the Welsh word for “comfort.”

Haf is a Welsh-speaking artist living in Penarth, South Wales. She has exhibited her work globally, and she also runs workshops for both Cardiff and Vale University Health Boards and the National Museum of Wales at Oasis, a centre for refugees and asylum seekers. Haf is a juried member of the Society for Embroidered Work and The Society for Designer Crafts.  

​​Website: www.hafanhaf.com

Facebook: facebook.com/hafanhaf

Instagram: @hafweightonartist

Linda Langley – Diagnostic layering

Linda Langley was working as a radiographer when her mother was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Having much experience in mammography, Linda knew her mum faced a serious battle.

Sadly, despite treatment, her mum’s cancer ultimately spread, resulting in bone cancer and brain secondaries. Linda’s mom passed away in 1984.

‘I was very aware of the journey most breast cancer patients take. She was only 67, and while it was a long time ago, I still remember her dearly.’

Linda joined TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club during the height of Covid. She was enjoying the various workshops, but when she saw artist Jenny McHatton’s presentation, Linda knew she wanted to use Jenny’s creative challenge to memorialise her mum.

The workshop instructed members to gather a variety of materials and then shared techniques for gathering and twisting those materials in different ways. Boro stitching was then used to help secure the fabrics, as well as add additional surface design. Linda chose a variety of natural fabrics from her collection to twist and stitch. And the base was from an old linen napkin she had received from a Canadian friend.

‘I have learnt to love layers, and therefore, lace and sheers are prominent in my collection. I thought they were especially useful in depicting breast tissue. I knew very little about Boro stitching, so that was a challenge. ’Linda’s piece My Mum’s Breast includes a lateral view of the breast akin to what a mammographer would see. Linda says lateral views are especially important as they visualise the lymph system at the breast axillary area which can sometimes show if cancer cells have spread to other areas. Linda sought to create the breast’s complexity using twisted fabric layers and stitch to recreate its many layers, blood vessels and nerves that go in all directions.

‘I loved making this, especially thinking it could encourage women to have mammograms. And I was thrilled by other members’ positive feedback. I hadn’t worked with textiles for a long time due to life’s challenges. And my education was incomplete due to financial restrictions. Members’ feedback gave me the confidence I needed.’

Linda is retired and resides in Croxley Green, Hertfordshire. She especially enjoys the research aspect of embroidery, as well as detail and texture. Other hobbies include cooking and gardening.

Jane Axell – Stitching to heal

Jane Axell experienced a variety of illnesses throughout her childhood, including recurrent chest infections, psoriasis, and some anxiety and depression. Traditional medical treatments were sought over the years, but none seemed to have lasting effects. So as an adult, Jane turned to natural therapies, including courses in reiki and crystal healing. She also explored Christianity, Buddhism and other healing modalities.

In 2007, Jane started working with The Sanctuary of Healing (Lancashire, UK), which delivers a variety of healing frequencies, such as crystal energy and light and colour frequencies. Her health started to improve dramatically, and she hasn’t had a chest infection since 2009. Other ailments have also healed.

‘I learned how stress plays a major role in illness. Stress hormones create an invisible field of energy that surrounds your body and turns off natural self-repair mechanisms. So, you need something to trigger a relaxation response in your mind so your body can heal itself. For me, one of my main triggers is creating textile art.’

Jane is a member of TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club where she participates in as many workshops as possible. She also attends a monthly stitching workshop, a monthly felting group and a weekly crafting group.

Soft, red rose started as a contribution to an upcoming exhibit for Jane’s local stitching group. Artists were asked to create a red rose (the emblem of Lancashire) in a hoop for an exhibition at Astley Hall. Shortly after Jane started composing her work, she viewed Jenny McIlhatton’s Stitch Club workshop, which featured folding, rolling, twisting and loosely stitching different fabrics. It was exactly what she had been attempting to do!

‘The techniques gave my work texture, loft and character. I used all kinds of scraps from my fabric stash – from curtain samples to fine cottons and scrims. I love their soft fraying. I also adore silk velvet and used that for the soft folds of the rose. A piece of hand-dyed red silk is in the centre.’

The stem and leaves were created from a piece of printed cotton covered with loop stitches, and red French knots also added texture. In addition to being pleased with the result, Jane said it also boosted her creative confidence.

‘I think by indulging in any kind of creative practice, you can forget your cares, and enter into a sense of wonder and playfulness that can be very healing. Honouring your creativity is your way of bringing love into the world. The secret is to carry that lovely feeling back into your life once your play session is over!’

Jane lives in the picturesque Ribble Valley in Lancashire, UK. She is a writer for TextileArtist.org where she loves interviewing and writing about a wide variety of textile artists. Jane participated in her first exhibition called Colours, Textures and Heritage of Lancashire (2022) with Ribble Creative Stitchers and the Bolton Stitch Group.

Instagram: @jaxtextiles

Do you put up barriers to starting and if so, where do you find that helping hand to get you off the ground?

‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step’, said Dao De Jing.

If you’ve lost confidence and haven’t picked up a needle or sat at a sewing machine for a while, taking that step can feel momentous.

But, even the most experienced artists had to start somewhere. No one was born with a needle and thread in their hand. Perhaps you grew up in a creative family, had encouraging teachers or felt a pull to attend art college? Or maybe you’re only finding the time or confidence to pursue your passion after parenthood or retirement?

Is creativity born or bred? Can anyone become a textile artist? We asked one of the most dedicated Stitch Club members to share her story in a quest to find out.

Heléne Forsberg: finding happiness in making

Despite having had a love of art since childhood and an interest in stitch since 2009, Heléne Forsberg, who lives in Stockholm, Sweden, would often find herself gripped by indecision. She would deliberate over her choice of fabric and threads and, in particular, which techniques to use to achieve the quality of textile art she aspired to.

In fact, though she had dabbled in textile art for a decade, she didn’t feel she had the skills to fully immerse herself in her practice and produce top quality textile art.

Heléne told us how she boosted her knowledge of techniques and was able to make art that satisfied her soul, and gave her the confidence to exhibit and enjoy a community of like-minded stitchers. All of which elevated her skills and happiness to new heights. She has seen her confidence and her stitch skills soar over the last two years. Here she shares her story with us.

Heléne Forsberg: ‘I spent over a decade working in an office with papers and numbers, and being very organised. When I turned 30, I started painting as a hobby and had my first small exhibition in 2001. 

When I started stitching in 2009, I made a decision to challenge myself. I became really hooked on stitching from the start, and I can honestly say I have stitched almost every day since 2010, although I’m still making up my mind about which kind of textile art practice I would like to focus on.

Starting with TextileArtist.org

My first encounter with TextileArtist.org was at the start of 2019 when I started a one-year-long online course ‘Stitch your Story with Sue Stone’. This turned out to be the most fantastic experience!

A year later the pandemic had started and, at a time when many people were confined to their homes, TextileArtist.org offered seven free online Community Stitch Challenges on Facebook. I took part in those and loved the professionalism of the workshops and the contact with people from around the world. When they followed up with Stitch Club, I didn’t hesitate to sign up as one of their founding members.

Progressing with Stitch Club

As the pandemic continued, the members formed a happy community online. My other stitching groups in real life in Stockholm were, of course, cancelled.

The members in Stitch Club are like a modern kind of pen pal to me. But instead of writing letters to each other in the post, we have the immediacy of online communication, sharing photos of our work in the members area.

It’s such a generous and inspiring place. As it’s a global community, there’s always someone active when you’re sharing your own work or commenting on somebody else’s. I also love the sharing of things like culture and nature motifs with my global stitching friends. My English has improved greatly these past couple of years too.

Friendships and connection

For me, there are two great benefits to being a member of Stitch Club. I love the pen pal feeling – that camaraderie between the members. Right from the start, I decided that I wanted to contribute towards creating and maintaining this positive environment. In real life I like to inspire people to be creative, to enjoy life and find their true passion which, for many of us, is creating something of our own, working with our hands.

I find it extraordinarily special to have connected with others around the globe through our love of stitch, even though we live so far apart. I now have stitching friends in Australia, USA and all over Europe.

I first met Irene Curren from Scotland in April 2021 via Zoom. We are both founding members of Stitch Club and also meet in an online sub-group fortnightly with five others. We’d love to meet up in person and we’re all based in Europe so it might actually work!

We always discuss the current or previous workshop. But as we’ve got to know each other we talk about all kinds of things. We have become online friends.

Photobook record

We’ve shown each other our sketchbooks and Irene’s are fantastic. Made for Ali Ferguson´s workshop, they’re now filled with notes and examples of many Stitch Club workshops. Once, she held up a printed photo book of her textile art and I was inspired to develop one as a record of my Stitch Club pieces. I’ve made one for each workshop interpretation I did in 2020 and 2021, and plan to make one for 2022 at the end of the year. I’ve listed all the workshops by their name and the name of the workshop leader. The online versions can be viewed via my website. 

I feel really happy about having documented my work this way. I’ve received lots of lovely compliments and it also helps me to take a step back and view all my pieces from a new perspective: I always learn more about myself and my textile journey whilst putting them together and then looking through them. 

In real life they are sitting in my studio, some mounted and some still waiting. It would be nice to show them in an exhibition someday – perhaps together with other Club members? That would be so much fun!

Gaining self belief

One of the greatest transformations I’ve made is in my new-found ability to make quick decisions. Prior to Stitch Club, I was incredibly slow – very ambivalent – and I would agonise over this and that. I’d take so long to decide what to stitch or which one of the 100 ideas popping out of my head to follow through with.

Now, I nearly always go with the very first idea that pops into my head after seeing the new workshop video. That’s also helped me to refine my sketching habits. 

Naturally, I’ve improved my stitching a great deal since starting Stitch Club too. It’s no wonder, with all the practice I get.

Becoming structured, consistent and no longer agonising over all the decisions (I literally spent hours deliberating before) has turned me into a person who believes in myself.

Let’s face it, there just isn’t the time to execute all the ideas in my head. So now I just go with the first one. It’s so much easier, and I can always adjust that idea while in the process of making the piece.

Gaining new skills from experts is phenomenal. I’ve learned so many new interesting techniques that, combined with the skills and knowledge I already had, I’ve now got the ability to work on my projects much more creatively. The experts inspire me and enable me to believe it’s possible to make such marvellous pieces of art. It’s definitely taken me to heights I hadn’t dreamed of before.

The scope of the Stitch Club workshop leaders´ practices is huge. They all show that the possibilities for creativity are endless. Being creative is fun and we should all have a try at it!

Once you have learned the language of stitch it’s easier to speak and express what you truly feel or want.

Making and taking time

I’m also driven by my passion, enjoyment, curiosity and determination to learn and improve.

The motivation I get from interacting with the other members, seeing how they interpret the workshops and getting feedback and support for my own interpretations is truly inspiring.

The online community is so encouraging that I don’t find it at all difficult to make the time to do the workshops.

I have a routine that’s very clear to me and my family. Every Friday night, after having our traditional pizza, I watch the new video before going to bed. Then I sleep on it. In the morning I choose my material and generally go with the very first idea. If there is time I start stitching Saturday morning. If not, I do it at the beginning of the following week. 

I go with the flow, and I feel no pressure. If it has to be a really small piece, so it is. That’s my way of giving myself a fun treat. I give myself the permission to spend a few hours on my number one hobby and it helps me with my daily routines.

Motivation to make – the why?

Mostly, what drives me is curiosity! I want to realise my ideas and make them work. I find it very satisfying to develop my own adaptation and altering of techniques and materials. I also like to surprise myself when I create and not be too repetitive with predictable outcomes. 

Making is an adventure to me. I love to experiment and constantly develop my knowledge and skill through practice. Cross-referencing techniques, choosing the colour combinations for my new projects and exploring the possibilities of various materials – I love all of that. 

I can be a neat stitcher and be super detailed, organised, thorough and patient. Or I can go in quickly, boldly and make crazy-looking things. Then I’ll finish by balancing the piece up at the end, adding that final stitch or piece of colour. 

The reward is my satisfaction when I look at my new piece and think: ‘I made it, I could make it work!’ It’s like creating my own mini universe, making something that didn’t previously exist completely from scratch out of my materials, through my eyes and hands and my newly gained knowledge.

I love to create and see unique things emerge through my hands, not following ready made patterns. It’s a freedom I value immensely.

Creativity and flow

I have never had any troubles with my creativity. More trouble with discipline, motivation and energy. For 10 years I had experienced an increasing state of fatigue, which was finally diagnosed as hypothyroidism and low iron levels. I started on medication in 2019, so when Stitch Club started I had regained some of my energy, though I was still lacking a bit of that daily motivation.

The workshops have helped me to keep up the tempo, which I love because I’m back to my former level of motivation. Doing all the workshops and chatting with my Stitch Club friends has become a very comfortable habit, and it’s easy to do from home.

The variety and abundance of all the workshops has helped me to be able to say ‘you are ok’. I am not alone in being a creative and eccentric person! 

I think I’d previously felt different and somewhat alone in spending time on creating textile art, not even being too bothered about selling any of it. Now I’m in a group of dedicated stitchers, and for that I’m truly grateful.

A new favourite technique

One textile technique I just LOVE and didn’t do much of before Stitch Club, is textile collage. I see myself making lots of those in the future! I am currently gathering and sorting my material for that, having fun combining various colours, fabric and threads just the way I like them.

As my local groups start up again in the autumn of 2022 I am looking forward to telling them about the huge leaps in my textile practice since 2020 and to show them my 2020 and 2021 Stitch Club photobooks.

And, last but not least, simply the fact that I’m being interviewed for TextileArtist.org about my experiences makes me feel honoured and happy. Who would have expected that two years ago? I appreciate this opportunity and hope people will be inspired and motivated to follow their passion like I have.

Embracing your curiosity, stepping forward

Whether you’re looking for success in your art or in your work, is there a common ingredient – perhaps one that Heléne has described – that can take you there? Many have studied the nature versus nurture question and the conclusion is – it’s commitment that works. 

In his book Outliers: The Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell concludes that practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good: it’s the thing that makes you good. He gives as an example the years of long nights played in German clubs by the Beatles before their big break came along.

This article tells the story of Giorgio Armani, who abandoned his medical studies to pursue a fashion career, starting at the bottom as a window dresser. As he took opportunities to learn new skills and practise them, he developed what appeared to be a natural ability – another word for talent.

For some practical advice, creatives can take inspiration from Elizabeth Gilbert, the writer who started by taking jobs in diners by day while writing by night, to reach international acclaim as an author with her book Eat Pray Love. Her book Big Magic encourages us to embrace our curiosity and move forward. It describes how to tackle what we most love, and how to confront what we most fear.

When lockdowns confined us to our homes, so many of our normal sources of communication – through work, socialising, travel, hobbies and sports – were abruptly terminated and we were forced to rethink.

How did you cope during that uncertain time? The initial fear may have led to feelings of isolation, anxiety or even depression. Perhaps you felt a malaise, or a lack of inspiration?

Or perhaps you felt that there was a choice, and you asked yourself: what do I really want to do with my time? It was an opportunity to choose between the bright side or the dark side.

Textile artist and card designer Jean Rill-Alberto told us how online connections opened up a whole new world of opportunity for her. ‘When the pandemic began, I found a Stitch Meditation group on Facebook. I joined and tentatively stitched my first self portrait. The group was a wonderfully supportive community and a place to remain encouraged while keeping our hands busy doing what we love. And those connections and experiences have lasted and grown way beyond lockdown.’

Home-based hobbies

Zoom literally zoomed in popularity and the upsurge in online tutorials opened doors that had been previously closed. Were you one of those who turned to yoga in your living room, or stitching at your dining table?

For many with a love of stitch like Jean, their stash became their best friend. Sewing cupboards were tidied, stashes were well and truly busted and new projects begun – even completed!

Feeling compelled to do our part in helping the textile art community combat feelings of isolation, in March 2020 TextileArtist.org responded to lockdown with seven free online Community Stitch Challenge workshops led by some of the world’s most inspiring and experienced textile artists.

The demand was so great during those seven free weeks that our private membership, the TextileArtist.org Stitch Club, was born and has continued to offer exciting creative learning opportunities for members way beyond lockdown.

Stitching together online

Anne Brooke of Brighouse in Yorkshire, UK has been a Stitch Club member since the very beginning and has found the regular practice invaluable in developing her own work.

‘I love having the opportunity to work alongside artists I would never have the opportunity to work with in person.’

Anne explains: ‘The Stitch Club community is so valuable and seeing the work others post in the workshops inspires me to pick up a needle and stitch. I think it’s also fab that everyone is so supportive of each other, chatting online and commenting on each other’s work. Even if you don’t have time to take part in every workshop, there’s a lot to take away in just watching and being inspired by a new technique that you may use or come back to later.’

‘Myself and a group of friends meet up to stitch together. Over lockdown we watched the Stitch Club workshop videos and worked together via Zoom, and now we do this in person. The last one we did was after Anne Kelly gave a talk to our group Fabricology (formally Halifax Embroiderers’ Guild), and that week Anne ran the Stitch Club workshop too, so my friends and I got together to watch her workshop and stitch.

During the lockdowns I developed some of my own online community projects, such as #52tagshannemade. Initially they were for my own mindfulness and I videoed them to share with others. As more and more people joined in, the project was stitched all over the world. The messages I have received have been overwhelming, thanking me for keeping people busy and inspired to stitch, which is what the Stitch Club did for me.’

‘Community is a really important part of stitching that has been passed down from generation to generation and has become a huge part of my life.’

Dedication to stitch

Heléne Forsberg of Stockholm, Sweden has taken part in every single Stitch Club workshop since the very beginning, not only sharing her work on the Facebook group but also producing a photobook of her beautiful mixed media work. 

Heléne has been painting for over 20 years and has stitched virtually every day since 2010. In 2011 she became an artist and tutor and has never stopped learning, honing her skills and practising her craft.

In lockdown Heléne joined each of the seven Community Stitch Challenges: ‘When Stitch Club presented the opportunity to continue the regular workshops I didn’t hesitate to join. The other members have become like modern-day pen pals to me but, instead of writing letters to each other taking several days to arrive, we write online and share photos of our stitched pieces.’

‘It’s a fantastic way to share my love and engagement for stitching with like-minded people. Because it is a global community, there is always someone active in the members area. And I’ve improved my English so much too!’

‘I now have stitching friends in Australia, the United States and all over Europe and I connect with a few outside Stitch Club too. 

I first met Irene Curren, who is based in Scotland, in April 2021. Seven of us have formed a group which meets via Zoom every couple of weeks. We are all in Europe and would like to meet up in person one day. 

We always talk about the current or previous workshop and share ideas and our own pieces and projects we are working on. We show each other our sketchbooks – Irene has fantastic, thick sketchbooks! She inspired me to print my own Stitch Club photobook after holding her printed books up to the camera in one of our Zoom meetings! 

My photo book ‘Heléne Forsberg – Stitch Club 2020’ has been printed and can be viewed online, the 2021 version is in the making and I’ll follow that with one for 2022. It would be nice to show them in an exhibition some day – perhaps together with the work of other Stitch Club members? That would be so much fun!’

Irene adds: ‘Our group has developed into a friendly supportive group with members from Sweden, Belgium, Germany, England, Scotland and Wales. We all share our ideas and learn a lot.’

‘Heléne’s been particularly generous in explaining techniques and how she produces her work, and that’s really helpful and inspiring. Her working sketch books have given me ideas, and after chatting with her and Mieke, I’ve developed the sketchbooks I made in the Ali Ferguson Stitch Club workshop into something more interesting and artistic.’

‘To me the group has been a lifeline. I’ve enjoyed chatting with people from other countries about their traditions, skills, techniques – and having a laugh!’

Blossoming creativity

Alongside Stitch Club, TextileArtist.org has continued to offer the occasional free workshop for the wider community. 

The Community Stitch Challenge was revived in 2021 and then in 2022, we developed a free five-day workshop led by artist and author of the bestselling book Drawn to Stitch. We called it Stitch Camp.

Under Gwen’s clear and gentle guidance there was an unprecedented blossoming of creativity, connection, encouragement and gratitude in the 12,000 strong Facebook group where work was shared.

When artist Caryla Chambers of Sioux Hill, South Dakota, USA took part, she hadn’t touched her materials for a long time and she didn’t sew. 

She told us how she began from scratch, rediscovering her energy and making new friends: ‘Oh, Stitch Camp started it all for me! I decided I wanted to do something new. The idea of painting and marking on fabric appealed to me so I jumped in head first. I didn’t have any fabric, so I used an old linen blouse. I didn’t even have embroidery floss or needles. My weaver friend Joan donated needles, a pin cushion, small scissors and floss to get me started!’

From little acorns…

After Stitch Camp, Kim Saxe in the US (a founding member of Stitch Club) and Sharon Hope in Scotland formed the Stitch Camp social group on Facebook to help participants stay connected beyond the free workshop.

Kim has voluntarily organised projects like ‘work-in-progress Wednesdays’, local meet-ups for coffee, cake and project sharing and a stitched postcard swap connecting over 270 of the group’s members across the world.

Taking the first step

As lockdowns hopefully disappear into the annals of the history books, online textile art workshops continue to thrive, offering a more convenient and cost effective way to develop your practice in your own time at home with all of your tools and materials on hand. 

But perhaps even more powerful are the connections that are springing up through online groups right across the world, breaking down cultural and national barriers. We are becoming one world.

One thing’s for sure, if you can stitch, you’re never very far away from a new friend.

Take-aways for developing friendship and connection online:

Know yourself. Ask yourself what you’re interested in doing. Is it a desire you’ve been harbouring since childhood? Or a hobby you’ve not found much time for before? Something new you’d like to try?

Find your tribe. Find online training that includes a community where you can not only develop your skills, you can do it alongside supportive people who understand and share your passion.

Reach out. Chat to those people, share your experience, ask questions and advice.

Keep in touch. If you feel like making a closer connection within an online learning community, start a smaller group or offer to exchange contact information. If that feels scary, put that to the back of your mind and take a risk. Trust in the fact that people really are kind and want to join with others.

Stay tuned to TextileArtist.org. We’ll be opening up registration for Stitch Club (which we only do twice a year) very soon.

If you’ve found new friends through textile art, or if you’re already a member of Stitch Club, we’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below. How have you found friendship and connection with likeminded people, and how has it affected your own creative practice? 

A key benefit of our early childhood education was the opportunity to try new and different things. Especially with non-curricular activities. Music programs encouraged us to try out various instruments and vocal singing styles. Sports programs offered a variety of competitive experiences indoors and out. Arts programs presented both visual and performing opportunities.

There was a good reason behind all those options: all that ‘dabbling’ helped us discover our passions and strengths. Emphasis was placed on trying out and exploring new things, and little pressure was placed on ‘choosing’ or ‘perfecting’ a particular activity. That’s what made it fun!

Unfortunately, as adults starting out on our creative journey (or coming back to it after years of not picking up a needle and thread), we tend to forget the joy and benefits of dabbling. Instead, we pressure ourselves to commit to a particular endeavor. Like a soon-to-be graduate, we bombard ourselves with questions like ‘what style of textile art do I want to create?’ or ‘which techniques or materials best suit me?’

It’s okay not to know the answers. And it’s more than okay to dabble! That’s how you’ll find out.

Why not return to that childhood approach of exploration and play for a while? Regardless of whether you’re stitching for fun or on a more dedicated pursuit to find your creative voice, dabbling can get you there.

You won’t be wasting time or energy. Dabbling is an investment in your creative future. Each workshop you do or technique you try helps lay the path for more in-depth work later on. And you don’t have to finish every piece you start.

Think back to the first box of crayons or set of paints you had as a child. It’s unlikely you stared at those colourful objects, refusing to touch them, wondering if you could create a masterpiece. More probably you eagerly grabbed a crayon or splashed your brush deep into the water jar and started spreading colours across the paper.

You also likely had plenty of unfinished work lying about as you moved from one creative adventure to the next. Perhaps you remembered that new Lego set needed your attention or your mum invited you to learn to bake cookies. No matter. Whether you returned to your painting or left it to beautifully languish, you learned something.

That’s the same creative approach we encourage you to take at the start of your textile art journey. Even as an adult, dabbling can help unlock your future artistic voice.

The joy of bits and bobs

Years back, business guru Malcom Gladwell popularised the notion that it took at least 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in a given field. It’s a catchy notion. But to make such a commitment, you must first choose a particular technique or material that suits your creative interest. Not easy!

And even if 10,000 hours of practice leads to mastering a technique, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll enjoy that technique. What a shame to spend all that creative time on a skill that didn’t inspire!

This is why dabbling better serves your creative journey. Ironically, not committing to a particular technique can ultimately inform any in-depth creative choices you make in the future. Why? Because you’ll discover which techniques truly inspire.

When Helen Cooper started participating in Stitch Club workshops, she found herself feeling self-imposed pressure to become an expert in her textile art journey. She had retired from academia where her work had been filled with overseeing students and research.

“It was all a rush in academia, and I transferred that onto my textile practice. But with the help of the Stitch Club workshop leaders, I’ve come to realise I was too focused on the outcome. The process is far more important. That was a huge door opening for me. Stop your rushing!”

Helen Cooper

As Helen suggests, it’s not about ‘practice’ when you’re dabbling.

Instead, it’s about experimenting. You’re simply attempting a new creative approach to see what happens.

Push yourself to try something new

We tend to be creatures of habit, even with our art ventures. We tell ourselves what we’re ‘good at’ (which is often what feels most comfortable) and ignore the rest.

That’s a self-defeating approach to creativity, as it prevents you from truly experimenting. Doing the same thing that leads to the same outcome doesn’t help you grow as an artist.

Indeed, it does take gumption to try something totally new, but we promise the take-away in doing so is well worth it.

Stitch Club member Jane Cook faced this dilemma when one of the weekly workshops focused on stitching figures and people.

“I knew that was not my thing and thought I am definitely not going to do that workshop. But when I saw what everyone else was doing, I got inspired and gave it a go. I could not have been more delighted and surprised with the pieces I created.”

Jane Cook

Remind yourself no one is looking, keep an open mind, and take the plunge into creative adventures.

Ask yourself ‘what if?’

Some experimentation requires you to jump ship from your preferred techniques, materials or tools. In fact, those favorites can also serve as foundations for your exploration.

Textile artist Jodi Colella always encourages her students to ask ‘what if…?’ to help push their experimentation forward. And she poses that question to herself to make sure her own work continues to evolve.

“If you love red, then experiment with 100 kinds of red. Or if you love silk, experiment with different kinds of threads on silk.”

Jodi Colella

Jodi especially likes to have students create 10 small studies that are easy to complete, each responding to a unique ‘what if?’ question. What if I use yarn for this version? What if I paint the background red in this version? What if I tear the fabric for this version?

“The first four or five samples will definitely feature deviations because you’re pushing hard. But they’ll also still be somewhat close to the original. It’s when you move into the sixth or more samples that those “what if” questions really start to push your creativity.”

Jodi Colella

It’s okay not to like something

Not every technique or material will suit your fancy, and that’s okay!

Unlike your mother saying you must eat everything on your plate, we encourage you to take what looks appetising and leave the rest. But we do encourage you to at least take a taste of everything.

There’s as much learning in not liking something as there is in activities we enjoy. It’s helpful to know strip weaving is not your thing or French Knots are just too frustrating. And it’s not because you weren’t successful. It’s because you just don’t enjoy those techniques.

Not liking something isn’t the same as doing something wrong.

Happy mistakes

Perhaps the biggest challenge to trying new things is fear of failure. You look at an instructor’s work or a finished project and think you could never achieve the same outcome.

Again, you need to remind yourself that you’re simply dabbling, and mistakes are okay. And those mistakes can actually push you in new directions. There’s no such thing as wasted effort when you’re experimenting, and it’s critical to artistic growth.

If everything you attempt turns out exactly as you hope, it’s likely you’re following a formula for success that’s ‘safe.’ That may initially feel good, but that doesn’t mean you’re growing or evolving in your creative journey.

Mistakes are truly opportunities for learning. And with a mindset of play, they can serve as a true adventure.

Don’t be afraid to copy at first

‘Originality’ can be another concern we face on our creative journeys. We are hugely inspired by a variety of artists, yet we worry we’ll be seen as copycats or imposters if we attempt to mimic their styles.

Textile artist Clarissa Callesen wants you to know copying when dabbling is not only okay, it’s the way we learn in any artistic endeavor.

‘When a child learns to play piano, she’s not expected to start with composing. Instead, she plays “Mary Had A Little Lamb” over and over and over. Eventually she’ll move on to harder and more challenging pieces. But that copying plays an important role in her development.’

Clarissa agrees we don’t want to only copy. It is important to ultimately express that which is special to us. So, how to do that?

“Originality is like a collage. So, I encourage artists to combine all the inspirations they learn from copying into something that eventually becomes their own style and voice.”

Clarissa Callesen

Clarissa also wants you to remember it’s impossible to exactly copy another person’s work. We are not machines, so the fact your brain and hands made the choices and did the work prevents you from making an exact replica of another artist’s work.

Tips for dabbling

As adults, we can have a knee-jerk resistance to the notion of dabbling. ‘Focus’ and ‘productivity’ take center stage and can even feel like moral imperatives.

But it doesn’t have to be that way when it comes to your textile art journey. Here are some tips for regaining your dabbling mojo:

1 Use or re-use what you have on hand

We can sometimes worry about the expense of trying new techniques. We don’t want to waste good fabrics, tools or supplies. So, whenever possible, try to use what you have at hand.

Barbara Cotterell, one of the founding members of the Material Space Textile Group, tries hard not to buy anything new and always prefers to work with found materials, mostly from around the home.

Of course, there are no hard and fast rules. Every now and again you will need to replenish your supplies. But before you rush out and buy the exact type of fabric suggested by a workshop leader, ask yourself what you already have at home that could be used as an alternative.

Many textile art techniques use very simple approaches that are combined in inventive ways. And who knows? You may invent a new technique of your own using that old scrap of linen.

2 Set a timer

It’s easy to give up when something doesn’t work exactly as we hoped. But remember, it’s the process that counts. After you line up your materials, try to commit to spending at least 15-20 minutes playing with a new technique.

Try to set judgment aside and just see what happens. Remember, you’re creating a sample, not a full masterpiece.

3 Unfinished work is okay

Life happens and interests can wane. Don’t beat yourself up if you have to put your needle down to attend to family matters. And don’t worry if you discover a particular technique or material just doesn’t suit your fancy. Whatever time and energy you put into sampling counts as an investment in your creative journey.

Before she embraced the notion of dabbling, Stitch Club member Laura Otten told herself everything she did with textiles had to lead somewhere ‘significant.’

“Doing various workshops, I have gained skills I didn’t even know I needed or wanted. It hadn’t occurred to me to do some of these techniques, and I really enjoy them. It’s really given me back my creativity and it’s given me permission to just do what I can. I don’t have to come out with a big finished piece, just working is enough. I now see the value in experimentation and it really does inform the work I make that isn’t inspired by a particular workshop.”

Laura Otten

4 Ask yourself ‘What If?’

Think about a favourite technique, material or tool, and then ask yourself how to turn it on its head. What if you use chunky yarn or ribbon for that stitch? What if you add beading? What if you cut a finished sample apart and reassemble it differently? Create multiple small samples to explore the possibilities.

5 Combine experiments

As you learn new techniques, look for ways to combine them into new pieces of work. Maybe that blanket stitch you just learned could be combined with a collage technique. Or perhaps that new felting technique could be combined with an appliqué technique.

Long-term dabbling is an investment that really starts to pay off and helps you uncover your own visual vocabulary. Stitch Club member Gill Tyson discovered that phenomenon while watching other members post their samples that combined learning across various workshops.

“They would post, “I used a bit of this and a bit of that.” That’s when real learning is taking place, because people are pulling that knowledge and experience together. The end outcome is greater and more original, because it’s like a collage of ideas and elements. It’s very fulfilling. And it’s a huge achievement.”

Gill Tyson

The possibilities are endless!

6 Record what happens

Write down the materials, techniques and supplies you used, in case you want to use them again in the future. Always try to record what happens without being too critical of your end result. Simply focus upon what you enjoyed about the process and what you might do differently in the future.

Textile artist Cas Holmes lives by the mantra ‘reflect, create, record,’ including making note of the things that didn’t go well. Her mistakes reveal exciting new directions for her work, and she sees trying new things as part of an ongoing investigative process that informs the evolution of her work.

It’s time to celebrate that these experiences are once again possible.

But before you delete your social media accounts and donate your iPad to charity, pause a second.

Haven’t there been more than a few positives to the world of stitch and mixed media being forced to go virtual?

A portal to creative possibilities

During the pandemic, we’ve been exposed to a whole range of new and exciting ways to engage with our creativity that don’t exist ‘in-person’.

The internet has become a direct line to the studios of textile artists on the other side of the earth. We’ve learned weird and wonderful techniques and processes we hadn’t considered, or even heard of, before. And, despite not being in the same room as the people we’ve been communicating with, we’ve been inspired by fellow stitchers we’d never get the chance to meet offline.

Maybe you’re thinking, “OK. I can see how an online textile art workshop might be a nice add-on to in-person classes.”

But what if it were the other way round?

After all, even when the world resumes regular service, there are times when in-person workshops and courses just don’t fit.

When in-person isn’t possible

Sometimes cost can be a barrier. Not everyone has a couple of hundred quid to stump up on a regular basis, or can afford travel and accommodation for a special workshop.

“I live in a remote part of the UK and I recently paid 450 pounds for an art week, plus travel and accommodation. It’s a lot of money.  Doing workshops online gives such value for money. I’m getting to choose things that wouldn’t possibly be available in such abundance.”

Judith Sutherland, Stitch Club member

Sometimes you can be constrained by what’s available in your area. If you’re passionate about building your toolkit of exciting techniques and processes and developing your visual vocabulary with textiles, the local Knit’n’Natter in the library on Thursday afternoons might not cut it.

Maybe the only artist group near you is by invitation only, and you don’t have the confidence to call yourself a textile artist (yet).

Perhaps you feel that you don’t belong anywhere.

Sometimes it’s flexibility. You just can’t make Tuesday nights, because of work or family commitments. Sometimes your health lets you down, and you can’t predict when you’ll have a bad day. What’s the point of committing to something you might not be able to attend?

“I have a ‘health hiccup’. Some days I have absolutely no energy. If that happens to be a workshop day, then it’s not easy to really take the workshop on board. But with pre-recorded workshops online, I’m not restricted to a given day. I can do it when it’s convenient for me.”

Sarah Edwards, Stitch Club member

When in-person feels uncomfortable

If you’re at the beginning of your creative journey, the thought of being in a room filled with experienced, creative stitchers can be daunting.

Maybe you’ve been to workshops where you’ve felt intimidated by your fellow students who all seemed so confident and technically accomplished. You might have been wary of asking a “stupid” question. Or maybe the loudest person in the room never stopped hoovering up the tutor’s attention.

And with so many stitchers of varying levels of experience, it’s easy to feel rushed. You might have found yourself falling further and further behind, ending the day with nothing much to show for your efforts.

Or conversely, you might have become frustrated that the workshop was plodding along too slowly to accommodate the one person who never learned to do running stitch as a child.

How online learning can become a key part of your creative practice

It’s true that in-person workshops DO offer something you can’t get online.

And the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly thrown a whole load of death-by-Zoom stuff at us: disorganised, unfocused online meetings where everyone is talking over each other, the tutor is mumbling and the demonstration is unclear and uninspiring.

But that’s not what we’re talking about here.

Well organised and properly put together online workshops have a whole host of benefits that aren’t always possible with the in-person experience.

• Expert guidance from world-renowned textile artists who take you through a creative process, but encourage you to express yourself personally, so that what you make is distinctively ‘you’ (not a copycat of their own work)
• A rich resource of on-tap video tutorials available 24/7 that you can dip in and out of at your own pace, on your own schedule, depending on your wiggly life and your own specific interests
• A range of supporting materials to enhance and clarify your experience, like step by step workbooks and inspirational ebooks
• A forum to ask your workshop leaders questions and get feedback
• A private online community of supportive people from all over the world who share your passion and understand your journey
• An atmosphere of kindness and support
• Real humans behind the scenes to guide you and help you if technical gremlins rear their ugly heads (it happens to the best of us)

Because it’s more affordable, more flexible and can fit around your other commitments, online learning can act as the backbone of your creative development and go hand-in-hand with the occasional in-person workshop.

1 Online learning is flexible so you don’t need to be

Whatever your constraints, your workshop is there for you 24/7, rather than once a week on Thursdays.

Choose a schedule that suits your time and responsibilities, whether that’s five minutes a day for stitching practice, or a week-long textile art staycation set aside for layering and embroidering a panel. Your workshop won’t disappear if you don’t use it for six months.

“Online workshops help me break things into manageable chunks. If I don’t have four hours to work on a piece, I can get something done in 30 minutes, and then tomorrow, I can spend 30 more minutes. And at the end of the week, I’m going to have something I’m proud of to show for it.”

Laura Otten, Stitch Club participant.

Online learning makes it easier for you to go at your own pace.

This is becoming even more important in a post-Covid world, where your life might be getting back to the days of ‘normal’ time pressures. With no course deadlines, you can’t fall behind, but there’s always a structure to follow, so you can never lose your way.

2 Online learning supports your style

Some of us are action learners in the extreme, learning better by stash diving and riding our creativity on a wave of playtime.

Some of us are reflectors: we like to carefully watch, reflect, and watch again before we try out something new.

Some of us like to revisit or repeat previous workshops to reinforce our learning.

Online workshops have the flexibility and content that caters for the way you learn best.

3 Online learning widens your artistic horizon

“The artists come from many places, many different backgrounds, many different parts of the world, and that expands my vision immensely. I’m doing things I never would have done and meeting artists I never would have met and my practice is evolving because of that.”

Wanda Moon, Stitch Club member

A good online workshop is your portal to learning from a global community of expert tutors.

Online workshops aren’t limited by geography, and this means that you can learn skills and techniques from artists from anywhere. It’s your window on the world of textile art, giving you different perspectives and enhancing your vision for your own practice.

4 Online learning offers a diverse, supportive community

“It’s a safe haven, with a nurturing feeling where I can learn and grow and socialise with people from all over the world with a common passion. These are my people.”

Lee Thermaenius, Stitch Club

Enjoy the freedom to connect with people from across the world who want the same thing as you – to have a creative outlet, to stitch joyfully, to learn and develop confidence as textile artists.

It’s a real meeting of enthusiasts, and a place that makes you feel you belong. Be inspired by other people’s stories, by their differences and by your similarities. It’s your global community from the comforts of your own home. It’s a safe space to share ideas, struggles, solutions and finished pieces with supportive, creative people.

“I get more than just sitting there watching somebody teaching me to stitch. I get a whole emotional support for my hobby.”

Judith Sutherland, Stitch Club member

With online textile art workshops, you have time and space to give and receive constructive feedback and suggestions. But only if you want to. That’s the beauty of online. You can lurk in the background, enjoying the learning and gaining confidence and skills from a structured learning journey. You can show your work (or not). You can ask questions (or not).

Stitching a new normal for textile art

So perhaps the way you develop your creative practice going forward looks a bit different to the pre-pandemic normal? Maybe it’s not a case of either/or? Perhaps in-person and online can go hand-in-hand to help you build a more meaningful and rounded approach to making textile art?

Why not tell us about your positive online experiences with textile art workshops in the comments below?

“I want to spend time being creative.

It’s an important part of my life. But it’s very easy to say and not so easy to do.”

Like a baby bird madly flapping its wings and barely leaving the ground, at the beginning of your creative journey you’re likely to stumble and fall. You have the will, but lack the basic tools to express yourself confidently with fabric and thread.

But slowly, as you begin to connect (or reconnect) with your imagination and ingenuity, the more joyful the process becomes and eventually you take flight.

As you uncover your own personal way of making textile art through regular practice, the higher you soar!

But what if you’re flying solo?

When even the people you’re closest to don’t understand that creativity is an integral part of who you are, momentum can be tough to sustain.

Your wings may feel slightly heavier after a well-meaning but dismissive remark from a partner or family member about ‘tinkering with textiles’. Comments about ‘wasting time and money’ on a ‘little hobby’ can see you nose diving. Add to that the distant memory of a harsh critique from an embroidery teacher (“Wonky, uneven stitches!”) and you’re coming in for an emergency landing!

Finding the people who do understand can be transformative for your creativity, your self esteem and your life.

Take it from Jess, Yvonne, Marie, Joan, Sarah, Becca, Sharon, Erica, Vicki, Karen and Linda, collectively known as Gathering Threads.

Covid, Christmas & creativity

It was the 19th of December 2020. Coronavirus cases were out of control here in the UK, new unknowable variants were emerging and Christmas had effectively been cancelled.

But amongst all of that dark came a ray of hope and positivity: an email from a TextileArtist.org Stitch Club member called Jess Richardson.

Here’s what she had to say.

Hi Joe, Sam and everyone at TextileArtist Central,

As we approach the end of the year on a day full of more grim news we just wanted to let you know how much we have loved being part of Stitch Club this year.

We are a group of ladies from four different countries. Most of us didn't know each other before joining and probably never would have met but we’ve gravitated together.

We started meeting online at the same time each week to discuss our progress with the Stitch Club workshops, offer advice and encouragement and share our love of textile practice.

We’re also in regular contact via our WhatsApp group where we chat about fab things, sad things and other news from our lives. We have swapped bits from our textile stash and been generous with our friendship.

In the run up to Christmas we organised a Tree Decoration and Card Swap and made something for one of the others in our group. Today we held an online meeting to open up these parcels. Attached is a screenshot of this happy occasion.

Without doubt these new friends and Stitch Club have become one of the most important things in our lives. Thank you very much for all the effort you put into making it a great experience for us all.

Merry Christmas

From Jess, Yvonne, Marie, Joan, Sarah, Becca, Sharon, Erica, Vicki, Karen and Linda

We were so thrilled that we arranged to gatecrash one of the Gathering Threads online meet-ups.

The passion, positivity, mutual respect and warmth in that Zoom call was palpable. This is a group of ladies whose creativity has been fuelled and whose practice has been enhanced by a sense of belonging.

Let’s meet the woman who started it all… Sharon Eynon.

All the gear, no idea!

As a child Sharon was always more comfortable resetting spark plugs with her dad than threading a needle with her mum. So when she inherited her mum’s extensive textile stash in 2014 she had absolutely no idea what to do with it.

It wasn’t until four years later, when Sharon started exploring the creative possibilities of fabric and thread in an online course with Sue Stone, that she began to understand her late mum’s love of embroidery. Finally, a way to put all her beautiful “bits and pieces” to good use!

As a founding member of Stitch Club, Sharon’s enthusiasm for making textile art continued to grow.

After feeling particularly inspired by a workshop from artist and bestselling textile author Mandy Pattullo, Sharon found herself eager to share ideas and investigate the possibilities of the process more deeply.

Sharon posted in the members area asking if any of her fellow stitchers were interested in getting together online.

Yvonne Schlaepfer-Parle was the first to answer the call…

Party of two

Yvonne is a long-time knitter and woman of the world; born in Ireland, she’s lived in London, New York, Australia and now Switzerland.

Back in March 2020, her burgeoning knitting business was about to host its first in-person retreat…and then Covid happened!

“So that whole thing crashed and burned. But then a friend of mine, who knew I was feeling pretty sad got in touch to say she’d seen the TextileArtist.org Community Stitch Challenge on Facebook and encouraged me to give it a go.”

But stitching had been ruined for Yvonne years ago when she’d been berated at school for sewing outside the lines.

“I didn’t think I’d ever be interested again. But when I watched that first free workshop with Sue Stone and she said ‘Embrace the wonky’, it changed my life! I’m not being pithy or trite—it really did. It gave me permission to go outside those lines and sometimes even plan to go outside those lines.”

Cut forward a few months. Having joined Stitch Club off the back of the free workshops in the TextileArtist.org Community Stitch Challenge, here are Sharon (in Wales) and Yvonne (in Switzerland) meeting on Zoom each week to nurture their newfound passion. A passion for something they’d both long since decided was not for them!

Week on week, stitchers from different backgrounds and at various stages of their creative journey started to join Sharon and Yvonne’s regular meetups. And as the group grew, the more inspired and excited the individual members became.

Let’s explore the creative lessons you can learn from the Gathering Threads group and how you might benefit from finding your very own stitch tribe.

How finding your stitch tribe can catalyse your creativity

No 1: A breadth of knowledge & experience

Imagine how regular access to a rich and diverse source of knowledge and experience could propel your own textile art practice.

Some members of Gathering Threads have a very broad skill base. Like Sarah Bond, who taught Art and Design for over 40 years, has a degree in Art History and has encouraged pupils of all ages to apply art textile techniques to fashion, stage and ecclesiastical projects.

“After I retired I sort of found myself in no man’s land deciding what to do next and, having recently moved from Hampshire to Wiltshire, I felt like I was in between communities.”

Since finding Stitch Club, and in turn Gathering Threads, Sarah has generously shared her expertise with the group, offering advice, recommendations and encouragement to the less experienced stitchers, like Yvonne:

“As a rank beginner with no artistic training, I don’t have any preconceptions. It’s been revelatory to hear others in the group who do have a background in art discussing the tips and rules they’ve learned along the way.”

No 2: The motivation to make

“I don’t have enough time” can often be code for “this isn’t important enough to me right now.”

If, like self-confessed butterfly Joan Noble, you do find yourself ‘easily distracted by 101 different things’, the commitment to regular meetups with like minded creative people can help you develop a more disciplined practice.

“These ladies keep me on my toes. It’s helping me be more focused and encouraging me to drop other things in favour of doing the Stitch Club workshops.”

And Karen Hughes, who had been put off sewing by the words of a childhood teacher who told her, “You’re much better at theory, than you are practical”, has also benefited from the gentle nudge being part of the group has given her.

“It’s like going to a digital cafe or college and you just turn up and we all exchange ideas and stuff. It’s a great motivator.”

The group’s weekly meetups in conjunction with the fortnightly workshop in Stitch Club have also helped Jess find direction.

“I used to beat myself up if I wasn’t doing something creative, but the regularity of being presented with a well-explained and inspiring challenge, along with all the other brilliantly organised materials, means there’s no barrier to getting started.”

No 3: Uncovering possibilities & breaking rules

At the start of any creative adventure, the cushion that comes from step by step rules and guidelines can be a great comfort. It’s how you get started.

More experienced stitchers, like Sarah, are ready to break those rules and steer away from the guidelines.

“I love that the tutors in Stitch Club encourage us to find freedom to explore the projects in our own way and there’s no judgement or expectation to create a duplicate of any kind. I think that’s a really progressive teaching method.”

And that ethos has been embraced by other members of the group.

Like Erica Staxenius, who was introduced to embroidery by her step-grandmother at the age of seven.

“Sewing is something I’ve delved into from time to time. After school, I started to make my own clothes from my mother’s old stash. My efforts were self-taught and I had a few disasters along the way!”

But Erica has always been what she describes as a “practical sewer” and thinking creatively to make works of art in her own voice through the Stitch Club workshops has not always been easy.

“Over the years I’ve often looked at textile art and wondered how and if I could do something similar. And I think with the help of all these wonderful inspirational workshop leaders and my friends in this group, it’s starting to feel achievable. I’ve still got a way to go, but looking back on everything I’ve done in the last year of Stitch Club it’s mind blowing how far I’ve come.”

“It’s interesting to me how I’ve never been one to follow the rules of life, but with sewing and art I have. The encouragement in this group means I’m starting to feel brave enough to break a few of those rules. I’m finally starting to become less restrictive and more inventive in my sewing.”

No 4: Discovering your personal visual vocabulary

The digital age has given us access to an abundance of inspiration. It’s impossible to incorporate every idea you stumble upon whilst browsing social media into your textile art. But it can be tempting to try!

Not only can this lead to an overwhelming and confused process, it might mean the work you’re making doesn’t feel distinctly ‘you’.

Through the focus of group meetings and the conscious discussion of your personal process, you can begin to hone your ideas and develop your own personal style. As Gathering Threads member Becca Allen discovered.

As a child, Becca learned to draw from her dad, created collages with her mum and made toy mice to sell to her friends.

Years later, when Becca was seeking a way to bring fabric and thread into her artwork, she took a course with the in-demand workshop leader Cas Holmes (who has since taught a popular Stitch Club class using the Japanese artform Momigami to create art). A love of all things textile was born.

Becca has been particularly inspired by the members of the group developing their own unique ways of interpreting the workshops.

“It’s amazing to see how we’re all doing the same projects, following the same set of instructions, using the same equipment, but the ways in which we translate the techniques and processes are so diverse.”

No 5: The confidence to create & share

Have you ever felt a little self-conscious about your lack of art training? Maybe you love being creative and have always been drawn to making things, but you’ve been reluctant to show other people what you’ve made for fear it’s not good enough?

Vicki Briggs doesn’t come from an ‘arty’ background and has struggled at times with feeling inhibited, but being part of Gathering Threads has given her the confidence to dive in and give anything a go!

“I was quite shy about posting images of my work in the members area to start off with, but with the support, advice and encouragement of our little group and the wider Stitch Club community, I’ve become braver. Now I think to myself, ‘Does it really matter? It’s a learning curve!’ The whole experience has given me a real boost in self esteem.”

And Yvonne agrees…even when the responses to what she makes are mixed.

“Since joining Stitch Club, I’ve had the confidence to venture into other groups and I’ve had very different reactions to what I’m presenting. A piece I made in a Stitch Club workshop on eco-printing was compared to mouldy pepperoni pizza by someone. I would have been horrified in the past. These days, I don’t care. Experimentation and collaboration are more important to me.”

“I now call myself a textile artist. I would never have done that before. I would have felt I was pretending to be something I was not, but now I realise I am, and I’m in the company of textile artists in this wonderful group every week. It’s been transformative.”

6 Finding solutions & fulfilling ambitions

When you hit a wall in your creative process, it can be doubly frustrating when you don’t have anyone to help you figure out how to knock it down (or at least rearrange the bricks!)

Linda Langley started stitching to pass the time when she was a young radiographer on night duty but prior to joining Stitch Club hadn’t picked up embroidery for a good few years.

“I’ve re-learned an awful lot in terms of techniques and being part of this group has meant I’ve found ways of dealing with my particular challenges. I don’t have a workspace, which can be difficult and means I’m much slower than some of the other girls, but they’re helping me realise that’s not a problem. The great thing about Stitch Club is I can go at my own pace. I don’t feel any pressure to do every workshop, but I’ve been inspired by this group to try things I wouldn’t have done if I was left entirely to my own devices.”

Marie Audéon, who lives in France, has a longstanding association with textiles, having been inspired by her mother.

“As a child I would collect and organise fabrics by colour and type, cut them up and reassemble them into something new. In adulthood I continued to sew, making a large array of decorative and useful things for the home”

Marie had always felt drawn to using the techniques she learned as a child to do something more personal and expressive and since joining the group, this dream has become a reality.

“When I discovered TextileArtist.org I thought to myself, ‘This is my chance. It’s now!’ I am learning to mix materials like paint and thread to express a personal story and through the connection with this group my process has really evolved. In the past few months I’ve been using a sketchbook to develop ideas and documenting the various stages of the creative process through photography.”

No 7: Nurturing an open mind & daring to experiment

Have you ever watched an online stitch tutorial or considered a particular way of making art and immediately said to yourself “That’s not my type of thing”?

Developing a sense of what you want to make and how you want to make it is an important step in your journey towards developing a personal voice for your textile art. But often the techniques and processes you feel resistance to can be surprisingly rewarding when you let go of preconceptions and give them a go.

Being part of a group with eclectic tastes can help you stay open to new experiences. Embracing alternative approaches to creativity can uncover inventive ways of interpreting projects that may have initially felt prescriptive or simple.

Jess told me:

“Even with the Stitch Club workshops that I don’t think I’ll do, when everyone in this group starts talking through their ideas and pictures of work start popping up in the members area, the enthusiasm for the project becomes infectious. You don’t want to be left out. And you end up surprising yourself with how inventive you can be with something you didn’t think was your sort of thing”.

And the collaboration within the group has also encouraged its members to join the dots, workshop to workshop, taking a technique they learned from one into the next.

Yvonne has used an exercise set by Julie B Booth in her workshop, that seemed deceptively simple, to create a whole series of work.

“I’ve gone and done several more pieces and taken that whole thing in a completely new direction.”

Create, connect, thrive

When you’re feeling creatively isolated, where do you turn for support? The most obvious place isn’t always the best fit.

Perhaps the local embroidery group has a focus on traditional needlework that doesn’t appeal…they meet on a Wednesday morning when you’re working or have childcare duties…the in-person workshops they organise run into hundreds of pounds that you can’t afford…or they just don’t get you!

The good news is you’re no longer restricted by location. You can share your creative journey with like minded creative people living on the other side of the world if that’s what it takes.

And when you find the people who understand and care, the people who push you to be more inventive and experimental, the people who make you feel safe and brave, not only will your creativity blossom, you may make meaningful and long lasting connections.

The Gathering Threads group meets on Zoom every week to work through ideas, talk about creative challenges and share their thoughts on the latest Stitch Club workshop. They share online resources and support one another via the Stitch Club members area and WhatsApp. They swap tools and materials via snail mail (when Sharon couldn’t find leaves for eco-printing, Sarah sent her some of her stash.)

But something deeper and more significant has emerged…friendship.

“We are connected by our love of art. That includes textile art but a range of other arts as well including pottery, painting, photography, quilting, knitting, crochet and felting. We also share cooking recipes and book recommendations and send birthday cards. This has developed from a group of strangers into a special group of friends.”

Yvonne Schlaepfer-Parle, Stitch Club and Gathering Threads member

And some of these friends have now met in real life too. “It’s so strange”, Jess said to Erica recently, “I feel like I’ve always known you even though it’s been less than a year.” The group are now dreaming of a time, hopefully in the not too distant future, when they can all meet up for a weekend and do one of the Stitch Club workshops together in person.

If you do love drawing, a daily sketch habit might help you escape that frustrating stop-start process. Using a sketchbook can help you get into a positive and creative mindset, or provide a useful reference guide when you are stuck for ideas.

Artists work in many different ways so it makes sense to tailor how you use a sketchbook to suit your personality and nature.

Some people have an in-built drive, an urge to make, finding it easy to jump into their projects and develop a regular and rewarding creative practice. For these artists, a sketchbook can be useful for collecting observations, making plans and keeping on top of their ideas and creative energy.

Other artists work in fits and starts, flitting between ideas. This might be a preferred way of working, or perhaps these artists dream of being more productive and self-disciplined. A sketchbook might help ease these artists into ‘creative-mode’ and develop a more consistent way of working.

At art school, students are encouraged to use sketchbooks daily. And there’s a reason for this: it helps them to focus, observe, and evolve their ideas and inspirations, by getting them down on paper. By doing this on a regular basis, they start to build a creative habit.

In this interview we’ll be exploring how textile artists use sketchbooks.

Top textile artists Alisa Banks, Merill Comeau, Andrea Cryer and Shelley Rhodes share their sketchbook suggestions. What’s interesting is how they use sketchbooks in different ways, to suit their styles of work and their personalities.

So while you’re pondering how using a sketchbook might help you, read on for inspiration. The featured artists’ sketchbook habits and practical suggestions might just give you the jump-off point you need to get started.

Shelley Rhodes

Shelley Rhodes is a contemporary mixed media artist based in Cumbria, UK. She describes herself as an artist, traveller, collector, arranger, sketcher and stitcher. Her artwork mixes fabric, paper and stitch with drawings and prints, and she loves to build up layers, editing and altering them as the work progresses. She is inspired by architecture, the environment and discarded items, habitually recording her observations in sketchbooks and journals. She makes a small piece of artwork every day, which she posts on Instagram.

Website: www.shelleyrhodes.co.uk
Facebook: shelleyrhodesmixedmediaartist
Instagram: @shelleyrhodesartist

The sketchbook juggler

Shelley Rhodes works in several sketchbooks simultaneously. Her ongoing large A3 (US tabloid) workbook usually relates to a current theme she is exploring. It’s not just sketches in there though. She hoards photographs, research sources, notes, diagrams, samples, jottings about ideas, swatches of colour, and exploration and testing of materials. Her current workbook is full of ideas about coral bleaching and ocean plastic. She generates more ideas than she can resolve into finished work, but occasionally she finds it useful to look back and revisit an earlier idea.

As a sketchbook juggler, Shelley also has a book just for collage and another for text. In addition, she always carries a small book when travelling, usually a small handmade concertina book. And finally, to add to this collection, she also uses a small everyday sketchbook.

Shelley is a fan of spiral-bound books, pulling pages out to take with her on walks, instead of carrying a bulky book. Having filled a page, she pushes it back into the spiral binding for safe-keeping.

Shelley’s daily sketch

In Shelley’s small everyday sketchbook (15 cm x 15 cm) she has made it a habit to create one small piece of art every day.

This might be a quick sketch, observational drawings, collage, a print, an arrangement of a collection or a presentation of found objects. Sometimes it is simply an extraction of colours, marks or textures. She makes marks on paper, on fabric or a combination of the two. Sometimes she includes threads, stitch, wax, wire, tape, staples and pins. In fact anything goes, so long as it makes her think creatively!

And the key to maintaining her sketchbook habit? Shelley posts these pages daily on Instagram, to ensure that she does it!

Shelley nearly always draws directly from what she can see, rather than working from photographs. This usually limits her time, helping to make her marks looser and more energetic. Until recently she always worked on both sides of the page, embracing and working with any marks that bled through. However, now she has started working on a single side of the page, enabling her to sell some of her drawings.

If someone recommends an artist, book, interesting website or product Shelley makes written notes on the pages at the back of the book, rather than jotting them down randomly throughout the book, so if she wants to refer to something she can always find her notes instantly.

Creating a sketchbook habit

Alongside making sure she publishes her sketchbook pages on Instagram every day, Shelley has another trick up her sleeve. She keeps a small box in a corner of her kitchen, containing a selection of her favourite art materials. This means everything is to hand and she can make effective use of any spare minutes.

Shelley suggests setting an achievable sketchbook goal and sticking to it; whether it is ten minutes a day or once a week. But most of all she encourages you to take the pressure off and just enjoy the process of filling a sketchbook.

Merill Comeau

Merill Comeau’s textile installations, wall hangings and garments are composed of worn domestic fabrics, mended and stitched together. Merill, based in Massachusetts, USA, uses her work to comment on socio-political issues, and to explore ideas around memory, repair and regeneration, and women’s experiences. She exhibits regularly in the US and has facilitated numerous collaborative community art projects.

Website: www.merillcomeau.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MerillComeau
Instagram: @merillcomeau

Sketchbooks for different activities

Merill Comeau keeps four active sketchbooks. These are around 25 cm to 30 cm square with metal spiral bindings; these bindings allow her the expansion space to stick in lots of additional materials.

The first book is filled with pasted-in print images that inspire repetitive pattern ideas, for when she is designing fabric printing blocks. Building facades, a bird’s-eye view of farm fields, or decorative domestic objects such as china or rugs can all inspire a multitude of shapes, arcs, angles, zigzags and dots.

The second book is filled with images of flora including vegetable and flower gardens, fern-filled woodlands, stands of grasses, and fruit trees. These images of live plants are especially helpful in winter, when the ground is covered in snow, as Merill relies on them to create her “Fragments of Eden” landscape series.

The third sketchbook is filled with plants that Merill has drawn en plein air. This is a sketchbook she most often uses at artist residencies, when she has the time to sit outside and focus. Every summer she tells herself to develop a daily practice with this sketchbook, but she is still working on this goal.

Merill’s sketchbook goulash

Merill’s fourth book is her most utilitarian. She add to this one frequently, and it sits within reach on her work table at all times. This is her storehouse; it is crammed with notes, lists, quick sketches, musings on conceptual underpinnings, imagined artworks, titles under consideration, snippets of memories, exclamations of desire, and practical solutions to conundrums. Integral, related, tangential, and extraneous considerations are recorded as they course through her mind.

Sometimes Merill draws diagrams to solve visual problems and guide her design decisions of colour and size. Sometimes she glues in notes. These might be jottings she’s brought back to the studio from the field, the train, or her bedside.

This day-to-day sketchbook is a mixed-up goulash of material; chronologically recorded thoughts landing on the next available blank space whenever inspiration strikes! Here she can also store notions so they are not forgotten.

Periodically, Merill reviews this collection and adds tabs to pages, identifying categories or topics such as ‘garments’, ‘wall work’, or title ideas. This allows her to flip through and find related information related to a current need.

By placing her deliberations safely onto pages, Merill can retrieve them at any time; this sketchbook provides valuable storage and allows her to put distracting items temporarily out of her mind while she focuses on the visual work at hand in the studio.

Usefulness over beauty

Many people’s sketchbooks are objectively beautiful works of art. Merill feels that hers, as messy, overstuffed, disorganised, utilitarian repositories, are only beautiful to herself. Long ago she dropped any preconceived sketchbook practices and chose to go her own unfettered way.

She assembles and uses her books however she wants, without any thoughts of an external viewer. Merill told us, ‘They suit me, they support my process, and I love them!‘

Her tip for makers who want to make better use of their sketchbooks is to ‘let go, collect, and see what accrues‘.

Alisa Banks

Visual artist Alisa Banks, based in Texas, US, examines the concepts of body, place and home, and relates them to broader issues within culture and society. Her elegantly stitched work combines a mixture of textiles and found materials, and references traditional craft techniques. Alisa’s work has been exhibited internationally and is in several collections in the US. Her work is created through an extensive process of research, elaboration and editing, in order to communicate her chosen story to the viewer.

Website www.alisabanks.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Alisa-Banks-Art-467921510372238
Instagram: @abanksart

From sketchbooks to folders

In common with the other artists featured in this article, textile artist Alisa Banks also has several sketchbooks on the go at once.

Alisa tells us that some are for general use, and others are loosely categorised by the type of project; this might be textile collage, book projects or essays. She also has a notebook containing swatches of colours that she finds interesting.

When Alisa decides to develop an idea further, she places supplementary materials, sketches and notes into a dedicated folder for that project. This ‘inspiration folder’ contains everything she needs for her research and development phase, all safely stored in one place.

Pencil and pen are her preferred media. Most of Alisa’s books are hardback or spiral-bound. Her books range in size; she has small and medium sketchbooks, three pamphlet/soft cover books and one very large, hardback sketchbook.

Alisa the list-maker

Alisa’s books are text-heavy, so for all you list-makers out there, this approach might work well for you, too.

She writes notes, makes lists and, although she doesn’t sketch in them daily, it is not uncommon for her to have a notepad nearby to jot down a quick thumbnail sketch or note. She is an avid list-taker and writes a daily “to do” list on a spiral steno-pad/shorthand notebook kept on her desk.

Alisa told us, ‘I’m also known for getting up in the middle of the night to write down an idea or sketch a quick outline!‘

As far as her sketchbooks are concerned, Alisa tends to jump from one to another, although nowadays she is trying to jot all new ideas in her big book. Her early sketchbooks consisted mainly of pencil or charcoal drawings, but over time, they’ve become much less formal.

Every so often, she will return to her earlier books to see her thought process and sometimes she finds a real gem or two, proving that noting down ideas can pay dividends later on.

Folders of inspiration

Alisa’s tip is to not put pressure on yourself, especially when it comes to how often you use your sketchbooks.

She put pressure on herself when she first started using sketchbooks; she was aiming to use them regularly and fill them with formal drawings. Now, Alisa has a more relaxed approach and she finds that, because her current books contain project ideas and inspiration, she uses them more frequently. Her sketchbooks have transformed into an incredibly useful tool.

Andrea Cryer

Andrea Cryer is a textile artist based in the UK. She creates unique portraits and landscapes beautifully drawn with thread, using a continuous process of decision-making and mark-making. Her work is hand and machine-stitched, then coloured using disperse dyes and pastels. Andrea holds a BA (Hons) in Creative Art (Fine Art & Textiles) from Bath Spa University and exhibits her works in the UK and internationally.

Website www.andreacryer.co.uk/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Andrea-Cryer-Textile-Artist-290817971094773/
Instagram: @andreacryerartist

The ideas collector

Andrea Cryer is another artist who uses a variety of sketchbooks and folders, ranging from small compact homemade books containing colour swatches and process notes, through to spiral-bound books, and large sketchbook folders housing loose leaf drawings, mixed media work, stitched and embellished textiles and fabric samples.

Sketchbooks and sketch-boards

Andrea acquired the sketchbook habit via a traditional route, using them regularly during her art student days. She first used sketchbooks whilst studying on a Foundation course as a mature student, where she regularly cut up, tore and reconfigured standard issue sketchbooks to alter their format. This playing with scale would inform her approach to the subject matter, within a newly-constrained size and shape. The students were encouraged to seek out structures, detail, pattern and texture as well as considering the overall composition. This was a very enlightening and challenging approach, which has stood her in good stead, particularly when tackling life drawing through looking at negative spaces and isolating specific areas, in addition to considering the figure as a whole.

Andrea’s sketchbooks developed in a different way during Creative Arts degree in Fine Art and Textiles. For this, she studied a number of modules including knit, stitch, weave, print, sculpture and fashion design. Her sketchbooks soon became full and overflowing, with textural pieces escaping from every page!

Drawings, prints, woven and knitted samplers, embroidered panels, photographs from magazines, postcards from art gallery and museum visits and all manner of ephemera found their way onto these pages. Andrea has since combined some of these sketchbooks, filling in any empty-looking pages and adding to them as the years have passed by. She still gets pleasure from revisiting these sketchbooks today.

These days, as a textile artist, Andrea often uses a ‘sketch-board’. This is, in effect, a vertical sketchbook with two large ‘pages’ which she can rest against a wall, desk or shelving. It is made from a large art canvas (1.2 m x 1.8 m /4′ x 6′), around which she has stretched rings of elastic.

To the front and back of the canvas she attaches preparatory drawings, notes, inspiration and works in progress to any or all of the elastic bands, at different heights, without committing to a permanent arrangement. The displayed pieces of work, whether fabric or paper, are easily interchangeable and allow her to assess and reflect on where she might be going with a particular project or commission.

The sketch-board lets Andrea view her work from a distance, which often makes it easier to spot where changes need to be made. When the work is finished, she can quickly and easily remove the collaged pages and store them as a sketchbook folder.

Andrea finds that this sketch-board system works really well for displaying portrait pieces as well as arranging hand-dyed and painted papers or fabrics when introducing colour to her artwork. Another advantage is that it is very lightweight and easy to move around!

Fight the sketchbook fear!

Andrea’s tip for using a sketchbook is to remember there are no rules, so don’t be fearful of a blank white page. She says, ‘Just go for it!’

Sketchbook success

The four textile artists featured in this article all have several sketchbooks on the go, using them for different situations and various types of content. They use their sketchbooks according to their individual needs, making them an important part of their toolkit. We’ve seen that it’s a good idea to use spiral-bound books, which provide some expansion space between pages to collect and store samples, objects and other items alongside your notes and sketches.

Sketchbooks don’t have to beautiful, they are just there for you to collate your resources, whether it is text snippets, sketches, designs, colour tests, samples, objects, collected items, photographs or anything else, as long as it gets you thinking.

These artists have shown that the key to success with sketchbooks is to use them in a way that suits you best. This might be to make a daily drawing, or to use them as a tool for gathering inspiration, or for developing projects.

Anything goes; you don’t have to sketch in a sketchbook, and you don’t have to use it every day!

So go ahead, choose a beautiful (spiral-bound!) sketchbook or two, and run your hands over the tactile, thick paper. Select your preferred mark-making implement; a fine-liner pen, a freshly-sharpened pencil or maybe some watercolour paints. Then sketch some ideas, write some notes, glue in some photos, collect objects, papers or fabric samples, make some plans, or test out colours and patterns. Take the pressure off, open that first page and see what accumulates.

Most importantly, make your sketchbook work for you.

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