One of my avenues for exploration started by looking at the work of Cas homes, but also exploring the work of many other textile artists who work with in that same sphere of looking for a story in their work. It’s evident that one can’t just look at a single artists as the work of textile artists is very much intertwined. Stitch stories by Cas Holmes has been incredibly useful as a resource, Cas Holmes has very generously shared her ideas in two books, Stitch Stories and also The Found Object in Textile Art.
Using nettles as the focus for this project has given me a story of many strands as this starting point of my mind map demonstrates.
Very much in the back of my mind has been the stories that arose just as I started the exercise post Brexit when terrible and disgraceful wave of racist views about immigrants seem to be upon every media space. What a depressing time. One of the things that cropped up on my mind map was the unwantedness of nettles and other weeds, that are viewed as useless, ugly, invasive, when actually nettles have an incredible range of benefits from herbal medicine, to textile applications, to agriculture. In my mind I’ve drawn parallels with not just migrant people fleeing from war but all of the oppressed people, unwanted in different ways, race, class , disability, gender etc etc. I don’t feel anywhere near eloquent enough to so sucinctly express my thoughts, they are churning relentlessly and tumultuously in the back of my mind. I really don’t have to look far to be reminded of the ugliness of society so look to counter this with finding beauty in the unwanted.
To develop a final piece for my collection I will develop a story cloth. As child I didn’t have a comfort blanket . I did have a fascination for muslin squares that we used as nappy liner, I used to like a squirt of toothpaste in the corner to chew as I went to sleep! I came across a stash in the charity shop not long ago , and was again drawn by the soft suppleness of the fabric, how comforting it is. I have decided to use one of the squares as the base and hence size of my stitch story piece.
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