Maggie Scott – Meet the Artist

A little textile inspiration from my YouTube Collection. Today it features the colourful nuno felting by textile artist Maggie Scott.

Join Maggie Scott as she shares her beautiful work in the ‘Five Times More’ exhibition.

Maggie Scott:   https://maggiescottonline.com/

Artwork by Maggie Scott
Artwork by Maggie Scott
Artwork by Maggie Scott
Artwork by Maggie Scott

Five Times More exhibition

‘Five Times More’ depicts the intimate relationship between mother and child, reflecting on both personal and collective experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood. 

Maggie Scott’s technical practice is unparalleled in the landscape of contemporary British art, sitting at the boundary of tapestry and digital media, she employs a combination of photography, digital collage and silk and then injects colour by laboriously pushing vibrant merino wool fibres through silk in a process known as Nuno felting.  

The intensely physical process of felting is followed by the careful process of using stitch to emphasise the smaller details of an image, evoking both the physicality of childbirth and the careful attention and tenderness of what follows. In working with fibre Scott pushes a medium traditionally associated with craft into the realm of fine art. As a textile artist, Scott employs distinctly feminine materials, but with soft images, she speaks hard truths.  

Birth is the most innate experience of human existence yet for centuries, childbirth has also been the most dangerous undertaking of a woman’s life. Rates of maternal mortality have dropped dramatically in Britain since the mid-18th century.   

Nuno felted art
Nuno felted art

However, the effects of modern medicine have not been felt equally. In 2019 MBRACE UK published data within its Perinatal Mortality report, which revealed that people of colour remain at a much higher risk during pregnancy and childbirth within the British healthcare system. Most disturbingly the report revealed that in the United Kingdom a Black woman is five times more likely to die during childbirth than her white counterpart. 

Five Times More  humanises the statistics published by MBRACE UK. 

Filmed at the Knitting & Stitching Show 2022

Vendulka Battais – Meet the Artist

A little textile inspiration from my YouTube ‘Meet the Artist’ Collection. Today it features the work of artist Vendulka Battais.

Vendulka and her husband Oliver work together on designing and creating the quilts.

“I started with traditional squares and triangles, which gave me good skills I can now build upon,” Vendulka says. “My passion for free motion quilting took me away from piecing and more into whole cloth and art quilts. I’m also very lucky I can share this passion with my husband Olivier.” 

The intricate design of the quilts in this exhibition have been designed by Olivier and quilted by Vendulka. They then explored the use of glittery and metallic paints to bring more colour and, more interestingly, ‘bling’ to their work, which is not often seen in textiles.  

Browse and purchase the Marabu Metalic & Glitter Liners on Amazon.

Catch up with Vendulka and her stunning artwork at the Festival of Quilts 2022.

Vendulka and Olivier Battais’s Artwork: https://www.oliven.co.uk/

Each piece is dedicated to a different woman who inspired or influenced their textile journey. Since embarking on her textile art adventure, Vendulka has won awards at major quilt shows, including first runner-up in Wearable art at PIQF in California.

Artwork by Vendulka Battais
Artwork by Vendulka Battais

The couple won third place in the Great Northern quilt show in Harrogate and Best in Show at the Festival of Quilts 2021. 

Artwork by Vendulka Battais
Artwork by Vendulka Battais

Watch this space! – join the mailing list and be first to see some wonderful artist interviews.

Suzy Wright – Meet the Artist

A little textile inspiration from my YouTube ‘Meet the Artist’ Collection. Today it features the work of artist Suzy Wright.

Suzy Wright is renowned for her iconic images of people, insects, fruit, flowers and birds created using free machine embroidery. Each piece can use up to 200 coloured threads. Suzy’s CV includes an Internship with Zandra Rhodes and also as a studio assistant for Kaffe Fassett.

Suzy Wright’s Artwork: https://orangethread.co.uk/

Suzy Wright machine embroidered self portrait
Suzy Wright machine embroidered self portrait

Each artwork starts off as a piece of medium weight calico. The large statement pieces feature a fully stitched background turning the piece into a new type of stitched fabric. Each piece can use over 200 threads blending colours and building shades from dark to light.

Machine embroidered birds
Machine embroidered birds

Watch this space! – join the mailing list and be first to see some wonderful artist interviews.