Marches Makers Festival Artist 2019
Helen Smith
Creating soft tactile items from fabrics and yarns in gorgeous colours and patterns is my obsession and my joy.
Over the years I have practiced my crafts and investigated and learnt new techniques from other artists and teachers. I love to experiment to create new and exciting designs. I knit, spin, embroider and quilt… but of all the fibre arts I have played with, tapestry weaving is the one that has spoken to me most deeply.
Weaving a tapestry is a slow and meditative process in which I am fully immersed as I gradually see the patterns and colours in the cloth emerge from beneath my hands.
The designs for my tapestries usually come from the doodles I make in my notebooks… but the most fun is when I dive into my baskets of woollen yarn, embroidery silks and cottons to find interesting and surprising colour combinations, often mixing 2, 3, 4 or more threads together to get the shades I want… and then I am off, warping my loom and becoming thoroughly immersed in weaving all those wonderful colours and combinations into shapes… quietly watching the piece slowly grow…
Creating soft tactile items from fabrics and yarns in gorgeous colours and patterns is my obsession and my joy.
Over the years I have practiced my crafts and investigated and learnt new techniques from other artists and teachers. I love to experiment to create new and exciting designs. I knit, spin, embroider and quilt… but of all the fibre arts I have played with, tapestry weaving is the one that has spoken to me most deeply.
Weaving a tapestry is a slow and meditative process in which I am fully immersed as I gradually see the patterns and colours in the cloth emerge from beneath my hands.
The designs for my tapestries usually come from the doodles I make in my notebooks… but the most fun is when I dive into my baskets of woollen yarn, embroidery silks and cottons to find interesting and surprising colour combinations, often mixing 2, 3, 4 or more threads together to get the shades I want… and then I am off, warping my loom and becoming thoroughly immersed in weaving all those wonderful colours and combinations into shapes… quietly watching the piece slowly grow…
