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Stroud International Textiles

textile festival 2010
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Stroud International Textiles

textile festival 2010
contents
 2010
Contents

Jo Barker
Noela Bewry
Kate Blee
Sara Brennan
Henny Burnett
Janet Hinchliffe McCutcheon
Annie Hutchinson
Deirdre Nelson
Jo Newman l
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Caroline Sharp l
Norma Starszakowna l

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p2 introduction
p6 essay
p10 artists
p46 information
 Introduction
Dr Jessica Hemmings
Associate Director of the Centre for Visual and Cultural
Studies, Edinburgh College of Art

Textiles communicate1. They express joy that language

renders as cliché; withstand abstraction that words try to
qualify and contain; record pain without evoking
sympathy or condolences.

Thankfully the voice of contemporary textile practice

conforms to no particular rulebook2. This might seem a
little odd, considering the other strength of textiles: they
work3. Textiles are the first material to touch our skin at
birth and what many of us will lay upon at the moment of
death. Textiles are the material that covers our bodies
every day of our lives; the material we rest between each
night. It is the textile that is used to staunch the flow of
blood from wounds and protect us against cold and wind
and excessive light. They are quite literally an inescapable
presence, trailing close behind air, water and food in our
list of needs and wants.

The sheer hours textiles spend absorbing life have left

them well prepared for the messages they carry. Textiles
already know what we aren’t saying. They know what we
are too excited to mention or can’t bare to remember.
l Textiles already understand how to say two things in one
l breath without fretting over seeming contradictions.
l
l This poses a bit of a problem, because humankind is


a vivid vocabulary

quite enamoured with the written word. We’ve been
working at it for a while now. We were quick to dismiss
the rich flexible narratives of oral traditions and replace
them with static written language. We were even more
pleased with ourselves when we harnessed the printing
press to tell us the same stories ad infinitum. Our newest
romance is with the World Wide Web, a system that
speeds and shares astounding amounts of certain types
of information. Yet the Internet that has not come to terms
with several of the textile’s most articulate modes of
communication. Colour is as arbitrary as the settings on
our individual computer monitors. Texture is all but
nonexistent. Touch, for now, remains impossible.
In Dreaming by the Book the American literary critic Elaine
Scarry tries to understand why “monotonous small black
marks on a white page” can conjure such vivid images in
our mind’s eye4. She notes that “the verbal arts ... unlike
painting, music, sculpture, theatre, and film – are almost
wholly devoid of any actual sensory content”5. Her
observations share one thing in common. Scarry, to my
eye, determines that it is qualities we commonly associate
with the textile that are instinctively used by authors to
make fiction vivid. Descriptions of stretching, folding and
tilting, for example, are needed for our imaginations to
function. The more things are described with textile
2010
attributes, the more readily our brains can translate text
into an imagined world.
The artists exhibiting at the Stroud Textile Festival this
year all enjoy their own vividness of vocabulary. Many
have connections to Scotland, but this is where their
similarities end. Each has built a career on the refinement
of their particular visual language. Like Scarry, each, in
their own way, understands what is needed to create a
convincing experience for the viewer.
Jo Barker6 uses the time intensive tradition of tapestry to
weave surfaces full of speed and light. Somehow,
Barker’s tapestries betray none of the labour their
construction demands. Instead she records flourishes of
drawn lines, watery edges of painted colour and mottled
shadows of photographed light. Fibre brings its own
unique sensibilities to these observations. Varying
tensions of thread cut deep channels across tightly
packed surfaces; loose fibres create halos around spots
of rich colour.
The intangible associations we have of the landscape are l
the subject of Sara Brennan’s7 tapestries. A sobering l
sense of vastness is apparent in her modestly sized work. l
Light and cloud mutate. The concrete remains just l

 beyond our focus. Instead there is a sense of the
insignificance our daily concerns can begin to have when
placed in a broader perspective.
In Snow Country the Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata
writes: “The thread was spun in the snow, and the cloth
was woven in the snow, washed in the snow and
bleached in the snow. Everything, from the first spinning
of the thread to the last finishing touches, was done in the
snow”8. Brennan’s palette has its own softer hues than
the frozen landscape Kawabata describes, but the same
sensibilities are evident. It is as though the threads she
selects for her tapestries are shaped and coloured by the
landscapes they record.
Norma Starszakowna’s9 printed and embellished panels
are covered with complex textures that overlay fragments
of text with surfaces that could be crumbling plaster
walls, letters or graffiti. Her techniques are her own
invention rather than a particular tradition of making.
Because of this, technical concerns are impossible to
compare and the unfamiliarity of her surfaces enjoys
l priority. In stark contrast to this is Kate Blee’s10
l vocabulary of confident blocks of colour that speak
l through their simplicity. There is a bravery needed to work
l with such bold shapes and here details such as texture or

a vivid vocabulary
a selvedge edge demand quiet observation on the part of
the viewer.
Henny Burnett responds to personal connections she
makes with history’s objects. Here the fragility of materials
she gathers and illuminates are from sources that relate to
Stroud’s wool industry. Both Burnett and Glasgow-based
artist Deirdre Nelson11 are sifters and sorters, making
sense of huge amounts of material and bringing to the
surface poetic responses to local settings. Nelson, who is
currently Artist in Residence at Stroud’s Museum in the
Park, often adopts narratives for her work. Folklore, oral
traditions and humour all play a part in a practice that has
come to be known for its accessibility and democracy.
Like Burnett, Nelson finds details in the gems of wisdom
she is expert at teasing from objects and communities
alike, reviving history and inviting participation.
Each of these voices is as divergent as they are assured.
All make use of the enormous vocabulary contemporary
textile practice enjoys.
I think the textiles should be allowed to say the rest.
Dr Jessica Hemmings Associate Director of the Centre
for Visual & Cultural Studies, Edinburgh College of Art
 2010
1 I say this with the knowing apprehension I might be writing myself

out of a job!

2 Clarifying the rules of textile art, as Lynne Truss does for grammar

in Eats, Shoots and Leaves: the Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation,

would not create a best seller.

3 Joan Livingstone and John Ploof note in their introduction to

The Object of Labour: “Originating with the history of survival, cloth

manufacture, and its accompanying division of labor, expands to

impact all spheres of culture and power.” (page vvi)

4 Scarry, Elaine. Dreaming by the Book. (page 5)

5 Scarry, Elaine. Dreaming by the Book. (page 5)

6 Edinburgh College of Art (Postgraduate Diploma 1986)

7 Edinburgh College of Art (BA Hons 1986)

8 Kawabata, Yasunari. Snow Country l

9 Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (BA Hons 1966) l
10 Edinburgh College of Art (Postgraduate Diploma 1986) l
11 Glasgow School of Art (MPhil 1992) l


 Essay
Some Thoughts on Tapestry in Edinburgh
Maureen Hodge

The Tapestry Department at Edinburgh College of Art

(1963-2008) was unique in the UK, both in the innovation
of its teaching and because of its close association with
the Edinburgh Tapestry Company, where many of the staff
and students worked. The Department was an offshoot of
Stained Glass, run by one of the Studio’s former Artistic
Directors, Sax Shaw, and included among its students
Archie Brennan and Maureen Hodge. The Edinburgh
Tapestry Company had a radically different approach from
other ateliers, where the artist’s cartoon was diligently
copied, in a process akin to painting by numbers. Instead
in Edinburgh, the original designs were translated from
one medium to the other to produce a totally new object.
The Studio was staffed by a combination of apprentice
and college trained weavers; the former, from their vast
experience, knew what would work, the students
wondered if something would. In College from the very
beginning, technique for its own sake was viewed as of
secondary importance. Sax Shaw believed that if you had
something to say you would find a way. The College had a
wonderfully liberating attitude encouraged by Sax Shaw
one of the Directors; so the students sought the best way
l to express their initial concepts and instead of limiting
l them, it acted as a spur to greater achievement and the
l development of a strong personal technical repertoire.
l The aim of the department was to consolidate and extend


tapestry in edinburgh

every student’s individual abilities. They were taught
gobelin, felt, papermaking, structures, electronic media
and drawing, as well as accumulating a personal research
archive, referred to as contemporary archaeology.
The realisation of the importance of drawing was a major
factor in their subsequent progress. Drawing is as
important to the visual artist as scales are to the musician
and from this rigorous practice came the confidence
which enabled the rapid development of ideas and
allowed the risk-taking necessary when venturing into
their personal unknown. Harold Cohen, who designed a
series of great tapestries said, an artist has to possess
some significant theory of operation about the making of
art and the place of art in the world – something every
student had to address. He also pointed out that a chair is
meant for sitting on and that the working drawing of a
chair is meant to tell you how you make it.
Open-mindedness and self-motivation were allied to
enthusiasm and self-discipline and, as far as possible,
assumptions were to be questioned. Make do and mend
was the order of the day bringing a creative approach to
everyday problems with often brilliant, utilitarian solutions
– scaffolding looms, fishing line warp and abandoning
weaving from the back of the tapestry, watching the
progress in a mirror, in favour of weaving from the front,
2010
giving direct contact with the woven surface.
The freshness of this attitude was reinforced by an
openness to what tapestry could be, rather than teaching
how it was and ought to be. For art, of any kind, to be
relevant it must relate to its own time and although the
students were expected to be aware of the traditions –
and in tapestry there were many – more importantly, they
were expected to work within their own cultural context,
because otherwise the concepts and media would
atrophy and die.
Thus tapestry, in Edinburgh, embodied a range of
techniques, and above all the need to ask what if?
So, what is tapestry, then? Meanings of words are based
largely on usage and so within the College, the
cognoscenti knew what ‘tapestry’ was; but so did other
people and what they meant was often not the same.
Grannies knew that it was needlework, just as the Custom
and Excise was equally adamant that it was something
that covered upholstery and was subject to VAT. This was
not just a bit of local difficulty, in the wider world, purists
believed such definitions really mattered. Tapestry was l
turned down in craft shows as Art, and in art shows as l
Craft. No doubt in this Festival there will be people who l
call themselves tapestry weavers, tapestry artists, artist l

 weavers; some may call themselves simply artists, others
craftspeople, designers, makers, even sculptors. Naming
is merely a convenience, a help if you get what you expected,
nothing more, so what the work is called is a matter of
personal choice and really does not matter too much.
But whatever ‘it’ is, the work should be able to hold its
own in the Fine Art world, on equal terms with sculpture
and painting and without any special pleading.
Stephen Hunter wrote in Tapestry in Edinburgh:
“There are dangers in choosing to retain categories.
Mediocre work can be overrated because it is ‘typical’,
and shows perfectly the defining features of a particular
area. On the other hand traditional authority can be
invoked to stifle experimentation or to exclude work from
exhibitions because it does not measure up to the
criterion of the medium. We must be careful not to be
dogmatic or to try to forge an identity from our tradition
which prevents it from being open-ended enough to
accommodate future development but which is not so
vague as to be meaningless. The definitions should flow
l from the work and not from an external historical
l authority. Thus we oppose the authority of tradition
l with a functional authority which itself has risen out of
l the tradition”.
8
tapestry in edinburgh
In 1973, it was decided that the Department should
pursue a Fine Art approach using the criterion for fibre art/
tapestry as laid down by the Lausanne Tapestry Biennale.
Some students have chosen traditional gobelin, while
others have launched off in completely different
directions. As is so often the case there are many correct
answers. Surely, “Does it work?” is a lot more relevant
than “Does this conform to the rules of tapestry
methodology?” whatever that may be.
When tapestries left the wall and began to fill the space
those walls contained, then all the old restraints died. It
was not Lurcat who revolutionised tapestry, but
Abakanowicz, the Jacobis and Jagoda Buic who filled
space with fibre and made site specific and installation
work, which led directly into the art mainstream. So what
is tapestry? For us, in Edinburgh, tapestry was a woven
structure or a fibre process which contained the
embodiment of an idea. It could be as diverse as a
gobelin hanging or a woven shed, as different as woven
fibre optics and hundreds of pigment-stuffed cloth bags.
It could even be the work of the student, desperate to
come to Tapestry, but equally determined not to be a
traditional weaver, who produced a 20-minute
performance where the audience watched “ideas being
woven” and then was asked to sign a statement to that
 2010
effect. And so you can see how Jo Barker, Sara Brennan
and Henrietta Burnett, in all their glorious differences, can
all come under the heading of Tapestry in Edinburgh.

Maureen Hodge was in charge of the Tapestry

Department at Edinburgh College of Art from 1973 until
her retirement in 2006, becoming a Reader in 1994.
After studying Stained Glass at ECA she worked at the
Edinburgh Tapestry Company, leaving in 1970 to
concentrate on her own work and teaching, but
returning briefly as interim Artistic Director in 1975.

She has exhibited all over the world and her work is
included in many public and private collections here
and abroad.

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9
jo barker

10 resonance tapestry photo: roger hyam

jo barker
jo barker
Jo Barker
Jo Barker’s completed tapestries are always abstract
and evolve from drawn, painted, printed and
photographed marks, which are manipulated on the
computer creating consciously ambiguous images.
She aims to create a sense of something rather than an
identifiable object or picture.
To create a sense of movement,of being drawn in or spun
around. Of being wrapped in colour. Starting points come
from patterns and marks in nature, plants and qualities of
dappled light.
Her designs come alive when translated with yarns and
threads using the Gobelin tapestry weaving technique.
The slow, reflective method of making imbues the finished
work with a quiet power.
“People often say ‘you must be a very patient person to
weave tapestries’. Strangely, considering that a large
12 drift tapestry photo: roger hyam
tapestry can take up to three months to complete I don’t
think I would describe myself in such a way. There is a
kind of nagging curiosity to keep going and going based
on ones desire to see just how the finished piece ‘turns
out’. Dogged maybe…patient…I’m not so sure.
A love of working with my hands, of making things, and
a very long-term interest in colour are essentially at the
heart of what I do.
I benefited greatly from a rigorous grounding in
drawing whilst studying in the Tapestry Department at
Edinburgh College of Art, always being encouraged to
really look closely at the world around you.”
Jo has exhibited widely nationally and internationally and
has work in several collections including the V&A
Museum, London. She has completed numerous
commissions including tapestries for the Royal Victoria
Infirmary, Newcastle and the House of Lords, London.
 new green (detail) tapestry photo: roger hyam
13
14
noela bewry

blue note acrylic on paper 38 x 38cm spring chant acrylic on paper 38 x 38cm

makro acrylic on paper 55 x 76cm

noela bewry
noela bewry
Noela Bewry
Printed textiles are often about colour, rhythm and layering
rather than subject matter. Working with them influenced
Noela Bewry’s abstract work and has been important in
freeing her approach to painting.
Her other starting point is contemporary jazz:
“The beginning of a piece is like the under layer, then
solo instruments take over, new rhythms emerge, and
an increasingly complex picture builds. Musicians talk
about texture, colour and tone, understanding them in a
musical context has enabled me to apply these
16 spring notes variation acrylic on paper 38 x 38cm
considerations to my practice as a painter without
having to think about figurative representation.
Once I have a painting underway, it has a life of its
own. The image on the paper becomes the sole point of
reference. I develop and respond to what I’ve put down
and there are many stages of reconsidering and rework
until it is resolved.”
Bewry’s vibrant and energetic placing of colour
onto canvas is inspiring and a close stepping stone to
interpreting into dye or stitch.
 melange bleu acrylic on paper 19 x 26cm

17
noela bewry
kate blee

shawls photo: sarah blee

18 roche court flat weave photo: sarah blee

 painted cloths photo: sarah blee

kate blee
kate blee

Kate Blee

Kate Blee is an artist whose work relates to control and

response, order and disorder. When she works on cloth it
is the cloth that demands a particular approach. She
observes and reacts, creating the beginnings of
something and working within the parameters or
limitations of the process. The language is about the
component parts. With fabric it is the water, the pigment,
the cloth, the movement and the force of gravity. Within
each cloth a complete and unique journey can be traced.
The imagery is a marking of that journey.

“Colour is my greatest challenge, my greatest pastime,

my constant interest. I will never come to the end with
colour. It is personal and universal, it has, like taste, and
smell, a strong emotional connotation with everyone,
our response is often subconscious. Colour is an
enveloping journey of understanding relationships – the
colour and the medium and for this there are no rules.”

Kate studied at Edinburgh College of Art between 1980

and 1984 and set up her studio in London in 1986.
She has been involved in a wide range of art and design
projects working with textiles and mixed media for
exhibitions, installations and commissions.

20 lime shawl photo: sarah blee

 21
kate blee
sara brennan

broken band with green tapestry

22
 broken band with gold tapestry

23
sara brennan
ekta kaul
sara brennan
Sara Brennan

Woven Tapestry is one of the quieter mediums.

Its realisation demands so much attention and time, that
often it feels like a ridiculous pursuit.

Sara Brennan’s soft muted landscapes convey the feeling

created by the landscapes that surround her home in
Edinburgh. She uses a consistent colour palette, with
usually only one or two predominant colours, and maybe
a hidden line of richness that gives subtle definition
the work.

“I work in two ways. The smaller studies are a more

immediate and direct response to the relationship with
yarn and colour. There are no drawings for this work.
The larger tapestries are taken directly from small
drawings/paintings.

Each of these ways of working are based on a personal

response to landscape, portraying a sense of place that
is kept non-specific, yet its familiarity is gripping.
Lines, boundaries,landscapes and the unspoken
intimacy with in the spaces that these edges create
fascinate me.

My palette is tonal, I always use one specific colour to

high light the tension with in these measured
landscapes. This colour and yarn become obsessive and
become part of an ongoing series of tapestries.”

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 bands tapestry

25
sara brennan
henny burnett

soles iv mixed media

three wax shoes mixed media

soles iii mixed media

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 stroud work in progress mixed media

29
henny burnett
lina peterson
henny burnett
Henny Burnett
Henny Burnett’s work has a continuing preoccupation
with museums, collecting, fragility and transience.
Inspired by family history, personal memorabilia often
become incorporated into the forms and structures she
creates. Gloves are cast in plaster and printed with
fragmented texts from different eras, resembling fragile
relics. Old recipes are printed and sewn into thinly cast
paper and muslin bowls. Sound and light are increasingly
important in the presentation of her work by incorporating
light boxes, recorded histories and sound pieces.
Past work such as The Grandmother’s Cupboard (2004)
has drawn on personal histories, and family connections
with the county and its industry, her developing work has
a more general historical impact.
The process of working with a museum and its archives
has resulted in work that explores impermanence and
memory; it is rooted in the fabric of the home, yet
presented in an historical context.
The new work created for Stroud International Textile
Festival offered the opportunity further to develop ideas
28
and techniques that Henny has confronted previously,
in particular while making The Shoemaker’s Shrine, which
was commissioned for Northamptonshire’s JGallery.
Here she used light boxes while working with both
photographic-derived imagery and cast objects.
The process of collecting, arranging and transforming
from a range of sources is important to her working
process. The three light boxes of Stroud Scarlet, display
images of sewn, collaged, drawn, cast and layered
fragments relating to the Stroud Valleys wool industry.
The sources include women menders, Stroudwater
scarlet, broadcloths, tenter hooks, shearers, clothier’s
marks, redcoat soldiers, teasel thistles, Dunkirk Mill,
cochineal beetles and madder plants.
Details of threads, weave and other textures – the very
unravelling of fine threads – have been captured and
given prominence by photographic enlargement. The
Victorian art of decoupage and the cabinets of curiosities
so popular in that era have also been influential in the
approach to this new work.
 dorothy reglar
31
henny burnett
janet hinchliffe mccutcheon

Janet Hinchliffe McCutcheon

The exploration of linear form is the visual basis for her

jewellery. Janet has always enjoyed using a variety of
materials including precious metals, metal leaf, ebony and
textiles. Each material contributes particular tactile
qualities to the jewellery with the addition of colour from
the textiles. The combination of materials determines
construction techniques which in turn define the final
design of a piece of jewellery.

30 earrings folded silver, gold leaf, red cord photo: joel degen
janet hinchliffe mccutcheon
ianet
annie hutchinson Annie Hutchinson

“Recycled memories stitched with found mementoes,

Signs and Symbols,
Dancing Hares,
Old darned printed dresses,
Parodies of life,
Great Auntie’s slippers,
A rhyme or old timey song,
Cotton wool clouds in Azure blue skies,
Butterflies having fun,
Circus performers and magic,
Mysterium of all sorts………
There really is a BIG BAD WOLF you know….”

These are just some of the things that inspire Annie

Hutchinson to make her weird and wonderful creatures.
Some mirror real life situations, the humour and the irony,
some stem from the imagination or a tale told in
childhood, remembered and forever intriguing.

Annie has always had a love for textures which has

developed consistently since studying Fine Art Sculpture
in Cheltenham. Many traditional skills are performed in the
making of these armature figures, needle felting, hand and
machine stitching, incorporating appliqué and embroidery,
simple lino-cut printing techniques and painted images.
These skills married with Annie’s magpie tendencies to
seek vintage materials and discarded treasures come
together to form the basis for her other worldly folk. Annie
lives and works in a studio near Stroud in Gloucestershire.

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 he loves me ... he loves me not mixed media

33
annie hutchinson
deirdre nelson Deirdre Nelson
Since graduating from Glasgow School of Art in 1992
Deirdre Nelson has pursued a parallel career in creating
work for exhibition and commission and in working as a
tutor to various groups. Her art practice has evolved
through experimenting with materials and hand work and
craftsmanship provide both direction and context. Hand
skills are used though the work in a humorous commentary
on social and textile history within the contemporary
gallery. Her textile work employs a variety of techniques
and materials fusing traditional textile skills and
contemporary reinterpretation through photography
and digital manipulation.
Deirdre has been artist in residence in a variety of
locations from Ireland, Sutherland, Outer Hebrides to
Western Australia creating work for exhibition and with
local communities, and in 2008 she was selected for
Jerwood Contemporary Makers being one of seven
applied artists receiving the Jerwood Makers award.
“As artist in resident in Stroud I was particularly
interested in the history of textile production in Stroud
and on my initial visit to the museum, was drawn to
Stroud red cloth and related artefacts. The red stripes
on the Wallbridge painting which hangs on the museum
wall fascinated me as did many of the artefacts
throughout the museum.
Exploring the theme of red and photographing the red
34
objects within the museum allowed me to take a closer
look at the collection and to begin to make links with
the objects displayed and Stroud red cloth. A privileged
visit to Milliken’s at Lodgemore Mill allowed an insight
into current cloth production of tennis ball cloth in
Stroud. Words associated with the production of Stroud
cloth were of great interest which led to a collaboration
with Tawona Sithole, a Zimbabwean performance
poet, who has had experience of working with a variety
of communities.
As my primary interest is in finding ways to combine
both the historical and contemporary in my work, it was
important to tell the story of Stroud cloth past and
present. My aim was to create a textile work which
would have a ‘use’ beyond the festival so ideas developed
which could become useful in education and interpretation.
A trail of red tennis balls through the collection act as
‘full stops’ in order to stop the viewer and allow them to
view objects in a new light. A ‘forest of swingballs’
allow participants to be active in batting history around
in the form of embroidered tennis balls.
It has been a fascinating experience as artist in
residence at Stroud Museum in the Park and I hope the
resulting works will provide a lively and playful insight
into Stroud Cloth both past and present.”
 deirdre nelson photo: shannon toft

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deirdre nelson
jo newman
Jo Newman

Jo Newman is a contemporary textiles artist who

promotes the value of line through stitch in her practice.
Her work is a combination of found, drawn and
photographed studies that, when transferred to canvas
create a sense of narrative. They can often be quirky
and humorous observations.

“I like to try and capture a moment in time and play

with the idea for a while until I find what I like and
preparing the land print & stitch what I want to share.”

She graduated from Winchester School of Art in

Constructed Textiles, specialising in Knit and for several
years she worked with Constructed Costume Designer/
Maker Trevor Collins. She is establishing herself as a
Textiles Illustrator based in the UK and exhibits with the
Midland Textiles Forum, Independently and works to
commission.

Jo’s current body of Textiles Illustrations are based on the

Village Community of Arlingham in Gloucestershire whose
lives are dominated by the presence on three sides by the
River Severn. The work explores the Past and Present
lives of the village, land, people, river and the changes
over time.

36
 fiona wright
montana 2 print & stitch

jo newman
io
38
caroline sharp

twiggy vessel (detail) birch willow

chalkseeds willow & chalk

 thursday 22
caroline sharp
caroline sharp
Caroline Sharp
Caroline Sharp has an established career as both a
landscape architect and artist and has shown work
throughout the UK including the recent exhibition Urban
Field at Contemporary Applied Arts in London and 3 solo
shows in 2009.
Caroline has completed many commissions for public
spaces in both rural and urban settings using a variety of
media. Recent commissions have included installations
along the Wessex Ridgeway and another for the North
Hykeham Theatre in Lincoln.
Recent work is woven, printed, assembled, or
constructed and uses natural materials including stems of
willow, dogwood, birch, poplar; leaves, wool, chalk, clay
and “anything that moves and inspires with form and
context being paramount”. Her solo exhibitions held
during 2009 showed giant Floating Seeds constructed
40
twiggy vessel birch willow
from wild mustard stems; some new work using chalk
and clay block prints; wall based work with bent and
stitched willow.
The work shown in the Stroud Textile festival is a
continuation of Caroline’s fascination with natural form.
Three Vessels stand within the Courtyard space
reflecting the surrounding parkland and acting as
juxtaposition to the hard, crisp stone paving and building.
The vessels are made using colourful and textural stems
of willow and birch and explore concepts around
containment and movement.
A main motivation for Caroline is a continuing need to
connect to the earth and the natural world. Issues of
sustainability; the fragility of permanence to
impermanence and our own mortality are increasingly
important influences in her work.
three vessels willow

41
norma starszakowna

42
broken wall, gaza (detail) embellished textiles photo: andy taylor
 thursday 22
exposed wall, trieste embellished textiles photo: andy taylor

norma starszakowna
43
norma starszakowna
Norma Starszakowna
Norma Starszakowna’s textiles are informed by several
factors, including the desire to mediate the flatness
normally associated with the printing process.
Starszakowna’s work combines translucent digital-print
with opaque, embossed screen printed heat-reactive
media and applied patinations and glazes, to explore and
reflect a diverse range of cultural issues. Her textiles are
richly textured and strongly embued with meaning,
referencing changing urban and socio-political
landscapes, as reflected in the use of walls as a means
of expression for the human voice and cultural identity
through graffiti, text or through billboards.
“The encroachment of time and cultural shift; the
archaeology of once-intimate interiors that have been
exposed by socio-economic change to the public gaze,
and the role of walls as a means of protection and
44
separation or the control of the ‘other’ all strongly
impact on my recent work.”
An Arts Council Research Award in 1977 and subsequent
research led to the experimental print processes and
media that were used in the oxidized, embossed, bonded
and crush-print fabrics she produced for Issey Miyake in
1990/02, and which effectively created a paradigm shift
in Japanese textile culture.
 
A selection of these initial experimental textiles were also
exhibited in the British Craft Council’s survey Exhibition,
‘Colour into Cloth 1900 – 1994’ and the Jerwood Prize in
Applied Art Exhibition 1997, while recent work is held in
the collections of the Scottish Parliament, the V&A
Museum and the Whitworth Gallery.
plaster wall (detail) embellished textiles photo: andy taylor
 broken wall, gaza embellished textiles
photo: andy taylor

norma starszakowna
45

thursday 22
 Jo Barker
Born 1963 Cumbria, UK
Lives & Works Edinburgh
W.A.S.P.S. Studios, Patriothall, Hamilton Place,
Edinburgh EH3 5AX
Education/Qualifications
1985-86 Edinburgh College of Art: Post
Graduate Diploma – Commended
1982-85 Edinburgh College of Art: BA (Hons)
Design in Tapestry with Printmaking – 1st Class
1981-82 Cumbria College of Art & Design:
Foundation Course
Selected Exhibitions
2010 Contemporary Applied Arts, London:
Featured Maker
2010 ArtPalmBeach 2010
2009 Brown Grotta Gallery, Connecticut, USA
2009 Ruthin Craft Centre, Wales: Follow A
Thread (UK tour)
2009 Saatchi Gallery, London: Collect
2009 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh:
Jo Barker – Tapestry (solo show)
2007 V&A, Museum, London: Collect
2006 Flinn Gallery, Connecticut, USA: Beyond
Weaving - International Art Textiles
2005 Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Aalborg,
Denmark: Artapestry (Germany, France tour)
2001-9 Browngrotta at SOFA New York
and Chicago
2003 Westport Art Center, Connecticut, USA:
The Common Thread
l 2002 City Art Centre, Edinburgh: Weaving
l Stories (UK tour)
2002 Brown Grotta Gallery, Connecticut, USA:
l 15th Anniversary Exhibition
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curricula vitae edits
2002 The Scottish Gallery at SOFA Chicago
2001 Brown Grotta Arts, Connecticut, USA:
From Across the Pond
Selected Commissions
The House of Lords, Westminster, London
BUPA, London
Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle
Scottish Executive, Edinburgh
City University, London
Bank of China, London
Guinness Plc (United Distillers), Edinburgh
City Art Centre & Edinburgh District Council
Selected Collections
V&A Museum, London,
The House of Lords, London
National Museum of Scotland
City Art Centre, Edinburgh
Aberdeen City Art Gallery & Museums
Grampian Hospitals Art Trust
Selected Awards
2008 The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers
2008 Inches Carr Trust
2006 The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers
2006 Scottish Arts Council
Creative Development
2005 Scottish Arts Council
Professional Development
Employment
1995 – 2001 Goldsmiths College, London;
Edinburgh College of Art; Duncan of
Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee –
Visiting Lecturer
Jo has exhibited widely nationally and
internationally and has work in several
collections including the V&A Museum,
London. She has completed numerous
commissions including tapestries for the
Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle and
the House of Lords, London
Noela Bewry
Born 1951 Vienna
Education Kingston upon Thames Art College
Exhibitions
2009 Mixed landscape at Brewery Arts Theatre,
Cirencester
2009 Wonderwall Gallery, Cirencester
2008 Abstract paintings Hadfield Fine Art –
Spring and summer exhibitions
2006 Contemporary Drawing Show Ruskin Mill
2003 Cirencester Workshops Gallery
1997 Woodcuts Fiery Beacon Gallery Painswick
Noela Bewry annually opens her studio as part
of the Stroud Open Studios in June
Collections
Stroud District Council collection
Numerous private collections
Professional
1980 – 2000 Teaching part-time at Stroud
College in Gloucestershire
She co-curates the Drawing Show which is part
of the SVA site Festival every June, Stroud

Kate Blee
Education
1979-84 Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland –
BA 1st class Hons and Post Grad Dip.
1986 Established Studio
Recent Exhibitions
2010 Roche Court, New Art Centre, group show
2008 re:weave 20 years Rossi & Rossi, London
2007 Solo show the Scottish gallery, Edinburgh
2006 Solo show Cutting Chris Farr Gallery, LA.
2005 The Spirit of Liberty – London
2004 Solo show CAA Gallery, London
2003 C.D.A Show. Sotheby’s, London
2002 Solo show. Egg Gallery. London
2002 LOSA (South Africa Project) Sotheby’s
Group show, London
2001 The Unexpected – Sotheby’s, New York
2001 Solo show Tapestries – Christopher
Farr Gallery
2001 Flood show Pucci International
New York, USA
2000 Pitti Imagine Casa – group experimental
textiles show
1999 Solo show – Egg Gallery, London
Public Commissions
2007-10 Southmead Hospital NHS Trust Bristol
– Lead Artist
2005 City and Islington College – Ceramic wall
- Wilkinson Eyre architects
Architects,. London
Financial Services Authority – Painted and
Suspended Glass Screen, Canary Wharf
1999 Edward Square, London Exterior Wall
painting: J & L Gibbons, Landscape Architects
Public Collections
V&A Museum, London
Crafts Council Collection, London
Westminster Parliament, Portcullis House, London
The Contemporary Arts Society, London
Girton College Cambridge University, Cambridge
Financial Services Authority, London
NHS Trust Southmead Hospital, Bristol
Wellcome Trust, London
Private Clients include
Issey Miyake, Donna Karan, Annie Lennox,
Sir Michael Hopkins, Georgio Armani,
Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Jon Snow,
Janice Blackburn
Professional
Kate is visiting tutor in Mixed Media –
Royal College of Art, London
Colour/Art Consultant – Rivington Street Studio
Architects, J & L Gibbons Landscape Architect
2010
Sara Brennan
Born 1963 Edinburgh
Education & Awards
2008 Jerwood Contemporary Makers Award
2005 Scottish Arts Council, Artistic
Development Award
2001 UK representative, EU initiative, Tapestry
exhibition, Tunisia
2001 Polish Artists Union Prize, 10th
International Tapestry Triennial, Lodz
1993 Hope-Scott Trust Award for Works for
94 Exhibition
1996 Scottish Arts Council, Artistic
Development Award
1982-86 Edinburgh College of Art,
BA (Hons) Tapestry
1981-82 National Arts School, Papua New Guinea
Selected Commissions
First Minister’s Suite, Scottish Executive,
New St. Andrews House, Edinburgh
Private Commissions UK & USA
Selected Collections
Scottish Parliament Building Edinburgh
Shipley Art Gallery Gateshead
HBOS Headquarters, Edinburgh
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Private Collections UK, USA & Australia
Selected Exhibitions

2004 Cambridgeshire District Council Offices - 2009 Vive la tapisserie! Institut Francais
8m tapestry, architects – Aukett d’Ecosse, Edinburgh.

2000 Parliament buildings, Portcullis House, 2009 Contemporary Applied Arts, Collect, l
Westminster, London Sattchi Gallery London
2009 Follow a Thread, Ruthin Crafts Centre,
l
1999 Financial Services Authority, London
North Wales, touring Dovecote, Edinburgh, l
Series of Tapestries – Michael Hopkins
Harley Gallery, Notts l

47
 2008 This is Now, from drawing to contexture,
Edinburgh Arts Festival, WASPS, Edinburgh
2008 Jerwood Contemporary Makers, Jerwood
Space, London, and Dovecot, Edinburgh.
2007 Beyond Weaving – International Textiles,
Finn Gallery, Connecticut, USA
2007 Edinburgh College of Art, Centenary
Celebration Exhibition, 2007, Scottish Gallery
2006 Solo Exhibition, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2005 Artapestry, European Tapestry Forum,
touring Denmark, Germany, & France
2005 Interface, Contemporary Textiles,
Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, & Ruthin Crafts
Centre, Wales
2004-07 Scottish Gallery at Collect, V&A, London
2002-06 Brown Grotta at SOFA, NY, USA
2002-04 Scottish Gallery at SOFA, Chicago, USA
2002 Darkness into the Light, C.A.A. London,
touring UK
2002 Anniversary Exhibition, Brown Grotta, USA
2001 Across the Pond, Brown Grotta Gallery,
Connecticut, USA
2001 Invited Artist, International Tapestry
Triennial, Lodz, Poland
2001 Sara Brennan, Scottish Gallery at the
Hub, Edinburgh
2001 A Celebration of Contemporary Applied
Art, Ruthin Craft Centre, Wales, and Scottish
Gallery, Edinburgh
Henny Burnett
Education
1991-92 Institute of Education, University of
London, PGCE in Art & Design
1985-86 Edinburgh College of Art, Post
Graduate Diploma, Sculpture/Printmaking
1982-85 Edinburgh College of Art, BA Hons
(1st), Design
Solo Exhibitions
2009 The Shoemaker’s Shrine Northampton
Museum and Art Gallery
2008 The Shoemaker’s Shrine JGallery,
Moulton, Northampton
2004 Installation, Gallery II, University of Bradford
2002 I Went to see the King Beatrice Royal
Gallery, Southampton
2001 The Language of Ghosts Southside Arts,
Southampton
2001 Uncle Eric’s Box, The Otter Gallery,
Chichester
Group Exhibitions
2009 The Open West, Summerfield Gallery and
Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, Cheltenham
2007 Arts Unwrapped, Space Morning Lane,
London
2005 Highly Commended, Journals, Ale &
Porter Open, Bradford-on-Avon
2000-01 Commissioned artist, A Sense of
Occasion, Craftspace Touring, Birmingham
2000 Two-person show, Colle Verde residency,
Beatrice Royal Gallery, Southampton
1999-2000 Commissioned artist, Subverted
Suburbia, Gracefields Arts Centre, Dumfries
1998 Selected artist, In Dent, Stroud House
Gallery, Stroud
1997 Selected artist, Art in Boxes,
Southampton City Art Gallery
1996 Selected artist, Sitting Pretty Kirkcaldy
Museum & Art Gallery
1994 Invited exhibitor, Paperworks City
Museum & Gallery, Plymouth
Awards, Residencies, Commissions
2009 Awarded grants for the arts (individuals),
Arts Council England
2004 Awarded grant for the arts (individuals),
Arts Council England
2003 Awarded project funding, Juliet
Gomperts Trust
2000 Awarded development funding
(investment in individuals) - Southern Arts
2000 Commission, Birthwake, Craftspace
Touring Exhibition
2000 Awarded residency, Colle Verde, Italy,
Southern Arts

2001 Less is More, Glynn Vivien Art Centre, 2004 Commissioned artist, Open Desk, Ragged
Swansea School Museum, London

2001 Thirteen Hands Exhibition Caol 2003 Commissioned artist, The Home Ideal
community, Fort-William touring Scotland Show Hotbath Gallery, Bath

2001 European Tapestry, Maison d’Arts, 2002 Metamorphosis Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk
l Tunis, Tunisia 2001-02 Sightlines 2002, Basingstoke Arts
l Festival
l Invited artist, Handbag, City Gallery, Leicester,
and touring UK
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Deirdre Nelson
Born 1965 N. Ireland
Education
1995-96 M. Philosophy. Art and Design in
Organisational Context. Glasgow School of Art
1989-92 B.A. Hons Design: Textiles. Glasgow
School of Art
1984-85 Foundation Course in Art and Design.
Manchester Polytechnic
Awards
2008 Jerwood Contemporary Makers
2007 Scottish Arts Council Professional
Development Award
2005 Scottish Arts Council Award for Individual
Development.
2005 Inches Carr Trust Bursary
2003 Scottish Arts Council Professional
Development Award
2002 Hope Scott Trust award
2002 Scottish Arts Council Award for Individual
Development
2001 Short listed for a Winston Churchill
Memorial Award
Solo Exhibitions
2008 Universal provider, IASKA, Kellerberrin,
Western Australia
2008 A’ Fighe A’ Cheo Like knitting fog, Taigh
Chearsabagh, N. Uist
2007 Currency lads and lasses, Museum of
Western Australia, Perth
2006 Birdies of Weavers Bay, Scourie Village
Hall, Sutherland, Scotland
2006 Ironers & Shakers, London Printworks Trust
2005 Waking and watching Culross Palace,
Culross, Fife
2005 Dangers of Sewing and Knitting, Crawford
Arts Centre, St Andrews
2005 Collins Gallery Glasgow, The Hub,
Sleaford, Lincolnshire
2004 A hairdresser, a soldier a thimblemaker
and a duke, Bankfield Museum, Halifax
2003 Lush Betty, Isle of Arran distillers, Arran
2003 F2T Atrium Gallery, Glasgow
2003 Apron (n) bartender, An Taigh
Chearsabagh, N. Uist
2002 My Dear John, Museum of Edinburgh
2001 Material matters, The Scottish Gallery and
The Hub, Edinburgh
2001 A thimbleful. Café Cosmo, Glasgow Film
Theatre, Glasgow
Group Exhibitions
2008 Jerwood Contemporary Makers, Jerwood
Space, London
Collect, V&A London
2007 Scissors paper Stone,. Edinburgh City Art
Centre
2006 Changing Face of Craft, National Portrait
Gallery, Edinburgh
2006 Making Connections, Timespan,
Sutherland, Scotland
2006 Call and response, Knitting and stitching
show, Harrogate
2005 Deconstruct reconstruct Bilston Craft
Centre, Wolverhampton.
2005 Flower Power, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2004 m-e-s-h, Seven Seven Gallery, Broadway
Market, London
2003 Tell tale, Shippley Art Gallery, Gateshead
2002 Digital print @ Pentagon Centre, Glasgow
2002 Hemmed In, Devon Guild of Craftsmen,
Devon
Archive Artifice Artefact, FISE.Gallery
Budapest, Hungary
2010
Commissions
2008-9 Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh
2007 Leeds Cancer Hospital, Leeds
2006 Shetland Museum and Archives
2004 Brodsworth Hall, Doncaster, Creative
Partnerships and Art House
2003 Gibside estate. In collaboration with
Northumbria University and Shippley Art Gallery
2002 Langside Parish Church, Glasgow
Recent Residencies
2010 Stroud International Textiles residency at
Museum in the Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire
2008 IASKA international artists residency,
Kellerberrin, Western Australia
2008 Taigh Chearsabagh Museum and Art
Centre, N. Uist
2007 Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
2006 Handa Island, Durness Development
Group, Sutherland, Scotland
2005-6 London Printworks Trust, Brixton, London
2002 Museum of Edinburgh self initiated residency
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 Caroline Sharp
B.Sc. (Hons) DipLA (Dist.) MLI. CertUD (Dist.)
Born 1958, London.
Childhood in the Middle East
Education
2000-01 Dip UD. Urban Design. Oxford
Brookes University
1984-87 Dip LA. Landscape Architecture.
Birmingham Polytechnic
1977-80 BSc. Geography. University College
London
Solo Exhibitions
2009 Aug – Sept: Members Showcase, Devon
Guild, Bovey Tracy, Devon
2009 June – July: Enjoy the Earth Gently, Black
Swan Arts, Frome, Somerset
2009 April – June: Vessel and Seed, Walford
Mill, Wimborne, Dorset
Selected Group Exhibitions
2009 September: Artwey Open Studios, Dorset
2009 May – June: Cup, Devon Guild, Bovey
Tracey, Devon
2009 June – July: Fresh Air 2009,
Quenington, Gloucestershire
2008 Dec-Jan – Christmas Show, Alpha Gallery,
Sherborne, Dorset
2008 Oct-Dec – Christmas Show, Whitestones
Gallery, Portland, Dorset.
2008 June – Sept Ecology meets Craft, Walford
Mill, Wimborne, Dorset
2008 June – August: Summer Exhibition, Alpha
Gallery, Sherborne, Dorset
l 2008 May: Open Selected Exhibition,
l Dorchester Arts Centre, Dorset
l 2008 May: Trig Point Exhibition, Study Gallery
of Modern Art, Poole, Dorset
l 2004 Hinterland, permanent installation
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curricula vitae edits
2008 Jan – Feb: Open Selected Exhibition,
Black Swan Arts, Somerset
2007 June – Aug: Summer Exhibition, Bowlish
Gallery, Somerset
2007 April – June: Urban Field, Contemporary
Applied Arts, London
2007 Feb – Mar: Pushing the Boundaries,
Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries
2006 May – July: Pushing the Boundaries,
Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland
2006 May – June: 20/20, Walford Mill,
Wimborne, Dorset
2006 Mar – April: Earthbound, Bridport Arts
Centre, Dorset
2006 Jan – Feb: Elemental Insight,
Falkirk, Scotland
Residencies
2003 Art in the Garden Residency, Hilliers
Garden, Romsey, Hants. 25/26/27 July – Sept
2002 Shoot/Wave Installation at Dorset County
Hospital, Dorchester, Dorset, Jan – June
Commissions
2008 Arts NK, Installation at North Hykeham
School/Community Centre, Lincoln.
2006/2007 Creative Footsteps, Wessex
Ridgeway Project, Dorset Artsreach. EU funded
2003/2004 Willow installation/frontage to
Crafts Study Centre, Surrey Institute of Art,
Farnham, Surrey
2003/2004 Art of Craft, Artsreach Leader EU
funded project. Dorset
2002 Presence-Private Garden, Dorset
Professor Norma
Starszakowna DA, FRSA, FCSD
Studio Dundee
Education
2005-08 Director Research, Faculty Art,
Architecture & Design, University of Lincoln
2005 Director Research Development,
University of the Arts London
2003-05 Visiting Professor & Consultant,
Universities of Heriot-Watt and Lincoln
1995-99 Chair of Design, Duncan of
Jordanstone, University of Dundee
1990-95 Deputy Head of School of Design,
Duncan of Jordanstone
1984-95 Head of Textiles and Fashion, Course
Director Printed Textiles, DJCA
1985 Full-time lecturer, BA Printed Textiles,
DJCA
Recent Selected Exhibitions & Commissions
2009 Art Cloth: Engaging New Visions, Fairfield
City Museum & Gallery, Sydney (touring
Australia & USA 2009-11)
2009 Age of Experience solo exhibition,
Dovecot Galleries, Edinburgh
2008 Writings on the Wall solo exhibition, The
Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2006-8 Collect International Gallery Exhibition,
V&A Museum, London
2006-7 Suave 2, Centro de Artesania e Deseno,
Lugo; National Museum of Costume, Madrid
and National Textiles Museum, Barcelona
(Invited Artist)
2005 Vision in Textiles, Izmir State Museum of
Art, Turkey
2004 Transmutations, solo exhibition, The
Dutch TextielMuseum, Tilburg, Netherlands
 2010
commissioned by Scottish Parliament & Art
in Partnership, installed Scottish Parliament,
Edinburgh
2003 Artists at Work, international juried
exhibition, Museo del Tessuto, Prato, Italy
2003 Textiles,Invited Artist, Lodz University/
St. Katherines Gallery, Gdansk, Poland
2003 Design collection commissioned by
Shirin Guild S/S, retailed UK & abroad
2002 Cheongju International Biennale,
Cheongju, Korea

Selected Awards
2008 The Art Fund Collect Purchase Prize,
V&A Museum, London
2004 International Commission Award, the
Scottish Parliament
2002 Commended, Cheungei International
Biennale, Korea

Collections
Public and private collections include: Issey
Miyake, Tokyo, Reiko Sudo (Nuno Corporation),
Tokyo; Shirin Guild Ltd.; Scottish Arts Council;
Scottish Crafts Collection; The Scottish
Parliament; Bank of Scotland HQ; IBM
Collection; South West Arts; Aberdeen,
Kirkaldy and Leeds City Art Galleries; various
Education Authorities; Sembikiya Gallery,
Tokyo; The Deutsche TextilMuseum, Krefeld,
Germany; Whitworth Gallery, Manchester;
V&A Museum, London

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jo barker: resonance (in progress) tapestry photo: roger hyam
 2010
design: chris j bailey ©2010 printed with vegetable based inks on paper derived from sustainable sources © stroud international textiles 2010

Acknowledgements
Festival Patron
Mary La Trobe-Bateman OBE

Stroud District Council

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Stroud Town Council
Arts Council England
Stroud College in Gloucestershire

Stroud International Textiles

Five Valley Foyer, Gloucester Street, Stroud,
Gloucestershire GL5 1QG
t: +44 (0) 1453 808076 l
m: 07767763607 l
e: enquiries@stroudinternationaltextiles.org.uk l

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w: www.stroudinternationaltextiles.org.uk l

Stroud International Textiles 53

c h o s e n p y x
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Stroud International Textiles

textile festival
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celebrating textiles
& contemporary cross art forms
1– 23 May 2010
free day by day diary

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w w w. s t ro u d i n t e r n a t i o n a l t e x t i l e s . o r g . u k
Stroud Five Valleys, Gloucestershire, England
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