Julie Bodmer

 

 

 

I started working with stitch and textiles three years ago, having no formal art background. I do however remember as a child the importance to me of ‘making’. One of my earliest memories is of crafting a cross from two pieces of wood, joined together by coloured threads and decorated with rose petals stuck on with nail varnish. I was fascinated by the way the varnish altered the colour red through yellow to orange.

Inspired by a friend’s textile work, I did a Level 1 City and Guild’s hand stitching and textile course in 2011. I am now doing Level 2 which I complete in 2015. I belong to a Norwich textile group ‘Topstitch’ and we have our first exhibition in July this year.’ In The Garden ‘is inspired by The Old Vicarage Gardens, East Ruston, North Norfolk.

I am inspired by the environment around me and observe it thinking in terms of stitch. The ordinary or routine, as well as the more obviously beautiful can equally inspire. I use any material that can be stitched into or stitched with! From plastic bags to tree bark and ‘found’ objects, all are used for experiment. I like to tell a story through stitch and incorporate text, combining letter forms with meaning or narrative. Vintage fabrics and cottons are used and I can often be found rummaging in small boxes at antique fairs or charity shops. I enjoy using aged materials, thinking about their source and the people connected with them.

The ‘Threads of Time’ project enabled me to narrate a part of the Wittewronge collection through stitch, a perfect combination for me to work with. I found out about the project from a link whilst using the Herts Memories website to research my birth family. I currently live in Norfolk but was born in Hertford. HALS has been an important source of information for me and I feel privileged to have my work exhibited in the place where I gained information about the family I never knew. I think it is no coincidence that, for me, this creative period started when I was able to address issues of loss and identity and began to search for my family. I am sure other artists can identify with this connection between art and emotional awareness.

I will soon be working on one of the final pieces for my City and Guild’s course. The subject is ‘Surface’. I recently went to Glacier Bay in Alaska and was inspired by the vast masses of snow, crystallised ice, surface shapes, colour and patterns and will use this as inspiration. To interpret this into stitch, will, for me add a whole new dimension to the experience, validating and prolonging the memory.

Working with textiles has now become an integral part of my life. These days, needles and thread make me happy!

About my Piece

My initial inspiration came from the lace-band collar worn by Sir John Witterwronge. I wanted to recreate the colour, raised band circles and flowers like motifs in my own contemporary textile. I also wanted to tell some of the Witterwronge story from the archived collection. I chose to do this by inserting copied handwritten text from diaries. Lace and the written word came together further by the use of text formed into paper bobbins. A 17th century collection inspired the themes of ageing and time. To represent these, I used antique cottons, disintegrated fabric and tea dyed materials.

I incorporated a thirty year old crochet piece, chosen both for the colour and because it was made by my mother in law, now aged 95. It became my own ‘Threads of Time’ and a happy reminder of our many shared stitching conversations. I used threads, not only for the purpose of stitching but as art forms in themselves, knotted and hanging.

 Time is described as ‘a dimension in which events from the past can be ordered through the present into the future’. The 17th century Witterwronge archives gave us the opportunity to make art today in 2014. In the same way, ‘Threads of Time’ may also inspire future creativity.