Lesley Vowles

 

 

 

 

I have always loved making things.  My mother made her own clothes and mine, my paternal grandfather was a tailor, my maternal grandmother was a keen knitter and an aunt I stayed with regularly painted her own greetings cards.  So I grew up in quite a creative environment. I think I was the only one of my friends at school who actually enjoyed the sewing side of our Domestic Science lessons.

I am addicted to art and creativity in all its forms. My passion lies in making books and journals using both traditional book binding techniques as well as less traditional techniques. Over the years, however, I have had a go at most types of embroidery, both hand and machine, textile surface decoration, paper making, quilting etc. I just love using needle and thread to create a new stitched surface.

The call for textile and mixed media artists for Threads of Time came at a time when I had just finished making a number of stitched pieces and I was looking for some new inspiration. I was attracted by the thought of working alongside other like-minded people. I had never worked from archive material previously and the challenge seemed too good to miss.

I had never even heard of Hertfordshire Archives before the Threads of Time project and getting to see ‘behind the scenes’ was a real treat. I have been amazed at the wide variety of work that the group has produced.

About my Piece

This vessel was inspired by:

The Grant of Arms for the Wittewronge family

• Sir John’s race card for Brocket hall
• 17th century gaming bags.  The bases were often embroidered with the owner’s coat of arms to ensure the owner could be correctly identified
• The techniques of slashing, panning and embroidery used in 17th century costumes.

Cotton fabric was hand dyed and decorated with stamped green leaves and stencilled red leaves.  The stencil was inspired by a 17th century embroidery seen in Canterbury cathedral.