Tresured – Textilia 3

4 October – 23 December 2023

What do we really value? Many things that have little or no monetary worth are deeply treasured – memories, family sayings, a particular poem or a special place.
That old pair of jeans, darned, patched and repaired.
A handmade gift, especially made for you.
A childhood toy. A family heirloom. Your child’s first shoes. Your Grandmother’s mixing bowl.
One persons rubbish is another’s treasure…
This is the starting point for new textile art from Textilia 3. A rich seam to be explored, resulting in work as diverse as the title suggests!

The artists in Textilia 3 use many diverse techniques, including hand and machine stitch, felt, appliqué, mixed media and painting, ceramics, dyeing and resists, print and manipulated fabrics and fibres. Abstract, figurative, and decorative pieces, wall art, 3D and wearable art are all included as well as a wide range of smaller textile items and cards.
Textilia 3 is a well-established group of 16 contemporary textile artists, based in the North of England, who have exhibited widely in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cumbria over the last 25 years. We have built up a popular following of loyal visitors who regularly travel to see our work. Recent exhibitions have included site inspired works for Gawthorpe Textile Collection, Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley and Fountains Abbey, as well as themed exhibitions at Ilkley Manor House, Skipton Town Hall and The Station, Richmond.

Margaret Laycock

I have always loved the world of textiles. It has been a constant feature of my life at school, at home and with the influence of family and friends who have all played their part. In the 1970s a family friend gave me a 19thcentury Chinese Rank Badge that she had kept in a drawer and didn’t really know what it was nor how long she had actually owned it. It brings back memories of her, of our holidays in China and of learning of the rich history of the Chinese civilisation. In 1391 the Ming Court decreed that the Imperial Family along with civil and military officers serving the court would wear official robes emblazoned on the front and back with bird and animal patterns which identified the wearer’s rank. Pro mot ion necessitated a new badge. There was usually an elaborate feature near the top depicting the Emperor who had to be looked up to. The pieces show not only the rich heritage of Chinese embroidery but also the structured society which made it. People knew their place.

Jo Valentine

“Treasured: Remembering a Lost Queen” A short walk from my cottage, up on the moor, with a fabulous 360 degree view are two huge ancient cairns. The Neolithic long cairn was constructed from tens of thousands of stones. Excavated by an amateur archaeologist in the 1930s, it was found to contain a stone burial cist containing human remains, some charred from the funeral pyre, and some stone flints. Such a prestige burial must have contained treasures not recognised in the 1930s. Unusual stones perhaps, possible fibres from a distant cloth, medicinal and dye plants. We cannot know, for the contents, including the remains of that distant ancestor, were removed to who knows where. I visit the grave regularly and ponder on its emptiness, now open to the skies after so many thousand years of listening to the dreams of its ancient resident. So as an homage to my lost queen, I have created a set of grave goods for her. I thank Rachael Singleton for generously sharing her stitch pot technique with me, and Victoria Gertenbach for her stitched talisman stone idea. All materials used are natural so that they can be safely left in the grave.

Sue Ingles

In Japan, elderly artists and craftspeople are declared National Living Treasures. Often 100 years old, like Toshiko Taira, they are still passing on their skills to the younger generation.
KINTSUGI
Instead of being discarded, beautiful broken pots are mended with gold lacquer, becoming even more beautiful.
BORO
Originally a necessity to repair and recycle textiles in times of poverty, this patching and layering technique has found a treasured status.
WABI SABI
Finding the beauty in imperfectionThis is my interpretation in fabric, print and stitch, of these four TREASURED concepts.

Catherine Slater

I studied Sculpture for three years and History of Art for one year as part of my Honours Degree in Education & Art. I then completed a four-year City & Guilds design course in Creative Studies and Embroidery Skills. Currently, I am a member of the International Felt makers’ Association and Textilia3. I am now a freelance artist working mainly with my own handmade felt. I enjoy combining the craft of turning fibres into fabric with the art of translating the images and ideas in my head into a visual form that can be shared with an audience. I love texture and feeling the fibres as I work with them. For “Treasured” I have worked with animal and plant fibres to create “Keepers” to store little treasures and keep them safe. The thing I treasure most is the British landscape and the right to roam and my pictures celebrate these ideas.

Maggie Redpath

I am a child of the fifties, old enough to remember days when school uniforms were bought much too big and worn till much too small. My Grandma taught me how to darn socks and jerseys, to turn shirt collars and cuffs, to patch sheets and to make proggy rugs, but a lasting legacy that she taught me was to knit, and I have been a passionate knitter all my life. Now I am retired, I am blessed with the time to revisit the skills my Grandma taught me and learn so many new ones. The theme “Treasured” has given me the opportunity to reminisce about my childhood growing up in a pit village on the Northumbrian coast. I think my memories are quite romantic. Then the coal mine was the heartbeat of the village, the Miners loyal and supportive of their “Marrers”, their families and the community. – With my rose-tinted glasses on, I’ve based my ideas on the pit and the coveted allotment, the harvest of which was shared and bartered and took pride of place in the ·annual leek show. My Dad once won first prize in the Leek Show and won a glorious fireside chair which my Mum sadly took back to the Co-op and exchanged for winter shoes for us all.
For this body of work, I have moved away from manipulating, burning, and burnishing synthetic fibres to working with natural fibres, finely woven linen and cotton thread. I have used backstitch, broken backstitch and a little fly stitch for intuitive repetitive motifs and naive images.
I have loved stitching these pieces, it has been a challenge and a joy.

Jan Dowman

I have been curious about our solar system since as a child of 9, I was given my first encyclopedia containing a diagram of our sun and its planets including Eart h. Very little was known about their surface atmospheres or the wider universe. Since then, we know more and I treasure the journey I have had by exploring space through the data and images relayed by probes such as Voyager, Cassini­ Huygens, and the Hubble telescope. They added to my knowledge of the Universe and enabled me to appreciate the process of its birth and the history of our own planet Eart h. It’s a fascinating and beautiful phenomenon. I look forward to learning more. The subject for this textile piece is a Nebula. I used discharge paste, household bleach and dye to remove and add colour to black cotton and linen. Pattern was added using screens, stamps, and stencils, further enhanced with hand and machine stitch.