I aim to challenge the perceptions of a traditional craft in today’s society, by harnessing the laborious processes of traditional hand embroidery, and combining it with digital print, I am able to create textile keepsakes that retain a contemporary feel.

 

My work explores the curiosity I have about my heritage and identity, particularly the absence of my grandparents. Looking at the documents and artefacts relating to them, I embarked on a discovery of their complex lives, and how, coming from very different backgrounds (Poland and the Netherlands) they ended up settling in England.

 

The work has evoked some very personal feelings, about the loss of my grandparents, and my confusion as to my own cultural identity. This led me to become more secretive in my approach to presentation and to investigate the ‘Hanging Pocket’ as a vehicle to convey my ideas.

 

The hanging pocket was worn by women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and was tied around the waist between the skirt and the petticoats. It had many uses, both utilitarian and personal. “In the days when people often shared bedrooms and household furniture, a pocket was sometimes the only private, safe place for small personal possessions”. Using fabrics that are adorned with indicators of my own identity and that of my grandparents, I have created my own hand embroidered hanging pockets and document holders that provoke ideas of concealment and revealment.

 

I work to commission. I can create precious, personal keepsakes for you from old documents, photographs

and artefacts; be it to celebrate a special occasion such as an anniversary or birthday or to remember the life

of a loved one.

CV