A reel of blue sewing cotton.

That is what Sharon Jewel started with.

She had bought this to repair her husbands shirts.

She then bought some homespun fabric and cut it up in pieces measuring 300X300mm.

Over a period of about 2 years Sharon filled over 100 pieces of fabric with embroidered images.  These originated for random images and thoughts, that arose over time and outside the deliberate processes of thought.  She then drew these images and words onto her fabric with a pencil and proceeded to stitch them with her blue thread.

Sharon has used simple stitches to express complex ideas, some of which seem disjointed.

But all hang together as a train of thought.

I asked her if she found the process 'meditative' but she hadn't thought about that, only getting the idea onto the fabric.  But she said it was something that she could put in her pocket and take anywhere and just stitch.

When asked how she removed her pencil markings she replied that if they were not covered with stitching she washed the fabric in soap and water and then ironed it.

Sharon doesn't come to embroidery with all the trappings what we, who have embroidered for years and have absorbed the 'rules' of embroidery that we were told must be adhered to.  She just stitches what she thinks and feels.

Yet there is a cohesion to this body of work. 

It isn't beautifully mounted in frames, but is like random thoughts pinned to the wall.

This exhibition is something one wouldn't expect to see in embroidery but that makes it even more special.

Comments

[Rachel]

That looks fascinating!

[Carolyn Foley]

It is and so out of left field.