Jessica is a textile artist, tutor and community art facilitator from the North East. For the last 20 years she has had various roles in relation to textiles including embroidery design and teaching and is currently working as a freelance textile artist. Jessica has a degree in textiles and surface design from Hartlepool. Now working from a small studio in Northumberland, she explains how her journey has evolved as an artist through her playful attitude to creativity.
Following graduation, Jessica started working with an agent from Manchester as a freelance embroidery and surface pattern designer primarily for the interiors industry creating fabric for bedding and soft furnishings. Jessica had many samples to show us and original designs of themes such as travel, correspondence and household objects. Much of her work was very floral, always popular for interior decoration. Most of her work at this stage was created using raw edge appliqué and free machine embroidery.
An early design from the fairy tell of Princess and the Pea
Jessica opened up an Etsy shop when this phase of her career
wound down. A publisher spotted her work
and she became a designer for background work inside creative books. The
publisher would provide a tracing of the design and then Jessica would create
the groundwork in appliqué and free machine embroidery to lay on buttons and
beads for example. So during this phase her work was very much like
illustration.
Jessica loves teaching and so while bringing up her young family she taught A Level Textiles within a school setting. However with the event of a school merger, she decided to take voluntary redundancy and use the opportunity to have a break and look after her children. But this didn’t stop her creating! Jessica went back to machine embroidery and started working as a creative facilitator in a local hospice. Doing what she loved, Jessica was inspired to create a fabric collage of Sycamore Gap (see above).
As Jessica's family grew in size she had to move her work
into the loft but an opportunity eventually came along to move into her own studio
at the Hearth Art Centre in rural Horsley which has been pivotal in her creative journey. She has now been at her studio for five years
and recently celebrated with a stitch social amongst friends. Now on a self-directed creative path, Jessica
decided to start by exploring memory as a theme. This was prompted by photographs that belonged to her mum which she was looking at through family tree research.
Photo collage work
The black and white photographs contained images of family and
local scenes which Jessica incorporated into her work by printing onto inkjet
cotton and embellishing with collage and stitch. They really were delightful and whimsical pieces
some displayed on old book covers. It
also meant that Jessica could work with vintage fabric which she loves and
enjoys hunting for a bargain in flea markets and charity shops! Some tiny stitched pieces are wrapped around
scrolls and sometimes put inside found or unusual objects such as an old
tobacco tin giving Jessica's work a quirky feel. She also uses words to tell a story.
Scrolls and embroideries displayed in discarded tobacco tins
Jessica next moves onto landscape as a theme. She is often
out in nature with the dog so she is aware of the seasons, colour and light. Her sketchbook work really comes into play
here and is more experimental and free and this practice helps her to translate
her ideas stitch and is where creative inspiration arises. Jessica’s landscape work uses photographs,
collage, brusho paint, Bondaweb and stitch.
Because of her fondness of
Sycamore Gap, she created a piece of textile art called Roots to commemorate
the loss of the tree but also in hope. This beautiful creation
is painted with brusho, with finger turned applique and couching. This won the top four People's Choice Awards
for her message of hope that might grow from these ‘Roots’.
'Roots' of hope in commemoration for the felled tree
Jessica then goes full circle back to florals. This was inspired by a sketchbook dating from
the 1940s given to her by a friend whose mother had produced the work. This influenced a range of floral art and stitched
pieces which comprise of layers of emulsion, watercolour, collage and stitch. Interestingly her final pieces of floral work
are very different in style from her usual light aesthetic. They are dark and atmospheric and she calls them
‘Moody Blooms’. It shows that Jessica’s
work is constantly evolving and she is not afraid to play and experiment.
Moody Blooms
It has been so interesting to learn about Jessica's creative
journey. She is not afraid to try new things or stay within one style and her learning
comes from trial and error. She finishes
by saying she continues “to put her faith in stitch” which we all resonate with
at Harrogate Creative Stitchers. We
thanked Jessica for her lovely talk and then we were able to chat with her and
take a closer look at the samples, sketchbooks and framed art.
For more information visit https://www.jessicakinnersleytextiles.com/ or you can find Jessica on Instagram @jessicakinnersleytextiles
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