Unpicked Restitched
Unpicked : Restitched was a project led by Arts for Recovery (ARC) in Stockport one of the North West’s leading arts and health organisations, and funded by Arts Council England and Stockport MBC.
The project commissioned textile artist, Julie Mosley, and writer, Sarah Butler, to explore the question ‘Where is the heart of Stockport?’ in textiles and creative writing. Through workshops and conversations they have examined the hidden stories, characters and heritage of Stockport’s marketplace and rich textile past. The project resulted in an exhibition of textiles and text at St Marys' in the Marketplace Church, Stockport Art Gallery and is touring the borough. Four large textile panels were produced by Julie in collaboration with Sarah Bulter. Textiles groups at Arc and St Mary's in the Marketplace Church worked to produce two large long textile panels and most participants contributed with a small 20 x 20 cm piece.
The title Unpicked Restitched inspired Julie, evoking thoughts of exposed seams, frayed edges and the concept that something could be deconstructed and reassembled to create something new.
Working collaboratively, Julie and Sarah explored aerial views on Google Earth that related to Sarah’s written pieces, then worked together to generate text to be printed onto digital transfer fabric. Julie then drew the aerial views onto cotton with water based Inktense pencils and selected text, fabrics, colours and textures. Areas were cut into sections before being developed with machine and hand stitching, using layers of muslin and reverse appliqué to emphasise surface detail. By placing small red squares in pinpointed places on the pieces, the heart of Stockport could be based on different personal memories.
unpickedrestitched.wordpress.com
Here are the four large textile panels on display.
The project commissioned textile artist, Julie Mosley, and writer, Sarah Butler, to explore the question ‘Where is the heart of Stockport?’ in textiles and creative writing. Through workshops and conversations they have examined the hidden stories, characters and heritage of Stockport’s marketplace and rich textile past. The project resulted in an exhibition of textiles and text at St Marys' in the Marketplace Church, Stockport Art Gallery and is touring the borough. Four large textile panels were produced by Julie in collaboration with Sarah Bulter. Textiles groups at Arc and St Mary's in the Marketplace Church worked to produce two large long textile panels and most participants contributed with a small 20 x 20 cm piece.
The title Unpicked Restitched inspired Julie, evoking thoughts of exposed seams, frayed edges and the concept that something could be deconstructed and reassembled to create something new.
Working collaboratively, Julie and Sarah explored aerial views on Google Earth that related to Sarah’s written pieces, then worked together to generate text to be printed onto digital transfer fabric. Julie then drew the aerial views onto cotton with water based Inktense pencils and selected text, fabrics, colours and textures. Areas were cut into sections before being developed with machine and hand stitching, using layers of muslin and reverse appliqué to emphasise surface detail. By placing small red squares in pinpointed places on the pieces, the heart of Stockport could be based on different personal memories.
unpickedrestitched.wordpress.com
Here are the four large textile panels on display.
Close up detail of the four panels
Community textile pieces
For the two stitching workshop groups, Julie selected fabrics to reference the rich textile heritage of Stockport, with the use of natural materials such as cotton, calico, linen, muslin, felt, silk organza and hessian to represent the hemp and rope industry. Sarah’s work and writing generated from the workshops provided text and inspiration for visual elements within the pieces. Historic maps of Stockport were printed digitally onto cotton and silk organza to form a background and a starting point for further development. Hand and machine stitching was combined with techniques such as reverse appliqué to reveal layers of the past.
Here are a few of the small 20 x 20 cm textile pieces
