Los Angeles-based sculptor and fibre artist Tanya Aguiñiga has made a career out of working with traditional craft practices and materials to produce a wide range of sculptures, installations and performances with a bodily, hand-made feel, often engaging community groups with the process of making. She chooses materials with connotations to her Mexican ancestral past,…
Crafted by Hand: The Tactile Textiles of Tanya Aguiñiga
Late 19th century French painter Paul Sérusier was a pioneering colourist, whose paintings broke free from the realism of the French Impressionists into the realms of the mystical, symbolic, and imaginary. He sought ways of communicating his innermost feelings through his colourful art, writing in his notebook, “Free form and colour from their traditional descriptive…
I first learned how to sew on my mum’s trusty Bernina Matic, figuring out the basics of a sewing machine and sewing in general. In high school, I continued on a similar but newer model, and by the time I reached university, navigating Bernina machines and sewing had become second nature. I guess brand loyalty…
Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos makes vast, all-encompassing sculptural installations that embrace the wonder of textiles in all their glory, from crochet and embroidery to needlework and knitting, which she often incorporates with every day, found object including pianos, sinks, and computers, creating unlikely but strangely celebratory juxtapositions. She is now known worldwide for these vivid,…
You might be thinking “Thread is thread… right?” Well, not always. Sewing thread is a key part of any sewing project. But just like fabric, the thread you choose matters, affecting things like the strength, appearance, and durability of your stitching. But if you have ever shopped for sewing thread, you probably know that it…
The great American minimalist painter Agnes Martin made her name with epic canvases washed with ghostly, trembling bands of pale pastel colour that speak of memory, love, and her intimate experiences in nature. Pale golden shades of yellow like Mellow Yellow made their way into her striped bands of shimmering colour, invoking the golden glow…
Puerto Rican textile designer Paola Melendez makes work with comfort in mind; her brand, titled Paola Melendez Casa, specialises in the most sumptuous fabrics made with craftsmanship and quality at their core. Working with hand-designed motifs, hand-crafted Belgian linen and screen-printed designs, her works are built to last, and she hopes, will become family heirlooms…
There is a familiar quality of warmth and intimacy bound into each thread of Puerto Rican artist Richie Wilde Lopez’s tactile textile art, which he produces in homage to his family heritage, and the women who passed traditions of weaving, embroidering, dyeing and creating down to him. He believes memories are stored deep within fabrics,…
Renowned St Ives artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham made work with astonishing subtlety, conveying the nuanced patina of rugged landscapes in an array of delicately shifting hues throughout her long and prolific career. Soft, subtle shades of bronzed brown like that of Shiitake Linen weaved through many of her most accomplished works of art, capturing the warm,…
Thinking back to my high school textiles days, I remember having to test stitch settings on every fabric we planned to use for our projects. We would cut out little squares of fabric and experiment with different stitch lengths and widths, and edge-finishing techniques. At the time, it felt unnecessary, not to mention tedious….
Fiber artist Katrina Sanchez makes deeply tactile and brilliantly bright knitted objects that speak of her sunny childhood in Panama, bringing a joyful and optimistic sensibility to the spaces they inhabit. The innocence of her soft, puffy creations makes them immediately appealing on a surface level, but they also form a potent means of fantasy,…
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into sewing? I feel like it’s almost impossible to think of a time when I wasn’t doing some form of sewing or crafting. One of my earliest memories is riffling through my grandmother’s wicker sewing basket with the shell covered lid and believing…
The early 20th century Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch saw art as a tool for expressing his innermost thoughts, feelings and desires, and the colours he worked with were a vital tool for expressing these intimate moments from his life. Deep shades of brown like Coffee Bean often played a key role, forming dark tree…
I love a notch, so much so that I’ve decided to dedicate this article to these small but important markings. Here, I’ll explain why they’re so helpful, when to use them, and how to add them to your own patterns or adapt them for existing ones. What exactly are notches? Notches are small markings found…
Interior views were one of Henri Matisse’s most enduring subjects throughout his career, a theme which allowed him to indulge in his great passion for decorative patterns, surfaces, textures, and colours. Tea Rose’s hot pink was one of the shades he returned to again and again, colouring anything from heavy curtains to lush carpets and…
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