New England Digital Fibre artist Wen Redmond is on a mission to take the fear out of working with digital technology in fibre art. And her new book, Digital Fiber Art: Combine Photos and Fabric – Create Your Own Mixed-Media Masterpiece, is her latest tool in that effort.

Printing on fabric with a home printer is not new in and of itself. Fabric and craft stores have a variety of products artists can use. But those who have used such products know their limitations.

Armed with her love of photography, Wen has spent 20-plus years exploring how to merge digital processes, fabric painting, photography, mixed media and surface design. Now she wants other textile artists to know they can do it too…and still use their home printer!

Wen has been published widely in books and magazines, featured on Quilting Arts Television, and has two DVD workshops with Interweave Publishing. Her work has also been included in many juried exhibits and collections, including Marvin Fletcher’s Quilt National collection.

Inspired by lichen-covered rocks, wet cobblestone streets and the expressive faces of her family and friends, Swedish textile artist Malin Lager creates highly detailed ‘paintings’ with her favourite 1984 Pfaff sewing machine. Her pictures, crafted of meticulously stitched layers of fabric and thread, are so lifelike they are often mistaken for oil paintings.

Malin begins with lustrous, coloured strands of fine silk which she builds up in a many-hued cascade of tiny darning threads over a patched fabric background, similar to the traditional method of underpainting in painted art. The free motion foot on her sewing machine is expertly guided to create colour and composition in an image with shading and highlights that give it its photographic-like expression.

Working from her own photographs, the process is slow but enables her to feel her way to creating the texture that makes her works of art so astonishing.

Descending from four generations of artists, she was always supported in her creative expression, though the use of her sewing machine for textile art was a surprise discovery.

In 2017, the UK Textile Study Group ran an exhibition called Dis/rupt. For this exhibition, Jean Draper made the installation ‘Forbidden’. This was a work depicting the destruction of one culture by another, stronger one. For the project, she explored the challenging subject of book burning and what it represents.

Jean Draper is a member of the 62 Group of Textile Artists and the UK Textile Study Group and has exhibited widely with both groups. Textile Study Group members are known for their innovative and challenging approaches. Her work is in public and private collections around the world and she has taught in the UK and abroad.

Jean is a previous National Chairman of the UK Embroiderers’ Guild. She has written two books, Stitch and Structure (Batsford 2013) and Stitch and Pattern (Batsford 2018).

In this article, read about how Jean created her work ‘Forbidden’. She shares how her work stems from long periods of research into a subject, which may include visits, drawing, photography and extensive sampling.

Bobbi Baugh loves to explore the internal and external layers of her subject, whether following the life and dreams of a character or delving into the depths of nature. She studied art as an undergraduate and developed a career in stationery design. This made good use of her passion for printing, but it wasn’t until she made major changes in her life and left the family business that she was able to concentrate full-time on her mixed media artwork.

Her work collages layers of monoprinted, painted and stencilled fabrics and photo transfers, using stitch to compose and create texture. She chooses harmonious colours to attract the viewer and as a result, the eye is encouraged to linger. A glimpse of a window reflection or a cracked wall in a building might catch the eye, making the viewer pause and reflect on the work.

Baugh’s first solo show was at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in February 2015. This was the award for winning First Place in the Museum’s 2014 Evolutions Exhibition. Baugh exhibited in 2016 in “Immigration Stories” at the GWU textile Museum in Washington DC and has exhibited in juried group shows, SAQA travelling shows and regional juried arts festivals.

She has just completed her second solo show at Arts on Douglas Fine Art Gallery in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. “Home is What You Remember” is the culmination of a year in the studio, creating the body of work focusing on “home” as memory, dream and metaphor. Bobbi has a You-Tube channel called Bobbi Baugh art studio channel and you can follow her blog via her website.

Sorrell Kerrison makes stunning hand-embroidered, Fauvist-style expressionistic portraits. Each image explodes with colour and texture, giving life and movement to the subject’s face, hair and clothing. Her works require huge amounts of patience to complete; even the portrait backgrounds are often entirely hand-stitched.

Sorrell completed a BA (Hons) degree in Television and Radio and spent time working on music videos and documentary films, as a performer and a gig and festivals organiser. She was the singer/songwriter in the band No Plato from 2009 – 2011; the band was named after a W.H. Auden poem she loved. From 2013 – 2017 she was the singer and guitarist in a grunge garage band, Pinot Grigio. Moving into textile art, she combines her love of music and creating art with great passion, making portraits of musicians and other people who have made significant contributions to the people.

In 2017 Sorrell created the album cover artwork for Andrew Hung’s debut solo album “Realisationship” (Lex Records). She was also commissioned by Bolton Museum to create four embroidery portraits of significant benefactors and curators for their permanent collection. These were unveiled in 2018 and are housed in the Chadwick Rooms in the new Egyptology wing. Her work has been featured in the Embroiderers’ Guild Magazine, on the Selvedge blog and in the Stitchery Stories podcasts.

In this interview, you’ll discover how to use your passions in life to spur on your artwork. You’ll discover in detail how Sorrell creates her work.