With this series, I aimed to explore how ceramics could be adorned by embroidery. When I went to the local ceramic studio that is open to the public, I had no other concept in mind than to create something that I could possibly stitch on later…
While the clay was processed through the compactor, it lay between damp cloth. Immediately, I noticed that there was an interesting imprint of the cloth on the clay. It looked as if the clay was a thick piece of cloth itself! I then decided to not further process the clay but to simply cut it in small squares and to prick random holes in them that were large enough for a common embroidery needle. I then had these “tiles” put in the kiln.
A few days later, I picked up my now fired tiles and brought them home. I sorted some out and arranged them on my studio table. They looked like ceramic “inchies”! That’s why I decided to arrange them in fours and paint them and decorate them in an “inchy-ish” way.
To have a neutral background, I cut out some felt squares. I then stitched the tiles on the black felt and further adorned them with beads.
I then arranged the tiles in groups of four and sew them on cloth and put the finished pieces on canvas or directly sew them on painted canvas. The painting of the canvas and the fabric manipulation of the background fabric contribute a lot to the finished pieces!
Looking at my creations, I wondered if anybody would buy my works… I thought, I could maybe add a functional bonus so that the works could be viewed as well as used! Thus, I made some of the final pieces into key/jewelry holders. 🙂
