In my other blog post (“Hommage à mes grands-mères”) I wrote about how I was informally taught needle arts by my two grandmothers before I went to school. With this article, I would like to tell you how my interest in fiber arts further developed.
I loved school in general, and this included the “arts and crafts” lessons of course. I think it was in second grade when we were assigned to embroider a small picture and could choose between a few patterns. I asked my teacher whether I was allowed to come up with my own pattern and she said yes (well done, Mrs H. ;-)!). We had a picture book of cats at home that I used to read to my little sister, and it had a nice drawing of a young cat in a red shoe on the cover. I loved this cute picture and copied it onto fabric. I then embroidered the outlines and filled the forms in simple manner (I only knew three types of stitches back then) and gifted the finished picture to my mother for her birthday. I don’t have a photo of my embroidery but I found a photo of the original drawing:
So you see, I always liked textile techniques. But in my teenage years and my twenties, I was more interested in the fine arts and experimented with drawing and painting. I had several Salvador Dalí posters hanging on my bedroom walls and was fascinated with how the surrealists translated psychological conditions and emotional moments into surreal paintings… I still love the surrealists to this day, and I think this appreciation shows in my work.
During the third trimester of my first pregnancy (I was 30 years old), I was on strict bedrest for 6 weeks. I lived in America at that time and sent my husband to the craft store to buy a cross stitch kit for me so I could at least do something creative with my hands. I stitched a winter scene with grey wolves and thus came back to working in fibers. I immediately fell in love again with this medium and ever since, I haven’t stopped creating with thread and fabric!…