Design@HEART

In our latest blog-takeover, Emma Mears explains how she swapped a teaching job for a full time career in textile art.

I began making and creating eight years ago, when I left my career in teaching. I enrolled on several short courses, in felting, drawing and painting, embroidery and textiles and ceramics and basically, never looked back! I applied to go to my local Art College; Cleveland College of Art & Design to study for a Foundation Degree in Applied Arts – ceramics, jewellery and textiles. I really loved textiles and so I decided to study this further and applied for a level 3 City & Guilds qualification in Embroidery and Design.

I started my creative textile art and accessories business Emma Mears Textiles in May of last year.

My textile art is inspired by nature and the countryside, in particular the textures, shapes and colours of wild flowers (but I love garden varieties too). I recreate scenes or landscapes, seascapes and also still life inspired pictures. I absolutely love old books, magazines and journals about flowers, for example the Observer and Wayside and Woodland books, and I am finding I am using these old hand drawn and painted style of images to inspire my own creations and flower designs.

I like to create unique one off designs and so I vary my techniques quite a lot. My favourites are hand embroidery, applique, collage, broderie perse and free motion embroidery. I also like to mix it up and use both traditional and contemporary techniques together. My work is colourful and textural with a naïve and stylised quality. I love all things old and worn or ‘used’ and so I often incorporate old linen, quilted pieces, embroidered tablecloths, tea tray cloths, handkerchiefs and old clothes or lace into my work. I like the idea of adding something to a piece of cloth that has already been stitched into by another hand and giving it a new lease of life! I am getting quite a hoarder and magpie for old prints and linen! I also like to mix and match old and new materials together to give a contemporary touch to a vintage piece.

I mostly create textile art in the form of pictures, but I also like to make smaller wearable art such as brooches and pendants. I also make a range of small lanterns for tea lights and bespoke lampshades. My range is extending all of the time.

My main studio is in my home in my spare room. I love my studio and being surrounded by things I have acquired and love. It is my sanctuary. In the summer, I love to stitch outside , so I tend to take over the ‘little blue shed’! I feel very lucky being my own boss and being able to organise my own time, but you really need to be strong with yourself and get into a routine or you can get led astray and not get any work done and drink far too many cups of tea!

My hopes for the future are that I’ll be supplying a handful of small gallery/gift/handcrafted shops, and that I’ll continue to be happy with my work and be inspired. I would love to teach and do regular workshops and share my knowledge and passion for textiles. And I would love to be able to say I am earning a living from my work.

Emma will be at Design@HEART on Saturday 9th June 2018, 10am-4pm, Headingley HEART Centre, Bennett Road, Leeds LS6 3HN.