Mr X Stitch
Mr X Stitch

The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge – Carolyn Saxby

The Kingpin of Contemporary Embroidery. Committed to changing the way…

Contemporary embroidery art via Mr X Stitch

Carolyn Saxby is a mixed media textile artist from Cornwall, England.
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Her work is quite amazing, blending different textiles together to create pieces infused with passion and emotion.
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Crochet, knitting, beading, paper arts, machine stitching, hand embroidery, wet felting – Carolyn takes all these elements and produces textile alchemy. The detail in her work is sublime, her mastery of her art is evident in the things she produces. Studying her works in detail reveal the technical superiority that lies beneath.
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You find out more about her work on her blog, and you can shower her with complements over on her Flickr photostream. Carolyn does not make a big fuss about her work, but she doesn’t need to; it speaks for itself.

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See Also
Maxine Sutton - Sad Bird - embroidered textile artwork
The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge – Maxine Sutton

The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge is brought to you in association with PUSH: Stitchery, the contemporary embroidered art book curated by Jamie Chalmers. Featuring 30 textile-based artists from around the world, it’s a must have for needlework fans.

The Kingpin of Contemporary Embroidery. Committed to changing the way the world thinks about needlecraft.

View Comments (14)

  • Hello Jamie
    Just writing to say thanks so much for including my work on your website – it was really kind of you and I think you’ve made a great job of the article. I will add your link to my blog! Thanks, Carolyn

    • i’m doing a project on you work at school for my GCSE textiles and was just wondering if you would mine giving me some information about your life, work and favourite textiles techniques, or would you mind giving me a website as i cannot find one with much information about you.

      yours faithfully

      Kate Altham

  • Your work is an inspiration to me, the idea of mixed media textiles is something i will be looking into when i start my third year at Coventry University. Good luck for the future!

  • Hi, I’ve just discovered your work, and im amazed πŸ™‚ brilliant stuff πŸ™‚ now, this is going to sound daft, but im doing textiles at college, and i dont really know where to go from there… Uni scares the hell out of me to be honest…. dont really think im going to get in either. But Im not a hundred percent if i even want to do what i thought i wanted to do.. (Surface pattern designer) Now what you do is all the things that im into, mixed media etc.. I just dont know if i’ll get anywhere by just going to college, or whether uni is the best thing for me. Im not very academic and the whole stress of college and deadlines and following certain rules has put me off of textiles a bit but i dont know what else to do… any advise? x

    • Hi Zoe,
      That’s a pretty tricky question. I think it’s a question of working out what you want to do, finding that thing that will bring you joy if you can do it for a living, and then focusing on that. With any of these fields the learning and practice takes the edge off the fun, but if you want to get good at this stuff you’ve got to put in the effort. It may be that you can find some work experience to give you a dose of reality about it, that might help clarify your view on what you want to do. And don’t forget, you could always take a year out before Uni, which is a good break.
      Just make sure you do the thing that makes your heart sing, if you can. It’s better than earning loads of money in a job you hate. πŸ™‚

  • Reply to Zoe (and Jamie)

    I agree with Jamie’s reply. You don’t necessarily need to go to Uni to progress as a textile artist or surface designer. It’s more important that you
    follow your heart and find the techniques that you enjoy and play with them, experimenting a lot and pushing yourself to find your own style. Most textile artists continually experiment with all the processes, mixing them, and trying out new products and ideas from books and magazines. Hands on experience is the best thing at the end of the day

    However, going to Uni can help you to take your work further, it will push you to think about what you like and can help you to develop your own personal style as well as give you qualifications which may be important to you if you are looking to work for others in a design capacity or exhibit your work

    I do agree that Uni can be very stressful at times as well, because there is a lot of paperwork and analyzing but if you just want to learn the processes there is nothing to stop you working at home, teaching yourself processes from text books, which will encourage experimentation too. However, you need to be just as passionate, dedicated and hard working. If you love what you do, then that’s not a problem

    You could try attending one day workshops rather than commit to a full or part time course. Very often, workshops are much more informal with one to one hands on assistance which can greatly increase your confidence.

    Meanwhile, try keeping a private sketchbook that you don’t have to show to anyone. Practice lots of stuff in there and scribble your thoughts and feelings, collect pictures and scraps to do with things you are interested in, think about what you love doing … see what happens

  • Dear Ms/Mrs Saxby,
    My name is Jennifer Ciupa and I’m an A level art student in Tanglin Trust School, Singapore. I’m using your work, in particular your felt textiles which you’ve sewn into on this website, as an artist study for my coursework and i was wondering if i could possibly ask you some questions about your work?
    > Jennifer Ciupa

  • Hi, i am studying your work for my gcse textiles and all the websites abvout you are blocked in my school i was wondering if you could give me a website that i could gto on that might not be blocked ?
    Thanks
    Steph x
    PS i love your work, amazing (:

  • hey
    At school for textiles we have to do an artist page on you and then we are moving onto a big project of your work if you wouldnt mind could you tell me some more information on what you like to do your art work on and what you like to you use in your work and what materials you most like using also abit about your background

    thankyou πŸ™‚