Welcome to NeedleXChange, conversations on the art of thread. It’s our podcast in which Jamie “Mr X Stitch” Chalmers talks with needlework and textile artists about their practice and process.
Julie Heaton is a Bristol-based machine embroidery artist whose incredible illustrations are borne from tragedy.
We were lucky enough to interview Julie on our Podcast NeedleXChange. When her husband ended his own life in 2009, it sparked a creative journey that continues to this day and in this first part of our conversation we talk about the impact of the suicide among other things. It’s an emotional conversation but Julie’s perspective is invaluable.
Enjoy this snippet of Julies artistic journey:
I explored my traumatic loss through art. In 2010 I started a Creative Arts Degree at Bath Spa. At first, I was very lost as I tried several different mediums hoping to be inspired and lose myself in the process of making. I tried drawing some of my late husband’s possessions with pencil on paper, but I was told that the work was not very good and that I should not draw again and especially, not to draw people.
The comments were deflating. I loved to draw so I decided to find other ways to make it work. I turned to a childhood love, my sewing machine and started to make drawings where I would not correct any mistakes.
I experimented with different fabrics and threads before moving on to dissolvable fabric. The early results were experimental, and I learnt through making mistakes. The breakthrough moment came when I started to draw my late husband’s camera with rayon thread on dissolvable fabric.
The process was tricky and time consuming, but incredibly engaging and this time I was encouraged by a tutor to finish it. The completed drawing was washed to remove the dissolvable fabric, the threads moved around and found their own place allowing the errors to show.
At first, I couldn’t decide whether or not to repair the mistakes but after a few days I realised that I loved the organic nature of the drawing. I had tried to make it perfect but the mistakes showed and that made the drawing work. I called the finished drawing “We should smile more…” and entered it to ‘Drawn’, a biannual competition held at The Royal West of England Academy, winning a scholarship for drawing.
Encouraged by this success, I needed to discover if I could go larger. What would happen if the drawing was more complex and the hours of stitching considerably greater? How would I feel if the drawing went wrong when I washed away the dissolvable fabric in the final stage of the making? To challenge this idea, I decided to draw a full-sized car engine.
The stitched drawing took over 350 hours to complete and it was successful. The strong masculine image made with a delicate feminine art form was titled ‘The Bristol 2 Litre Engine’ and sold at The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition in 2018.
If you would like to listen to the full interview with Julie, make sure to head to our NeedleXChange Podcast. To see more of Julie’s work, you can follow her on Instagram and check out her website.
