The messages and images embroidered in these aprons are associated with the urgent need to make the high levels of gender-based violence visible and question and contest our society’s patriarchal structure and severe social inequalities.
… ‘La trato como reina [I treat her like a queen]’, Daniela Lara-Espinoza
Personal essay centred on a piece by British textile artist Freddie Robins, called Craft Kills (2002) – a life-size self-portrait, knitted out of grey wool.
… Needle, Laura Grace Simpkins
‘C19 Text Talk’ is a hand-embroidered diary, comprised of 50 text works, made over a period of 100 days since the enforcement of the UK lockdown on the 23rd March 2020.
… Emily Grimble, C19 Text Talk (2020)
Find out more about Sicgmone Kludje & Vea Koranteng’s knitting club…
… Spotlight: Black Girl Knit Club
Veiled Voices 2020 is an inclusive community embroidery project, which invites women across the UK to come together and explore perceptions of Hijab wearing in Britain, with the aim of creating understanding and friendship.
… Spotlight: Veiled Voices 2020
Exploring the role craft played at the The Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp
… On the Fence: Crafting Resistance at Greenham Common
Stitches in Time began as an experiment to see if sewing could start conversations between strangers – Lottie Whalen interviewed the team to find out more…
… Sewing Social Histories with Stitches in Time
Quilting points display the impact community projects can have
… ‘Some Strange Comfort’: the 2012 Holloway Quilt
Tussar, Chanderi, Kanjeevaram, Bandini, Patola – these are names I would often hear around me while growing up in India, and I remember vividly the accompanied excitement that these words would conjure, and the all-consuming beauty and vibrancy that would follow.
… Practice-based: Aninda Varma
North London based artist and activist Rachelle Romeo’s work caught our eye with her powerful and poetic use of embroidery.
Amy E. Elkins reviews handiwork by Sara Baume
… Book Review: handiwork’s Crafting of the New Global Elegy
Janie Terrero’s decision to declare her identity at the centre of her work is a gesture of defiance towards the Prison’s attempt to anonymise inmates in an effort to prevent solidarity from forming.
… Stitching Solidarity: Janie Terrero and the Political Power of the Needle
Explore Sibande’s alter-ego, the domestic servant Sophie Ntombikayise, who emanates and is entangled by sprawling, supernatural roots of purple fabric…
… ‘Always in the Middle’: Unpicking the Fabric of Domesticity with Mary Sibande
After stumbling on an exhibition in Madrid, Roberta Quance discovers the affective resonance of crochet and the legacies of lacemaking…
… In the (Spider’s) Web (on Berta López)
How the mysterious and enigmatic artist Madge Gill (1882-1961) defied all expectations of being a working class woman in the early 20th century.
… Madge Gill: Creativity with No Boundaries
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