Why Textile Arts? - Part 3: Uni and Beyond...

Whilst at Uni my house mate and I both took up Cross-stitch. Needless to say we weren't much interested in Wednesday night dances or Friday night drinking sessions. We'd save our $$ by compromising on our grocery shopping (making do with 2-minute noodles instead of proper meals) in order to make a trip to Toowoomba to buy a cross-stitch pattern each. The cross stitch that I'm finishing now is one that I bought after Uni at a craft fair that I went to T with.


My next textile-related passion would have to be the cloth dolls. I became interested in cloth dolls during my first “real full-time job” after Uni. I was living on my own in a new town without too much to do in my spare time (still not a big one for going out – even though there wasn't much of a night life in Blackwater). I think that I discovered dolls through a magazine – it was either Bears, Dolls and Collectables, or a special Cloth Doll edition of the same magazine. I started out by saying that I just wanted to do one to try it. That doll is now hanging on the wall at Mum's place, along with several others that followed, so no I didn't stop at one. From the simple doll that I started with, I then went on to sculpted faces, wired armature and separate fingers.




I think that by this stage I new that sewing and crafts were definitely my 'thing'. Spotlight and the local quilt shop were my favourite 'hang-outs' as was the craft section of the newpaper shop (still is, but now I just browse and dn't buy – not so much anyway!). During one job I had I worked at two different locations and had to travel and stay away for two to three days each. I would take my sewing machine and the latest doll with me to work on in the evenings at the motel I was staying at – now that's dedication.

At one stage whilst I was working for Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, I was relocated and stayed at a friends house at the beach for about 4 weeks whilst I found a place to live (all of my possessions were in storage). I needed to have something to do after work so I was working on an embroidery kit that I bought. This embroidery was raised embroidery and involved needle-lacing. This was where my love of stumpwork and raised embroidery started. During that same time I found a book called Hand Embroidered Country Scenes, by Sue Newhouse. Inspired by this book I created these two pieces...

This one is hanging in Mum's house (yes she has lots of my work)

And this one I gave to my friends as a thank-you for letting me stay.

This is the start of my real love of textiles and making threads and fabric do things that people wouldn't normally think possible. Over the next 12 months I continued with the cloth dolls and dabbled in embroidery. I joined a group at the local quilt shop where we'd sit and work on our own projects. As I was reading an issue of Textile Fibre Forum I saw an ad for Box Hill Tafe's Studio Stitch course and I decided that I really loved what I did with textiles and embroidery and wanted to take it further.


This was a big leap of faith for me. I took 12 months leave from my job, uprooted myself from the house that I'd established for myself and drove down to Melbourne with what I could fit into the car to attend a course on textiles and stitch. At the time I left Mackay, where I was living at the time, I had no place to stay and no idea what I was in for. I still to this day don't know how I had the guts to make such a decision. I still don't know how Mum stood back and let me do it. But I'm so glad that I did!


I have been in Victoria for almost 7 years now. I completed the Studio Stitch course in 2004, have participated in 3 exhibitions and have found the man that I'm going to marry (an added bonus). It's more than I could have wished for when I packed the car 7 years ago half expecting that I would be back on Mum's doorstep in 12 months time.

What happens next is anybody's guess but textiles are a part of my life and I will continue to explore and play!!!

What's my style?...

Nicky over at Creative Force Online recently posed the question, "What's your style?"

This is something that I've struggled with of late and I think that finally, after creating the works for my exhibtion, that I may have answered this question.

In answering this question, I've been thinking more about the 'type' of work that I do and that I'd like to put my name to, than 'how' I work. For me the question is more "'when people think of Sophie Lanham the textile artsist, what do they think?"

I don't want to put myself and my art into a 'pidgeon-hole' and leave it there. I know that I will continue to grow and develop and find new techniques and styles that I'm interested in, but I need a direction in which to start. As you will notice from reading my blog that I am interested in all things textile and want to try everything. I've had a go at a lot of things (felting, knitting, dyeing, quilting, and the list goes on), and have piles of books on other topics that I'd like to try too (journalling, natural dyeing, spinning and more). I don't want to stop trying new things, as I think that this can only help to further develop my style by allowing me to discover new skills or techniques and eliminating those that I don't enjoy.

So what is 'my style'?

• Natural environment: I tend to base a lot of my work on the natural environment. Trees, leaves, flowers, landscapes and seascapes all feature heavily in my work. Australian landscapes and flora and fauna have always been a focus but I don't restrict myself to this.
• Uniqueness: I want to spend my time and my creative energy on something that is not like what everyone else is doing.
• The viewer needs to take a second look: I like that when people look at my work they ask " how did she do that", "is that fabric or thread?"...
• Realism: I've always struggled to do abstract work. When I was doing art at school I had a teacher who liked abstract and I could never quite get my head around it. I think that I like the viewer to understand what it is that I'm trying to show or say. This is not to say that I don't enjoy some abstract work, but it is something that I think is best left to others (until such time as I work out "how")

My current work, which I think is the direction I am heading at the moment, is machine embroidered scenes, built up in layers to create a visual depth (or 3 dimensional image). With this work, I can use my sewing machine to create realistic landscapes or scenes that resembles a painting but that still has textile qualities. But most importantly viewers of my work wonder - how is that done? People recognise that it is a textile peice and can see that threads and fabrics have been used but are often not sure how it holds up (stands) like it does or how the stitches stay together as there doesn't appear to be any fabric. This is the style of work that I'm currently developing.