Heather Potten

Scotland

www.heatherpotten.com

Title
Surface

Over the past few years, I have become more and more interested in repurposing, conserving and mending what we already have. I rarely throw anything that could be useful, away. In my studio, bags of felt made over the years await the next project. I have a drawerful of old embroidery threads from my grandmother and mother-in-law, keen to be seen.

On my sitting room wall, amongst others, is a wall hanging that I made but, until now, had never been entirely happy with. It always felt unfinished.

The idea of reconnecting with this original wall piece, and with previous feltworks, using threads and the skills I first learned at school, was invigorating. The old felt was cut up into a multitude of circles, giving me a wonderful array of colours and textures to applique with the silk threads onto my original piece. The resulting work, which took several weeks to complete, now pleases me every day.

Materials and Techniques:
Merino, silk, neps, knitting wool, silk and cotton embroidery threads.
Pre-felts on merino embellished with hand-stitched applique.
Artwork size: Width: 35cm Length 140cm