Stains

At my last tutorial one of the full time embroidery students introduced me to the work of the artist Nava Lubelski . Her work explores the contradiction between the impulse to destroy and the compulsion to mend.

Nava Lubelski  Ruin

In this work ' Ruin' she has hand stitched over stains on a table cloth. The initial marks are found on linens or are created by cutting and staining.

Nava Lubelski  Ruin

I have been hunting charity shops for garments with obvious signs of wear and I have begun to realise that they are becoming increasing difficult to find, so have come to the conclusion that I will have to create the signs of wear myself.

Textile Designer Elvis Robertson has also done some beautiful work based on stains.

Elvis Robertson

By using metallic paint and silver threads on old french linen she has turned the stain into something beautiful.

Stains - Elvis Robertson