A workshop with Sue Lawty

I went to a workshop with Sue Lawty, Artist in Residence at the V&A in London, during her Concealed, Discovered, Revealed exhibition. What I love about Sue is her enthusiasm for exploring and discovering. She was very interested in bringing structure and texture, partly through the use of non-traditional fibrous wefts into her tapestries. She encouraged us to experiment and see what happened.

This is the piece I made during her two day workshop, playing around with colour, and for the first time introducing (albeit a bit nervously) contrasting materials and beginning to play around with the dialogue between the fibres. I felt greatly encouraged by her adventurous and inquisitive spirit and came away from the weekend inspired and ready to tackle the homework she set us.

About the artist
In an artist statement, Sue says 'Throughout my creative life I have been drawn to textiles from times past, re-examining structure and exploring textile language. I have poured over tapestry fragments from Peru and Coptic Egypt or raphia cloths from Zaire. The more I research, the more I feel part of a rich woven tradition and the more I endeavour to add something of interest to it. I wish for my work to give me the same frisson that I experience from these humble textiles. In our present technological age, it feels important that the past should inform the present and that the human mark of the individual should be evident.'