Q&A
Picking up the THREADS
Mixed-media artist Lesley Wood explains how a box of threads inherited from her mum led to her creating deeply personal works
Formerly a fine artist, Lesley Woods made the transition to textile art in 2016. She makes use of her stash of vintage fabrics and photographs for some of her pieces, as here with Furnished with Memories
AH.
How did you get into embroidery as a medium?
LW. I studied a fine art degree at Loughborough College of Art and Design (it was a long time ago and not named as a university back then) and went on to have a lengthy teaching career in secondary schools. On reflection, Loughborough had a very good textile course running in tandem with my own. But, at the time it was not an interest of mine. I was exposed to the art of embroidery quite by accident. My mum used to knit, but she made the transition to cross stitch. It wasn’t till after she died that I inherited her threads, so I chose to learn how to use them.As a person with, at the time, fine art as their foremost practice, I was intrigued by how mixed media could be incorporated with cloth. I had experimented up to an extent with all sorts of unusual mediums during my degree, but it took a while to work out for myself how I wanted to use this in my work.
AH.
How recently did you make the transition from working in the fine art arena to working with thread?