Stitchy Snippets - Raw Denim

Ian Berry is an extraordinary textile artist, who is known for working exclusively with denim cloth. Berry uses discarded denim to create detailed art including portraits, urban landscapes and installations. Initially, whilst observing the contrasting blue tones in heap of old jeans, Berry was inspired to use these household items to create stunning pieces of art.

This universally, commonly worn item provides a perfect medium for Berry's diverse city scenes and portraits of cult icons. Painstakingly cut, layered and fixed by hand, these art works have so much detail and depth that from afar they look like paintings.

'To see them up close, you become aware of the depth and texture and see how each small piece of denim has been considered and crafted out of jeans with washes, and fades, which help create that painterly tone.'

Check out a selection of these awesome pieces of textile art.

Stitchy Snippets - Dreamlike Embroidery

Canadian based artist - Amanda McCavour creates beautiful, dreamlike, large-scale embroideries. Her basis in drawing led her to experiment with various mediums to create line and she was intrigued to incorporate embroidery in her drawing. Shading and colour are worked into her embroideries as one would do with a paint brush or pencil. Drawing and line remain fundamental to her work 'I would describe my work as being drawings that are made out of thread. I am interested in thread as both drawn and sculptural line.'

Amanda uses a sewing machine to create her pieces and embroiders free-hand onto water soluble fabric. Once the fabric is dissolved in water only the thread is left and these thread lines form the structure of the installations. Amanda 'is interested in thread’s assumed vulnerability, its ability to unravel, and its strength when it is sewn together.' The embroideries appear delicate however the countless, layered stitches create a new fibre and the pieces hold strong without a base cloth.

Amanda's knowledge and experience of printmaking is also apparent in her work. One particular installation is influenced by doodling. Amanda explains 'I made more than 400 neon orange thread "scribbles" and hung each from the ceiling with a pin and a piece of thread. I was hoping that this repetitive imagery and action would create a mass of thread, a giant scribble. It was all of these similar repeating parts that created a larger whole. Some of the repetition in my work relates back to these ideas which are present in printmaking.'

Amanda talks about the impact of fibre in contemporary art. 'It seems to be that the possibilities for fibre in contemporary art are endless and that the role it might play is one of expanding and broadening the boundaries between art, craft and design.'