Lesley Howells - Textile Stories

These pieces were submitted by Lesley for our upcoming NRTS Exhibition at New Brewery Arts (Jan-March 2027). Her descriptions and stories were so powerful that I asked her permission to share them all here...

1. The Slow Drip of Memory Loss  ( 10.5 inches (27cm)x 10.5 inches (27 cm))

    Crochet 

I think this came about from our Zoom meetings when we were talking about how your artwork reflects who you are. This led me to think about what emotions I had surrounding my father’s illness. The “pods” are created by crochet using paper yarn. I have written a poem to my father about how I felt and what he meant to me. The red thread is the connection to all the ideas and emotions, as dementia doesn’t follow a chronological path; it takes pieces of someone’s life from them in a random way, so that my father could know who I was but not recognise my mother. 

I think that I was also influenced by the Grids prompt (this helped me greatly with the composition) and the Joy prompt because, even though it was hard creating this, writing it all down gave me a lot of joy. 

2. All in the Chain ( 14.5 inches (37cm) x 14.5 inches (37 cm))

     Crochet, water-soluble, free machine stitch

This piece also came from our Grids prompt, as I wanted to create a different layout that interpreted the theme by following a path. The path being the generations, so there is no beginning and no end, just following on from those that have gone before. The paper pieces tied to the spiral contain little notes of wisdom that came from my mother and her mother before her. The piece is a mix-up between Grids and water-soluble (ideas came from Water Soluble Magic), but also from Loops and Float.

 The piece is about the passing down of creativity through the generations. My Grandmother taught my mother to crochet, and my mother taught me. Each of us took it one step further and, in turn, took it down our own paths. 

3. The Garden of Joy (38.5 inches (98cm)  x 38.5 inches (98 cm)

    Free machine stitching (on fabric and using water-soluble)

This came about because of the Share prompt. I started making the flowers for my family in March, but during the Share prompt I decided to make 100 flowers of joy to try to give people a smile by thinking about the things that give them joy.

4. Arc of the Silent Forest ( 21 inches (53 cm ) x 17.25 inches (44 cm)

    Fabric collage, machine-wrapped cords and hand stitching

This piece was created as a result of our Co-create Wreaths workshop with Debra Wade.

She talked about different 'compositions' for wreaths and discussed an arc or crescent shape. This was the starting point, and I also had many wrapped cords from our Wrap prompt, which I initially thought I would wrap around a structure.

I thought the arc or crescent was a better composition, then used the cords to create a textured shape that resembled twigs and branches of trees or shrubs. All brought back to the forest (my happy place). 

5. Butterfly Duet (8inch (20cm) circle)

    Machine stitching, wrapped cords, burning and hand stitching, wire with paper pulp. 

This started as an idea from the Texture prompt when we were looking at using plaster. I initially thought of doing something like this using plaster, but it was too heavy for the wire. So I thought about using paper pulp... The wire I used was quite old and rusted very quickly, which gave the butterflies another dimension! There is also the influence of the Display prompt with the use of a padded background to try and lift the butterflies from the surface a little. 

6. For Leah (mannequin 56 inches (142cm)

   machine and hand embroidery

The initial idea of creating something for my Great Great Aunt came from the You prompt and discussions about being our authentic self. My relative certainly took ownership of what she was accused of doing but took a very sad path in dealing with this. I wanted to create something which explained her story and also embodied who she was. 

The Zoom meetings are so important. The meetings are often where ideas begin. Through discussions, those ideas develop. Leah came from these discussions. I liked the idea of telling her story, and the Display prompt resulted in the idea of creating a dress for her and writing her story on the dress. 

 You can find more of Lesley's work on her Instagram here...

https://www.instagram.com/l_howells1/

All our prompts and discussions are available to watch in the membership.

Join us here...

https://www.norulestextilesociety.com/the-no-rules-textile-society