Caroline Kirton is a British artist living in Hertfordshire in the UK. She uses a range of techniques including screen printing, appliqué, mixed media and free machine embroidery to depict poignant or amusing moments that often examine family relationships. 

What is your background in textiles? 

I have always been interested in textiles for as long as I can remember, my mum and Grandmother were both keen dressmakers.  My Grandmother used to make dancing costumes for my mum when she was growing up and my mum made costumes for the local amateur dramatic society, so there was always access to material and a sewing machine. I used to make cloths for my dolls and presents for people.  At school I studied GSEC and A level textiles.  At this point my sewing was limited to dressmaking.  After I had my children and my youngest had gone to school, I decided to do an access course in art and design and then this led me onto doing an applied art degree at the University of Hertfordshire, it was during this time that my interest in textiles became an art form.   I graduated in 2008 with a 1^st class Hons and since then I have been working as a self-employed artist.

How do you describe your work? 

I would describe my work figurative textile design, although I have always considered my work to be fine art as the overall concept behind the work has always been of equal importance as the finished design of the picture.  A number of things inform my practice: firstly, I consider myself an observer of human nature, I like to capture moments in time that are poignant or amuse me.  I am also interested in the concept of unconditional love and how this translates into relationships within families or just how some people are caretakers of others.  Foremostly I like to tell other people’s stories.

How do you work? 

I start by working from photographs and then I draw the images and at this point I then make a decision as to which drawing, I will use to work from.   I do make samples of different sections of the picture in order to decide what will work best and theses samples I then keep in a sketch book.

Where do you source your fabrics?

I source my fabrics from various different places, old clothes of my family and friends, eBay, charity shops and I do occasionally buy some fabrics if I need something in particular.

What is it about machine embroidery that appeals to you? 

For me free-machinery embroidery is all about drawing with thread and seeing the picture come to life by using the black line to bring out the details. I like the freedom of motion working that you get from working this way.  My work is all done free hand and not through any digital programmes.

Why do you leave the ends trailing on some work? 

I only leave the ends free on my small pieces as I tried leaving them on the larger art works but found that they distracted form the clean lines as I want my picture to look graphic in quality.  I decided to leave the threads trailing on the smaller pieces as I like the feeling that they are slightly unfinished.

I know it’s a hard question but how long does a piece generally take? 

It really depends on the complexity of the piece, so as a general guide from taking the pictures till completion is roughly a month.

Do you have any advice for aspiring textile artists?

I just really enjoy working with material and fabrics, it’s just a lovely thing to be able to experiment with different textures and colour.  If you have a dream and aspiration, then you should try to realise it.   There are different ways of measuring achievement as an artist you can focusing solely on being commercially successful or otherwise you work at finding your own unique style that gives pleasure in what you do.  Hopefully you will land somewhere in the middle.    I was once asked what my aims were as a textile artist, I wanted my work to be recognised with the textile community by exhibiting my work as widely as I could.  

Caroline’s work is available at www.etsy.com  Caroline Kirton Design

https://www.instagram.com/carolinekirton