THE ARTIST 

British textile artist Jacky Puzey combines traditional embroidery skills with digital technology to stitch beautiful bespoke embroidered artworks and luxury interior pieces. Inspired by urban flora and fauna and her love of pattern and cultural history, her timeless pieces feature a menagerie of embellished creatures. Jacky translates her stunning drawings into digital machine embroidery, informed by her training in Fine Art (painting and installation), textiles and bespoke tailoring. Here she explains this fascinating process.

THE TECHNIQUE

I love to begin with drawings and research. I create huge drawings and moodboards, and I also work out smaller ideas in my many sketchbooks. I find that I think and plan through the act of drawing. Also I now draw as if for embroidery, planning my stitches, thinking about what new textures I want to make, and how that might combine with print, or specific fabrics as well. I love the interplay of print and embroidery; it gives a really interesting depth visually – in this I am inspired by both the detail and depth of 19th century landscape painting, and the amazing scenic wallpapers and hand painted Chinese silk wall-hangings of the 18th/19th century and the desire to reflect 21st century urban landscapes. For me I am as inspired by concept and idea as material – the two go hand in hand, and my embroideries bring alive shifting cultural allegiances to create complex contemporary embellished narratives of urban migration and landscape.  The layers and collisions of cultures, from Chinoiserie papers created for a European market wanting ‘Chinese’ patterns, or the Chintz patterns pilfered from India to the UK, to the constant overprinting of the graffiti and identity signs in my local area, are a constant source of inspiration

The drawings are then taken into Photoshop and Illustrator to begin building the layers of print and embroidery towards the finished design. I tend to use Photoshop as a digital paint tool, combining colour, texture, and collage; I’ve also had to put the technical groundwork in; firstly so that I can make sure the colours and print process I want to use will work, and secondly to expand my skills to develop new print and embroidery combinations.

I use my graphics tablet to draw in vector outlines that will form the basis of the embroidery, then I transfer the lot to the digital embroidery software and start sampling and building up stitches, ideas, and finally the large pieces, all the while testing on my print samples and chosen substrates. It’s a myth that digital is instant – if you want a good result it’s important to put in the work, and I have become a digital artisan, in that it often takes just as long to create my pieces by machine, as it might do by hand! And I love to get involved in the technical innovation side of things too. All the processes are a bespoke craftsmanship to me.

Once I have my chosen substrate, print, fabric, design, etc and my embroidery samples, that’s when I start to create the final pieces. Even then a drawing and creative ethos persists – I will change things if they are not translating from the sample to the final piece, and also expand on ideas as the larger piece gives me more room to work. For my bespoke furniture pieces, I have a brilliant network of collaborators, and my upholsterer will be involved in the new pieces from the start, as we design and pattern cut our way towards one of our Dandy Parakeet Cocktail Chairs, or work out the technicalities of the blue to green fade across the whole piece for my Squirrel and Peacock Ottoman so that it flows like a couture garment.

When we get to the final pieces, I love watching the embroidery happen – sometimes I let the machine run to complete the stitches I have programmed individually, other times I am adding in feathers, applique elements, fabrics by hand and almost drawing with my machine. 

The length of time is completely variable – a couture embellished bomber jacket took 110 hours to embroider alone. It’s really dependent on the artwork or the piece I am working on, as all my work is made to order or as a new bespoke piece. My embroidered Hare artwork was worked on over around 4 months from start to finish, allowing for framing and constructing the textile substrate as well (I used a mix of cotton organdie and vintage kimono silk to embroider onto.)

Jacky Puzey is represented by London Connoisseur https://londonconnoisseur.co.uk/artists/jacky-puzey/

https://www.instagram.com/jackypuzey