KATHRYN HARMER FOX 

“I draw from photographs and life and then re-interpret those sketches with the medium of fabric and thread”

South African artist Kathryn Harmer Fox uses a variety of techniques including machine embroidery to re-interpret a wide range of real life images into the medium of textiles. 

What is your background in textiles?

My mother was a professional seamstress and I remember her, always with pins protruding from her right breast (she’d had a mastectomy and used the bird-seed filled, breast shaped sacks that she made for herself as the perfect place to store her pins). She, this wonderful woman, taught her very young daughter to love anything textile.

Where are you based and where do you work?

I live in a little village, just outside of East London, South Africa and work from my studio, which overlooks the Indian Ocean.

How do you describe your work, and what techniques do you use?

My work is representational and my most prevalent techniques are free motion machine embroidery and fibre embedment using scribble stitch (a term I have coined which aptly describes a type of very loose applique).’

How do you work?

I believe that the ability to draw frees me as an artist and all my work, whether it be fibre art, ceramic sculpture or painting is based on initial drawings. I draw from photographs and life and then re-interpret those sketches with the medium of fabric and thread.

How long does a piece take from start to finish?

Once I know what I am going to do, I work pretty quickly and relentlessly; at first it is just a hard slog to cover as much canvas as possible, but then the magic happens and the work itself, tells me what to do. Time taken depends so much upon size and depth of detail that I can only tell you how long it took once it is finished.

What is your career highlight to date?

I have won many awards (cash and accolades are always fabulous both for physical comfort and as a stroke to the ego) but my best win was a state of the art Bernina sewing machine – something that was way out of my reach at the time. I would have to say that each finished piece serves as its own highlight and my fibre art has also taken me into teaching workshops, both nationally and internationally; the first workshop that I developed is called Using Your Sewing Machine as a Creative Tool and I have subsequently added three more textile based workshops, all based around my own work.

Tell us about your postcard series.

On my first teaching trip to Australia, I was invited to bring works to sell. Given the luggage restrictions, I was wandering about size and, inspired by ball-point pen sketches on used envelopes that I had recently seen on the internet, I decided on the format of a post card. I designed my own stamp which I printed onto fabric. Using the subject matter of South African fauna and flora, I began sketching and that’s how my post cards came about. I must have made well over a hundred of them by now.

What advice can you give to aspiring artists?

Never be afraid of failure – embrace her for she is your greatest teacher. Try everything and throw loads of time at what you do – practice breeds excellence. Play; laugh – take joy from what you do – it will feed both your body and your soul.

Is there anything you would like to add?

Although I have been focussing on what I have dubbed “My teaching tour Down-under” for the past six months (I will be teaching workshops in New Zealand and Australia from June through to September this year), on my return I would like to focus on getting enough work together for a solo exhibition. It will be called The Skin I’m In and will focus on how we choose to inhabit and dress our bodies.

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