Katie Errington Davies Textile Artist

I’m Katie and I’m a textile artist based in Shropshire UK. I work with torn and reclaimed fabric which I mend with a variety of visible mending techniques including sashiko and darning. Within the frame of embroidery hoops I then transform the visible mend into an artwork with layers of embroidery and applique.

I like to use floral and traditionally feminine print cottons to contrast with the raw stitching and emotional imagery to pose questions about scars and the healing process. Tears in the fabric become scars on the human body or representative of emotional and physical trauma. The process is intended as a meditation on the idea of accepting the flaws in our own bodies in the way that we might carefully patch an item of much-loved clothing.

I consider my artwork to encompass both ‘craft’ and ‘art’. The work of mending, which forms the basis of each piece, is an exercise in crafting. By continuously developing my mending techniques and learning from experienced crafters I hope to imbue each piece with the spirit of ‘women’s work’, those practiced skills which are often undervalued. The mending process also offers me the opportunity to reflect on the work of healing from trauma and the secondary process of transforming the mend into artwork is intended to frame the mended space as metaphorical, casting the stitches as surgical or representative of therapeutic healing.

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