Catherine Slater

I studied Sculpture, Art History and Education as part of  my degree and followed that with a four-year City and Guilds qualification in Design and Embroidery Skills.  For a few years I have been working with fibres to create pictures and original wearable art from gossamer weight felt that is translucent and sensuous.

I mix cashmere and silk with fine merino, camel and llama to create drapeable wraps that enfold the wearer.  Each piece is unique and creates its own pattern of colours and textures.  The garments are versatile and can be worn in different ways to differing effects according to the occasion or the mood of the wearer.

My landscape pictures are a response to the natural world and to quotations that have lodged in my memory and resurfaced on my walks in the countryside or as I am working with colours and textures in my studio.  Particular influences include the poetry of W. B. Yeats and the travel writings of Robert Macfarlane and Kathleen Jamie.  Sometimes the imagery is so strong that I want to render it visible and bring to life a fragment of memory that I wish to capture and hold.

Textures are of prime importance to me, especially the 'intangible textures' that we can only experience through our eyes because they are too fragile or distant to touch.

During the 2020 lockdown, I turned to painting as a challenge to develop more skills and have enjoyed the process of mixing colours and applying them to canvas and paper.  I will continue with this challenge and see how it feeds into or complements my work with textiles.

The monthly meetings with other members of Textilia 3 give me the opportunity to gather my thoughts about my work so that I can present it to an audience and get feedback and support.  This has been especially helpful when I have come to a standstill with a design element or encountered a problem with construction or embellishment.  Within the group we try for constructive criticism in a safe environment which opens us to a wide range of ideas, knowledge and opinions and has helped me to keep moving forward, experiment and incorporate new thinking and new ways of working.