Ceramic Patchwork: A Textile Process In A Ceramic Form

Zoë Hillyard is an artist that grew up in a family where make do and mend was the norm. In her interview with No Serial Number Magazine, she recalled the times when she used to visit jumble sales and car-boot sales and when even a visit to the ‘tip’ would yield treasures from discarded stuff. We interviewed Zoë to find out about her Ceramic Patchwork technique and ended up learning a lot about her journey through her textile design degree, her postgraduate work in development studies, and then her travels. Throughout this journey, she has been incredibly inspired by indigenous cultures and nomadic lifestyles, which led her to explore and pursue simple and functional art forms.

EMBROIDERY

Zoë, we would like to begin with your training background. You began with embroidery. How and why, in this day and age, did you choose embroidery? What - or who - was this choice inspired by?

Embroidery emerged as the logical pathway within a BA course in Textile Design (at Nottingham Trent University in the 1990s) as it provided me with the most flexibility in terms of structural expression. I knew from early experimentation that print felt too ‘flat’ for me, but I was very torn between weaving and knitting, as I loved the technical and mathematical aspects. In the end, my degree work became embroidery onto open knit structures, so I found a way of taking aspects of both disciplines forward. Embroidery is a discipline that enables you to engage intimately with the interaction of material and thread properties. This continues to be its appeal.

When you chose to study embroidery, did you already have an idea about what you wanted to do professionally?

I had no idea! Back then, degree courses were far less focussed on employability; instead it was all about finding your creative voice through experimentation. I only remember one session with a professional focus – costing your work – and I’m ashamed to say I skipped it, as I was engrossed with sampling! It made the transition from student to graduate a very scary one, but looking back, it gave me the time to really concentrate on discovering how I work and what inspires me. It has proved to be such a valuable stage as I can trace a line through all my subsequent career chapters and choices. I still feed off this investment of time and the insights it gave.

What other interests did your embroidery training spark?