Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

Towards the end of last year I was working with the National Trust's Kingston Lacy  on their 'Creative Christmas' project for December 2018. Myself and two other artists selected female members of the Bankes Family  to represent via handmade decorations, which were then placed around the house as part of the Christmas festivities. This was the second project I've done based on the Bankes Family (the first being  Threads of Narrative ), so I feel fairly well acquainted with the family now. This time I based my pieces on Anne Bankes , who was the sister of William John Bankes , a stained glass artist in her own right and after William John's exile she took on much of the work overseeing the refurbishment of Kingston Lacy. Not a lot of detail about her life is known, however I was able to take a few of her personal letters, portraits and some photos to design a print in homage to her: I had this digitally printed onto velvet and cotton in two colourways, the cott...

Just over a year ago my great gal pal Gemma over at  Dark Matters  asked me to make her some bespoke bunting  for her gourmet brownie stall business which was just taking off. Well last week she mentioned that the business is doing so well that she can now make what she calls a 'double pronged brownie attack' on the world [e.g. have two stalls open in two places at once] and therefore needed another string of bunting! Of course I was happy to oblige and I think it even turned out nicer than the original bunting I made for her: Fronting Backting I used all the same heritage style fabrics for the 'front'; plaid, houndstooth and gingham, but changed the 'back' up with some different ones; a titchy polyester check-like woven fabric and a geometric patterned woven wool which I absolutely love (but sadly don't have enough of to make a garment)! I used both the right and wrong sides of the wool to make alternate flags; one has more blue and one has more gr...