Claire Hey

an artistic lifestyle

EMBROIDERED MEMORIES

While I was a student in Liverpool, I sat in a derelict park sketching the once grand houses. Imagining how it would have been and who would have lived there.

In amongst a pile of thick autumn leaves, I spotted an old sepia photo, discarded and forgotten. This ignited my imagination and started what became a strong theme for the next few years.

I began to build up embroidered collages sewing fragments, like piecing together clues

This became a business and I began to embroider people’s memories for weddings or old family photos. While I loved the pleasure this gave people the real intrigue for me were the old sepia photos of people I didn’t know.

After many years of freeing myself from this style, I feel it creeping back into my current work! It was always my intention to blend the embroideries with the paintings so let’s see what happens!