“FLAVOURS”
The Atkinson, Lord Street, Southport PR8 1DB 7th August - 4th September 2021
www.theatkinson.co.uk Experienced textile artist, Carole Dawber, has been stitching the midnight oil away preparing for her forthcoming exhibition at The Atkinson in Southport.
A graduate of the celebrated Liverpool Art School (now Liverpool John Moores University) from the 1970’s - a time when John Lennon’s autograph was still in evidence on the Lecture Theatre desks – Carole describes her time studying in Liverpool as ‘magical’.
lthough Carole experiments across many different mediums and artistic styles, she is best known for her authentic and detailed stitch portrayals of garden flowers. The honesty of her rendition is testament to her perseverance to generate fabric renditions of nature.
“All I did all day was draw and paint, work with fabric, design clothes, and create by taking risks and having fun. The most inspiring artists, tutors and musicians surrounded me. It was awesome. There were no limits to imagination. I met such amazing people, all of whom just loved creativity for the idea of invention.”
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Carole comments that her exhibited stitch pieces will form part of her ‘Bouquet in a Vase Series’ of embroideries that revisit the joy of an unexpected gift or the insight that flowers endow on the recipient. The fragility of reclaimed Sari Silks have been skilfully manipulated to capture the fleeting beauty of heady bouquets of flowers that all too often quickly fade. The colour and freshness of these blooms is inherent in Carole’s reinvention through mediums of hand dyed, reclaimed Sari Silk and expressive hand stitch. 166
During the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, Carole’s research into fabric dying from natural sources while still a student at Liverpool, earned her the accolade of being awarded a lifetime Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts. Carole’s degree garment collection at Liverpool was subsequently put on display in London at Dickens and Jones store in Regent Street and was applauded by fashion editor, Prudence Glynn, in a TIMES’ editorial. However, she confesses that her lasting memory
LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
will always be selling knitwear samples at the subsequent ‘INDIGO’ trade fair in Paris to none other than Yves Saint Laurent Couture. “I loved every minute of it!” Attention to colour has always played a vital role in Carole’s design ethic. “I love the alchemy of colouring cloth through dye. Even before undertaking my journey through Art School I learned to stencil and print images on my own clothes. Using my mum’s twin tub washing machine (causing a myriad of tints in the weekly white washing load!) I experimented with very rudimentary tie-dye techniques. The Aladdin’s cave that the Dye Lab opened up at the Art School was just further encouragement in my need to colourise fabrics for my art practice. The training I received in mixing commercial dyes, and extracting and experimenting with natural dye stuffs, has lead to a life long passion of transforming yarn and fabric into jewel-like colours.” As a freelance fabric designer during the 80’s, Carole regularly exhibited at trade fairs in Europe. “Dying my own yarns rekindled my www.lancmag.com
