We have been so fortunate of late, our speakers have been so diverse and interesting! This month we had a talk by Harriet Lawton, a local graduate who is clearly making a big impression in the world of contemporary art/craft with her brilliant combinations of stitch and ceramic work.
A former student of our Programme Sec Margaret Walton, at Crossley Heath School, Harriet said that doing her Art 'A' Level at the Crossley's had given her a great boost when it came to doing her Foundation Course at Bradford College, instilling a strong work ethic and a love of fabric and textiles.
During her Foundation Course Harriet explored her penchant for working with found objects and random collections, including stamps, sugar packets and objects picked up on dog walks.
Moving on to Manchester School of Art it was pointed out that her work was suited to stitch and she moved to an embroidery course.
Her most significant moment came during her second year when she discovered Japanese Kintsugi. Briefly, this is the philosophy that mending the cracks in something with gold aggrandises the damage and makes the objects even more beautiful than they were before being broken. Harriet started mending pots using goldwork joining stitches and darning.
In her third year, Harriet moved into working on a larger scale with ceramic collage, also learning about water jet cutting to remove sections of the china she was working with. (How pleasing are the clean cut lines of this "spoon"?)
Harriet also did some work wrapping the ceramics with thread and textile before working on a site-specific piece, bidding for and getting a two-storey wall within the art school for her graduate showcase.
As you can see from the scale, the pieces are not all, as they appear, ceramic plates, but are also enlarged textile versions made using printed and bonded pelmet vilene and other fabrics.
Since her degree show, (which she had to complete in a very tight 5 weeks), Harriet has been selected to show at several prestigious venues including New Designers 2013, FRESH - the ceramic biennial showcase, The Whitworth Gallery in Manchester, and Traces in London.
Basing her work mainly on mixed media and fabric plate compositions, she has now taken up residence in her own studio at Artworks, Shaw Lodge Mills, Halifax and is busy giving talks and workshops.
Later this year she is taking up a 10 week placement in Madrid funded by an arts charity - Harriet is clearly going places, so catch her now!
Harriet is currently running a series of Mixed Media Workshops at her studio, on Tuesday evenings until 5th April. Each is a stand-alone topic and the workshops, costing £25, can be booked at www.theartworks.org.uk or by e-mailing Harriet at harrietlawton@hotmail.com.
