Helen Colling MSDC

Stitched & Constructed Textiles

About Helen
Helen's work is about absence. She explores whether an intangible echo, a sensation, remains of a being that was once there, disturbing the atmosphere and leaving an alteration, a shift, a memory.
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Through the medium of textiles, Helen experiments with creating the enduring sensation of a lingering presence long after its form has gone, and how the setting gives clues of that vanished presence, using different techniques of stitch, and applique. Her work embraces photography, printing, painting and drawing. The ethereal qualities of the subject are interpreted by layering translucent fabrics such as organza, chiffon, muslin and scrim, with different images of her photographs or sketches, transferred to cloth by digital printing, transfer printing, dyes or paint to build up a collage within which suggestions of figures are stitched. The work is displayed between sheets of Perspex to further create a shadowy effect. Ruined buildings, remote landscapes, enigma, and historical events provide inspiration.

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Qualifications:

City & Guilds Embroidery -certificate 2004, diploma 2006

Stitched Textiles H E Diploma 2009, East Berkshire College, Windsor

Memberships:

Society of Designer Craftsmen [MSDC]

Newbury Creative Stitchers [formerly Newbury Embroiderers’ Guild]

Oxford Textile Artists

Exhibitions:

Designer Crafts at the Mall, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015

Open Studios: Marlborough, 2010, 2011, West Berkshire, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

and Hungerford Summer Festival [formerly HADCAF] 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022

Oxford Textile Artists, 2018, 2022 at The Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock

Losing the Thread, 2015, 2017 at the Malthouse Gallery, Lyme Regis

Capability Brown Festival Exhibition, with the Embroiderers’ Guild, Blenheim Palace

Okra Textile Artists, 2010 at the Harvey Gallery, Guildford, 2011 & 2012 at the Cow Byre, Ruislip, 2014 at the Old Fire Station Gallery, Henley-on-Thames

Talks & workshops:

Former Embroiderers’ Guild branches

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