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Julie Heaton LSDC

Stitched & Constructed Textiles

About Julie
Julie started her career in art later in life. After her sons had started school and Julie had worked for 20 years as a midwife, she commenced a Creative Arts Degree at Bath Spa University. With a love for drawing, but inhibited by preconceived ideas, Julie began using her sewing machine to make work that couldn't be corrected and where errors were allowed to become part of the work. Free machine embroidery became her chosen medium and today she continually tries to push the boundaries of stitch.
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The inspiration for Julie's practice happened following a family tragedy when she had to rebuild a new life for her sons and herself. Art became a way to make sense of a world that Julie had unintentionally become part of. Difficult emotions were explored and control became important, but through her art, she soon discovered that the greatest strength and beauty could come from the things that went wrong.

With meticulous attention to detail, thread can be obsessively stitched over and over; colours are changed and tensions are altered to create the perfect image. Dissolvable fabric forms the base of her work but during the final stage, this is removed. It is here that the intense effort used to control the making can become lost; nothing is guaranteed as the work takes its own direction, it is this that excites Julie and encourages her to make her art.

Today, Julie continues to be inspired by themes that are unexpected in embroidery. Damaged or unloved, banal or unnoticed, are transformed through the process of stitch.

Resumé Back to top

Education and Professional Development

September 2010 - 2015

Bath Spa University, Ba Creative Arts, 1st Class Honours

Sept 2008 - July 2010

Filton College, ABC level 3 Diploma in Foundation Studies in Art, Design and Media - Merit

Sept 2006 - May 2008

Gloucester and Cheltenham College, City and Guilds, Level 3 in Design and Constructed Textiles

Exhibitions and Shows

June 12th to Aug 19th – 250th Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Burlington House, London

October 4th to 13th Nov 2017 - ‘Shiftworks’ Columbia College, Chicago.

November Nov 12th 2016 to Jan 8th 2017 - ‘Shiftworks’ National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford.

June 8th to July 11th 2016 - ‘Newarke’, Newark Park, National Trust, Gloucestershire.

November 24th to 27th 2015 - Graduate Showcase, Knit and Stitch, Harrogate.

September 2015 - Portal, Llantarnam Grange Art Centre, Cwmbran, Wales.

July, 2015 - Best of the Best, Art in Action, Oxford.

June 2015 - New Designers, Business design Centre, London.

March - June, 2015 - Drawn, The Royal West of England academy, Bristol.

July 2014 - Best of the Best, Art in Action, Oxford.

July 2013 - Best of the Best, Art in Action, Oxford.

March 23rd to June 2nd, 2013 - Drawn, The Royal West of England Academy, Bristol.

Competitions and Awards

2018 – Selected to exhibit: 250th Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

2015 - Selected for Graduate Showcase, by the Embroiderers Guild.

2014 - Outstanding Student Award for degree show, Bath Spa University, Bath

2013 - The Bristol Scholarship Award for Students, Drawn, RWA, Bristol

Collections

August 2016 - ‘A Bar of Drinking Chocolate’ purchased for the ‘Diana Springall Embroidery Collection’.

Publications

Embroidery, The Textile Art Magazine (September / October issue, 2014)

Machine Art.

Art-related Employment

July 2016 - National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford. Workshop, ‘Make a Shift Dress in a Day’.

2009 to 2016 - Art in Action, Waterperry Gardens, Oxford. During this annual celebration, artists and craftsmen practice openly demonstrating their skills and discussing their work. Since 2009, I have participated in this event by teaching Silk Painting and Marbling in the Practical Classes.

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