Wendy Le Couteur
I was brought up amongst the accoutrements of the sewing world. My grandmother was a tailoress and my mother worked as a seamstress. They both worked hard to impart their knowledge unto me.
It was not until the 1980’s, when I was living in Nottingham a while, that I realised sewing need not always be functional. I visited a Craft Fair and saw my first ever fabric collaged landscape. My heart leapt, I couldn’t wait to get home and have a go myself. I stitched my parents house, the Cup and Saucer, sunsets, anything which would Channel the home-sickness I felt living away from Guernsey.
That is when I realised the Comfort of Stitch.
Later, when I taught angry adolescents how to translate their drawings into beautiful cross-stitch cushion covers, whilst their pleas of,
“ can’t we stay here all day Miss?” Were cut short by the bell.
I realised the power of Stitch.
When my tutor at West Dean College, James Hunting, validated all I was struggling to achieve, by saying,
“ you’re not a textile artist, you are not an embroiderer, you are a Stitcher….”
I realised the Emotion of Stitch.
So, that is what I do. Each day I Stitch, channelling my thoughts, ideas and experiences into the power and the beauty of the stitched line.
©Wendy Le Couteur. All rights reserved 2022
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