Cecile Judge
BA (Hons) Textiles in Practice

Cecile Judge

In my work I am driven by the tactile elements of textiles, showing the exploration of fabric manipulation through embellishment and stitch. I am interested in creating large-scale contemporary pieces that acknowledge historic embroidery practices, reviving them to produce contemporary abstract embroideries, combed with print and digital laser techniques and different methods of dye, including using natural dyestuffs. My most recent work is titled ‘Mapping Archives’, looking at ‘creases’ a carrier in cloth to show how these abstract shapes that map the history and journey of the fabric through time. Taking these creases as a starting point I embroider over these natural patterns of time, creating embellished fabrics for interiors that resemble maps and show the terrain of the fabric.

I enjoy creating meticulous pieces of work that highlight my attention to detail through stitch, I see these pieces in interior settings.

The samples in these images have been produced using the Juki/Irish machine, this allowed me to have a lot of control when sewing into my fabrics, as I used it as a tool for drawing. I wanted to create texture through stitch, and the Juki/Irish machine was perfect for this, as I was able to layer up many stitches to create these densely embellished fabrics. My work feels weighty, however, due to my use of positive and negative space it still has a lot of movement, this gives my samples a lot more depth. 

I am still wanting to continue to use the Juki/Irish machine to create embroidered fabrics, and develop my work further through my own practice and a masters degree.