Introduction
Every six months, my Maker Membership explores a creative theme and some go on to develop new work. Over the last couple of years I have created themes for Maker Membership which reflect my own work and projects. For the final six months of my two year Cultures of Care project, I suggested the theme of Making with Care. As with all of our themes and project briefs, it works better for some people than others. Taking part in the themes is entirely optional. Sometimes it doesn’t work for the maker, sometimes it overlaps with other work in progress and sometimes the theme can be a lens to look at older work in new ways.
This selection of pieces from eight members really highlights the variety of approaches and styles as well as the different interpretations of the theme. These works have developed in conversation and through sharing within the membership platform, with makers supporting each other in exploring their ideas and building their confidence in creating and sharing. One of the things I love most about running Maker Membership is the willingness of members to be open, honest and questioning of their work, and to offer their considered feedback to their peers.
These pieces are wildly different in content, narratives and approach but each of them is tender, heart-felt and meaningful. The variety of stories and ideas explored reflects the variety of humans who made them, and the many meanings of care in making and creative practice. I invited members to explore making an act of care for someone else, or making with self-care in mind. They might want to look at making something that represents care to them or to someone one else, or tells a story about care from history or from the wider world.
Each piece, whether a work-in-progress or a detail of a larger body of work gives us glimpses into each maker’s artistic voice, their interests and passions, their own way of storytelling through cloth and thread. I love how each maker works in their own way. I didn’t want to create a membership where people make work that looks like mine, following my processes of research or techniques, and this showcase proves how successful that is. It’s a privilege and a pleasure to support these makers with their developing work and to see how far they have come, individually and as a group.
Maker Membership is open to all textile makers who want to develop more meaning and research into their work.
Exhibition
Moving with grief by Kay Steven
In memory of my mum, I created a gentle ritual. With her favourite CD playing, I closed my eyes and drew, guided by sound. I transferred some marks onto dressmaker’s pattern paper and layered them over sheet music – a quiet act of love and remembrance through movement and making.
Making with Care by Joanna Kaye
I began a daily stitch process in response to the theme ‘Making With Care’. It
combined intentional making with daily written reflection. Each day’s stitch became a quiet act of mindfulness, supporting my creative mental health through routine and focus. The practice nurtured a space for processing
the day which enabled emotional clarity, greater resilience, and a deeper connection to the creative process.
(Not) too beautiful to use? A work in progress by Fiona Dix
Through joyful dishcloths slowly woven from the rags of loved garments, I explore notions of quotidian beauty. How are precious objects cherished? Daily touch, the wear of use, protection from the mundane, hidden from light? Would you approach the washing up with enchanting dishcloth in hand? Why? Or why not?
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Criminal? Poverty? by Denise Hagan
My great great Grandmother was jailed for 31 days for an ‘attempt to pick pocket’. Possible ‘attempt’ to feed her 11 children? She put on weight in prison, who fed the children then? Who cared about the family, who cared about the victim?
Dyed repurposed linen, handwriting stitched from prison records 1896.
The Tale of Foxy by Alison Clayton-Smith
I am interested in our relationships with other animals. This piece is for a friend who became bedbound. The printed photo is of a fox who visits her garden. I used old textiles she had gifted me, intuitive stitching, plant inks, and an ash stick from my own garden.
Women’s Work by Eva Cantin
aprons are worn by women everywhere to protect themselves and the work they do
this apron was made to honour the unrecognised stitchers whose work was so useful and decorative
for many stitching was the only way to earn income and independence
berth/birth: an imagined biography (2025) by Sonja Boon
In October 1873, my great-grandfather (then 2) and great-great-grandmother (25) travelled from India to Suriname as indentured labourers. They left no personal record of their journey. This 22-foot-long hand-stitched scroll, featuring 28 hand-stitched and hand-dyed “snapshots,” imagines in tactile form the intimacy of this mother-son relationship during their 96-day voyage.
Work in Progress by Liz Ruth
Ideas, very early stages. This is a symbolic representation of my parents caring for
me – central image, and then me for them until their end of life. Coloured circles
represent: Dad – red, Mum – yellow and myself orange. The stitching wrapping
around the circles represents care.
Ruth Singer 