Jessa Fairbrother is an artist working with embroidery on self-portraits. Her work is exceptional, very beautiful, very delicate and very emotional.  I strongly recommend you have a look at her website and Instagram @jessfairbrother.

While her work is a world away from mine, I felt we have common ground in stitching meaning into photographs. Jessa runs workshops in her studio in Bristol and we organised a day that would be part portfolio review and part workshop.

Portfolio review

It was great to do a portfolio review face to face. I brought all my embroidered images, pinned on foam board, with a selection of glass beads, so I could re-create the total effect, and A5 prints of the final images.  Jessa put together groups of images that worked well together.  I’m always interested in people’s view on this because I think I get blind to the images after working on them so long. For example, one of the things that never occurred to me was that the shoulders should be in about the same place in sets, so they look good together.

We also discussed developing the work. One thing that we tried was using just one type of glass on several images. I include glass to refer to the internet, but it’s a stretch for viewers to make and keeping the expression of that idea constant could help.

The conversation about the images always came back to the ‘why’ being the project. What am I trying to say, why am I making these choices and, of course, why does it matter? This informed a conversation about what the final image is and the difference between a unique image, which Fairbrother makes, and a collage, which is what I make. I’d not thought about the images being collages.

Workshop

Jessa is an expert needlewoman and, although I’ve some experience with stitching, she was able to help me get a better understanding of the technicalities of sewing on photographic paper – the best paper, thread and needles to use and how to start and finish off.  I found I had a lot to learn. For example, while I use good quality paper, I’ve used any old adhesive (to stick on beads) and tape (to keep tension the thread) . I now understand that I need to think about using materials that are acid free and won’t rust even if the work is not going to be the final image.

Studio Visit

An added bonus was seeing Jessa’s work and her talking me through the techniques and the thoughts and inspirations behind each. The work stretched back to a piece from her early work “Conversations with my mother” made after her mother had died and she found that she could not have children herself. Across a number of works she explained how she uses thread and perforations of the image not just as decoration but as metaphor for attachment, absence and more. Her work is highly decorated, but I’d not understood until I saw the actual objects that the stitches are very small and delicate. The stitches used not complex, but the patterns are intricate and interesting. Of course, one of the key points of doing this kind of work is that there is a sort of jeopardy – mistakes cannot really be corrected. 

Overall

This was a really useful and enjoyable day. I got:

• a considered portfolio review, not the usual 20-30 mins, so we had time to discuss both what I was trying to do and to think about the ‘why’ behind that, 
• technical advice on stitching, materials etc
• and the opportunity to see, hold and discuss Jessa’s own work ,

Beyond all this our conversation gave me a really interesting and useful insight into what an artistic practice means and the context of the art industry. As well as a font of knowledge, Jessa is a lovely person to meet.