Filter by Cathy Tipping

Cathy Tipping's needlepoint work never ceases to amaze. After a process of photographing friends, the artist then played with the kinds of filters that you would have attempted using the first few times you fumbled your way through Photoshop. The result is a play between a labour intensive craft and a part digitally altered portrait rendered in carefully chosen shades of coloured wool. Through the editing process, they become artifacts of the real self they contain, reduced to pixels and digital code. I love the (perhaps personal) link between the reduction of these images into digital code and colour codes listed on tapestry wool. The portraits have an incredible lifelike quality that is difficult to create in longstitch and despite their altered states, are engaging and beautifully rendered. After a short four day stint at Tinning Street Presents, Cathy Tipping sold all eleven portraits. Go Cathy! Check out more of her work online through the link above.

Mosaic Nami

Emboss Di

Pinch Phil

Installation view

Gunta Stölzl

Gunta Stölzl's work has always inspired me. First a student of the Bauhaus, then teacher when the school moved to Dessau, she was quite instrumental in setting the work ethic in the weave room. I love they way she uses so much colour. Letters written by her at the time mention how inspired she was by Itten, who taught colour theory at the Bauhaus. My favourite of her work is the jacquard below. Simply stunning. Even though it is possible to do almost anything in jacquard weaving, this is still a really complex work which has probably been woven in three panels then sewn together. I wish I could weave like this.

Five Harnesses 1928

Wall Hanging no. 324, 1926

Wall Hanging Black and White, 1923

Slit Tapesty Red/Green 1927-28

Thought I would end on this much copied tapestry. It contains everything you would want to see in a work of art, rhythm, balance, beauty and of course colour!