Collection: Yvonne Elliott
Yvonne is a textile artist from Milton Keynes – city of trees, grid roads and roundabouts – where she has a studio at Westbury Arts Centre. Westbury is a little oasis of calm, with ancient apple trees, bee hives and a moat where moorhens nest. Her work often reflects her surroundings, alternating between images, motifs and techniques which draw on the natural world, and the stricter geometries of the local built environment. Other sources of inspiration evolve from dreams, mythologies, art history and poetry.
Yvonne likes to work in layers, building up texture by adding paint, print, machine and hand embroidery to a fabric base. She exhibits larger framed pieces and wall hangings at Westbury Arts Centre and other local galleries, but also likes making smaller items like clutch bags, brooches and decorations. She rarely repeats a design exactly, but may work through the same process, varying the colours and the stitches used. Most of her hand stitching happens in the evening as she finds it relaxing and meditative.
Yvonne loves using natural fabrics and threads – silks, wools and linens – and has a huge stash of recycled, salvaged and found ‘treasures’, which she uses to embellish bags and brooches. Yvonne is also developing a series of naturally dyed botanical prints which extend her range of wearable art.
