Through natural dye, stitch and paint, climate-and social-conscious textile artist, Jess Strain, explores the environmental & social justice issues surrounding textile manufacture.
By foraging plants and natural waste matter, Strain explores an ecosystem’s unique natural colour palette by extracting textile dyes from plants. Working with couture embroidery techniques such as tambour beading and limerick lacework, Strain examines the interplay between hand-led techniques and contemporary machine processes such as digital embroidery and print. Utilising both manual and digitised techniques for their serendipitous qualities, Strain works towards unique and considered textile outcomes.
Strain works methodically through digital and analogue photography, sketching, painting, samples and final textile outcomes. The intuitive colour from locally foraged plant matter determines Strain’s work’s colours and forms.
This exploration of local matter is a nod to Strain’s heritage in the textile mills of Northern England. Strain is concerned with the explosion of fast fashion and the global exploitation of both people and planet that comes with it.
