- Name: Frances Westwood
- Caption: Creative Textiles and Hand Made Books I learned hand embroidery from my mother and my Grandmothers. It was just something you did if you were a little girl. I chose to learn machine embroidery by taking a three year City and Guilds course. I much prefer machine embroidery because I can use it more expressively and intuitively than I can use hand stitching. At the same time, I do enjoy the feeling of being in a tradition of stitching reaching back through time and across cultures. Sometimes I feel drawn to working large and I want to make wall hangings and flowing robes, other times I want to concentrate on smaller things and I’m drawn to jewellery and books. I’ve always enjoyed making books and I learned a lot during my years as a primary teacher when we taught children to make and fill their own books. I love to use a special book when I start a new project. I use them to collect poems, to keep diaries and to record my experiments with new materials. I’m always interested in what other people put in their books and I like the idea that when someone uses a book that I have made that we have a link of sorts. Gallery of images, index of facts, repository of dreams: books are so full of possibilities.
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