Claire Sowden

The main influences of Claire Sowden's machine embroidered pieces come from a variety of sources including Islamic and Indian jewellery and artefacts, architecture and fairytale imagery all of which interest her in terms of shape, quality and use of colour and the precious, magical qualities which they convey.

Claire works mainly with silk dupions, organzas and chiffons of many colours. The organzas being layered to create areas of watery and intense colours similar to the effect of painting with inks. Machine embroidery appliqué methods are then used to apply dupion silks to enhance the effect. Rayon and metallic threads are heavily stitched into areas to create a richly coloured and decorative panel, which is then backed and stuffed allowing the pieces to take on a life and character of their own.

Her framed wall hangings use a modern form of Stump work formed on many layers of richly coloured organzas with areas raised with stuffing and heavily stitched around to enhance the 3-dimensional effect.

Claire has recently published a range of hand-finished greetings cards based on the characters in her wall hanging. She also undertakes commissions for bespoke wedding stationery and other special occasions and has a portfolio of currently available designs.