Boro Stitching

Claire Wellesley-Smith

Claire Wellesley-Smith is an English textile artist, educator and writer who lives and works in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Wellesley-Smith dyes her textiles using natural, sustainable methods, using home grown and locally sourced plants. She also uses reclaimed materials as well as cloth, dye and stitch to create her historical textile illustrations. Wellesley-Smith is inspired by American quilting and patchwork, Kantha quilts, darning and Japanese boro stitching. To create her textiles, she will layer and collage, gradually building texture through stitching. She textiles will explore the local heritage and memory of her community to try to connect people to their surrounding environment. Wellesley-Smith also runs a series of workshops from her studio and gives talks to many educational institutes. Her ‘seed to fabric’ project, takes participants from dye plant plots, through the whole process method of working with natural materials. Wellesley-Smith has also published a book, Slow Stitch, which gives a sensitive overview of mindful and contemplative textile art.