profile
Jo has loved hand embroidery from childhood. After a City and Guilds course, she joined her local Embroiderers’ Guild branch, a local quilt group and Phoenix Contemporary Textiles to develop and exhibit her work. She attended the Committed to Cloth studios for many years, drawing inspiration from Claire Benn, Leslie Morgan and in particular, the late Christine Chester.
Jo also belongs to Prism, an international exhibiting group which has provided further opportunities to refine and challenge the boundaries of her textile art.
Jo’s professional interest lies in communication, the mind, and human behaviour, and she tries to research and explore this in her textile work. She enjoys using visual imagery to express abstract ideas, often using buildings as metaphors for the structures underlying human identity, and political and social conflict. Jo invites the viewer to question the issues she is trying to portray. She is known for her muted palette and attention to decayed and distressed surfaces.
Recently, she has explored using her hand dyed and breakdown and mono printed cloth with the addition of stitched paper, and has experimented with mixed media 3D work in a series of fragile bowls. Some form of stitch, both
by hand and free motion embroidery, will always be an important element in her work.
Jo continues to exhibit regularly with Phoenix, Prism and at the Festival of Quilts, U.K.
qualifications
2002-6 … City & Guilds Design and Craft
membership
Phoenix Contemporary Textiles Group
Prism
Society of Embroidered Work
Wimbledon International Quilters
The Embroiderers’ Guild
contact
Email: thejocoombes@gmail.com