Christine Chester

​

Earth materials 2023

​

Christine is a textile artist primarily working in mixed media, creating work to exhibit as well as developing fabrics and quilts as part of her teaching.  She has established the well equipped Studio 11 in Eastbourne from where she runs courses.

​

Christine is also a founder member of 'unFOLD', a textile group constantly pushing the boundaries of textile art.

​

For 'Earth materials', Christine is showing a collection of Temari balls which are a folk art form originating in China before being introduced to Japan around 7th century AD. 

The centre of each ball is recycled fabrics wound with wool or thick acrylic yarn.  This is followed by one or two layers of rayon, silk or cotton thread to make the foundation ball.  The paper thread covering the balls has been hand made from sheets of either tissue, newsprint, lens tissue, Japanese mulberry papers of varying weights and types. Some have been dyed or printed and wound around some of the foundation balls and left onside to weather for a month before being unwound and rewound in an ordered way to cover the foundation.  The character of each ball is unique as papers weather differently: the ink/dye moves with the rainwater and settles in a different part of the ball.