Jilly Edwards is an artist working in woven tapestry from the UK. She currently maintains a studio in Bristol. I was able to interview her for my online course, Design Solutions for the Artist/Weaver, Season 2 this spring. Jilly is an inspiring artist who is keen to share her knowledge and work with the rest of the tapestry world. I spoke with her for several hours and as always when I write or talk to Jilly, I felt like I’d just had a heart to heart with the dearest of friends.
From our conversation for the course, I’ve excerpted a few clips so you can get acquainted with her yourself. Jilly just published a short book called Yellows & Pinks about her most recent work. I show the book at the end of the video and photo gallery below. I hope Jilly’s work is as inspiring to you as it is to me.
In our extended interview in the Design course, Jilly talked a lot about the fear of the blank page. She often works very large and she says that huge white pieces of paper can make starting difficult. So she came up with a method of working where she uses large advertisement posters from a favorite shop and paints on top of them. This takes away the white page and gives her a starting point for her explorations. Eventually the poster is completely covered and a new tapestry design idea emerges. From there she can copy what she has discovered to a white piece of paper before she starts to weave.
Jilly Edwards works in woven tapestry. Her newest book project, Yellows & Pinks is available right from her studio.
The gallery below has more images of the newest book. I reviewed her last project Joy: Yellow is the New Blue on my blog HERE. Click to enlarge, hover for captions.
“So what was I thinking about with these drawings — what was I drawing? It wasn’t literal work? what was I wanting to say with this new work?
I recalled Agnes Martin saying that she turned her back on the room & painted her emotions/feelings. That was what I wanted to capture the essence of freedom that the repetitive journey was giving me — the chance to just be out & be.”
To purchase Yellows & Pinks you can contact Jilly through her Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/_jillyedwards/. Click the Message button at the top of the page.
If you’re interested in seeing the entire interview, Design Solutions, Season 2 is open for registration again and the course content releases on Monday, July 5th.
There are a few wonderful videos on YouTube about Jilly’s work. My very favorite is Jilly Edwards: How to Weave from an Original Design. It is a gorgeous video about seeing, nature, and creativity. It isn’t just for tapestry weavers!