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From retro childhood treats to Eastbourne seafront tea towels and grown-up tipples, Claire Graves has built a colourful career from thread and nostalgic memories.
For Claire, 52, textiles are not simply a medium but a way of life. Her love of colour and fun is evident to anyone visiting her Pink House – named after the vibrant front door and eye-catching decorations, which often includes a knitted cover on the gate – during the Eastbourne Artists Open Houses, where local makers open their doors to the public.
Embroideries of familiar food, drink and snack brands fill the walls, stitched Cornish pasties and gin bottles are on kitchen surfaces and everyday objects are transformed into works of art. In between the jars, bottles and packets are sewn portraits of famous names, such as Kylie Minogue, David Bowie, Grayson Perry and Dolly Parton. ‘I like quirky fun design,’ says Claire, who has taught art textiles at Eastbourne’s Ratton School since 2004. ‘I am still a child at heart, so my designs are often memories from my 1970s childhood – memories of retro 1970s and 1980s toys and food. I love food packages, and I am inspired by nature and flowers.’
Claire’s newest work went on show at the recent Sussex Contemporary’s Efflorescence exhibition, held at Newhaven’s BN9 Studio, which celebrated the visual aspect of flowers, flora and plants. Her novel three-dimensional piece featured appliqué blooms, created from vintage materials, and a vase containing water and real flowers.
But creating such incredible pieces is nothing new as she grew up in a creative family. ‘My mum loved making clothes and knitting, and my grandma did too,’ she recalls. ‘My dad loved art at school, and was very good at it. My mum was always changing the interiors and doing courses in upholstery, and I was influenced by her a lot. She was always encouraging me to paint and sew, and I remember sewing cards as my first memory of sewing. I always loved colouring in and making things.’
School provided Claire with a further springboard, and she pursued her art with like-minded friends, long after lessons had finished. ‘At primary school they always got me to help make the art displays,’ she says. ‘My art teacher was very supportive, and he used to let me go to his room at lunchtime to eat my lunch and paint with my mates. I loved art classes and although I was not very keen on making clothing, I also loved textiles.’
She was first taught free motion embroidery – the art of drawing with a sewing machine needle – and it has been one of her favourite techniques ever since.
‘A teacher showed it to me in a workshop when I was around 15 and said I was a natural at it and I have been obsessed with it ever since,’ she says. While Claire has been surrounded by art and crafts all her life, she says she discovered a new creative spark during lockdown, which was when she started embroidering anything and everything at home.
‘From the food in my cupboard to my lovely cat, nothing was safe from my needle and thread,’ she laughs. ‘Inspiration comes easily to me, it’s everywhere. I adore making all kinds of textile art, but free-motion embroidery is my true passion, I just can’t stop. My beloved Bernina machine is always by my side as I bring my ideas to life.’
Claire’s route from being a keen art student to teaching and becoming a professional artist was not immediate. She studied textile design at Mansfield Art College and completed a degree in multi-media textiles at Loughborough University.
‘I decided to pursue a career in art after quite a time working in other jobs,’ she says. ‘I w
orked in C&H Fabrics as a management trainee. I loved being surrounded by all the fabrics, but I wasn’t cut out for the sales side of things or management. Then after working on a play bus with primary school children I realised I had the patience to be a teacher.’
Claire moved from Worksop to Eastbourne in 1994 to be with her then boyfriend Simon, who she met at 18 in Loughborough. He is now her husband.
‘He lived in Eastbourne and I always wanted to live by the sea so it was perfect,’ she says. ‘Even now, I am still blown away with where I live and the surrounding beauty. Work, such as my tea towels, are inspired by what I see every day.’
In 2005 Claire started selling her work at Eastbourne Artists Open Houses, and sold her first Eastbourne-themed piece to the town’s former MP Stephen Lloyd.
‘I was offered the chance to take part after seeing my friend do so and I liked the idea of selling in my own home,’ she says. ‘My Pink House open house is every Christmas when I invite people to come and see my and other people’s work, in my surroundings.’
Claire balances her own artwork with life in the classroom, where she teaches four days a week. A keen passionate advocate for changing textiles from a technology subject to a creative and imaginative art subject, she believes art is vital to children’s mental health.
‘I really love teaching art-based textiles,’ says Claire, who is also an art and design moderator for the OCR exam board.
She says it is a struggle to get pupils to choose art-based subjects due to the focus on the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), which requires pupils to study a minimum of seven GCSEs, including maths and a language, but does not include any arts subjects.
‘I believe things are changing, however, and schools are beginning to realise that art-based curriculums benefit children’s mental wellbeing and general happiness in school. It’s not all about maths, science and English,’ adds Claire, who inspired her own pupils to achieve a 95 per cent A-C pass rate last year.
She has been honing her own techniques since lockdown – when she started sharing and selling her work on Instagram (find her at: @clairegravestextiles). After raising money for the Eastbourne Foodbank by embroidering people’s favourite foods, she also created a calendar to support the charity.
In addition to private commissions, she also sells her work online through Etsy and Holly & Co and has picked up customers in countries including America and Japan. Closer to home, it is also available at Eastbourne’s Lighthouse Gallery. ‘I was taken aback by how many I sold,’ she says. ‘I have made over 80 Tunnock’s tea cakes and Yorkshire Tea pieces and I have designed tea towels with gin bottles, store cupboard favourites and retro biscuits. People love a tea towel in the kitchen and I see it as functional art!’
Her textile pictures start from £115. In addition to the tea towels, her range also includes hanging decorations and cards.
Claire, works out of the kitchen in the family home shared with Simon, sons Billy and Charlie and cats Bruno and Bree.
‘I could have a studio in one of the spare rooms but I like to be in the kitchen where I sit surrounded by boxes of threads and fabrics and I’m not too far from the kettle and TV,’ she laughs. ‘I teach four days a week and then after school and on my days off I sew as much as I can to avoid housework.
‘My husband loves to cook and food shop so that’s very handy. I have a cut-off point at 8.30pm when the sewing stops, apart from Christmas time where I can be up at 5am to get commissions done.’
Claire begins her work by taking photos and then completes the piece using a combination of techniques such as watercolour painting, embroidery, needle felting and appliqué.
Her latest pieces have focused on florals and nature, including the ‘living’ vases which she plans to exhibit at her next open house show. She scours local charity shops for vintage vases that catch her eye, buys flowers from a friend who works at the florists at the Eastbourne Enterprise Centre and then photographs the finished result and embroiders them.
‘I also get inspiration from running across the Downs with my friends,’ she adds. ‘There are so many beautiful things to sew.
‘I love making art that evokes memories of a special memory or object,’ Claire says as she returns to her machine and starts her next piece. ‘I hope my art makes people smile and brings a little joy to their day.’.
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