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Textile Art Figures

What makes a porcelain figurine, albeit a limited edition; cast from a mould and hand painted, more of a work of art than a hand sculpted, uniquely  one-of-a-kind textile figure?  Well I guess the answer might simply be attitude of mind...

Madeleine Sara Maddocks' artistic expression is shown through
 decorative textile, soft sculpture cloth figures.

I was inspired to create four soft sculpture figures based on the elements: Earth, Air, Fire & Water

using beading, stumpwork / embroidery, crochet, fabric manipulation, textile embellishment, needle sculpting, printing, dyeing and painting.

The posture of each element also seemed important in portraying each figure's personality.

Earth has been embellished with techniques such as needle sculpting, stumpwork, embroidery

AIR: wind, passion, refreshing, blowy, revitalising, fun, delightful, powerful, scary, exhilarating, movement, mysterious, eerie, calming, breeze, soothing, open, caressing, greys, white, space, transparent, translucent, stirring, energising, tornado, hurricane, airborne: birds, leaves, flight. 

'The invisible gaseous substance surrounding the earth; the open space above the surface of the earth'.

POSTURE: Suspended, see-through, light, sense of movement
EARTH: nurturing, organised, structure, security, safe, relaxing, calming, soothing, friendly, fascinating, changeable, kind, hostile, browns, greens, foliage, fossils, vegetation, rocks, geology, rocks, greys, fauna, flora, reflective, seasons, colours, roots, bark, soil, mother earth, nature.

'The matter on the centre of the globe: soil, a mixture of disintegrated rock & organic material in which plants are rooted, dry land, dirt'.

POSTURE: Reclining with calm expression, 
eyes closed & face turned upwards drawing energy from the sun.


Toadstool closeup

I define my creations as Soft Sculpture Cloth Art Figures or Decorative Textile Figures, rather than simply as dolls.

Few people consider a doll as an artistic medium. A DOLL is simply defined as 'a small replica of a human figure for children to play with'.

CRAFT is defined as 'something unique, made by hand with high degree of skill/ training'.

Whilst yet again ART and indeed FINE ART can be defined as 'something artistic, created for purely aesthetic expression, communication and contemplation rather than for a practical purpose'.
Indeed, these sophisticated soft sculpture cloth figures are created purely for aesthetic expression, communication and contemplation; using beading, embroidery, fabric manipulation, textile embellishment, printing, dyeing and painting,  needle sculpting to create imaginative textile characters.

 
Artist Madeleine Sara Maddocks

We all think we can read other people to sum them up just by first impressions.

Some people seem easier to read than others. By observing facial expression,
body language, appearance, accent etc,
we try to delve deeper into the content, subplots and themes that relate another's personality, background and personal history.

 'Reading between the lines' may refer to our trying to determine someone's age just by the lines on their face. Consider also expressions such as 'My Life is an Open Book' and 'Wearing your heart on Your Sleeve' and the associations they conjure. 

Intriguingly, when we really analyze the descriptions we use to portray our interpretations of someone, with the help of our dictionary and thesaurus, the words we choose can often have quite diverse meanings, some appropriate to our choice and others seeming less suitable. Overtime some words even change their meaning and sense of the self, such as the word 'gay'.

How might people define you?

< Life Story' Soft Sculpture Textile Art Figure for South West Textile Group 
Exhibition Following a Thread  July - Sept 2006 Coldharbour Mill, Uffculme, Devon

 


Mermaid tail embellished with stumpwork, beading and embroidery>

See also: http://www.octobereffigies.com/
Kerry Kate Patterson's fine art dolls are exquisite; simply a different medium for the same self-expression as crime and horror fiction. There is an underlying humour within some of the characters portrayed, such as ‘Guillotina and her heads’, which cannot fail to raise a smile. They have an atmosphere of 18th Century medicine and the Sherlock Holmes era about them.