Stitching Together is led by Dr Emma Shercliff (Arts University Bournemouth) and Dr Amy Twigger Holroyd (Nottingham Trent University).
To get in touch, drop us a line at stitchingtogether@aub.ac.uk – we’ll be pleased to hear from you!
Dr Emma Shercliff is a stitcher, researcher and writer who has been involved with creative, community-based textile-making activities as both workshop leader and participant for over 20 years. She is Associate Professor of Textiles and Participatory Making at the Arts University Bournemouth. Emma is interested in the values of hand-making within post-industrial digital cultures and participatory making as an approach to creative research. Her doctoral research explored the relationship between the rhythmns and patterns of skilful hand-stitching processes and the crafting of mutuality and cooperation practised in collective making. As part of her research she tailored specific types of participatory stitching activities to explore research questions alongside joining a local embroidery group. She is co-editor of the Journal of Arts and Communities. Other key outputs include contributions to Crafting Textiles in the Digital Age (edited by N. Nimkulrat, F. Kane & K. Walton, published by Bloomsbury, 2016), Craft Research (2015), Studies in Material Thinking (2016) and Textile: the Journal of Cloth and Culture (2019).
Dr Amy Twigger Holroyd is a designer, maker, researcher and writer who has explored the emerging field of fashion and sustainability since 2004. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Art & Design at Nottingham Trent University. Amy’s doctoral research investigated the lived experience of making clothes at home and the reworking of knitted garments, considering the contribution of these practices to a sustainable fashion system. A qualitative workshop methodology combined design-led research with participatory creative methods, involving a group of six amateur knitters. Key outputs include a monograph, Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes (I.B. Tauris, 2017) and solo exhibition, Units of Possibility: The Reknit Revolution (Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, June–September 2017). Amy’s ongoing Reknit Revolution initiative provides practical materials for knitters wishing to rework the items in their wardrobes, while her latest project, Fashion Fictions, brings people together to generate, experience and reflect on engaging fictional visions of alternative fashion cultures and systems.