Today Gail is joined by Holly Jackson, a mixed media textile artist based on a tiny island in the Chesapeake Bay, living and working from a fisherman’s cottage dating back to 1870.

Holly combines traditional stumpwork techniques with contemporary narratives and an interest in lost people and places. Her work has been featured on Fiber Talk, Stitchery Stories, and in All Stitched Up, and she exhibits regularly along the east coast of the United States.

Already an exhibiting artist, Holly chose to undertake Stumpwork Stage 2 with the School of Stitched Textiles and is now progressing through our Master Practitioner programme.

In this episode, we explore what structured, assessed study looks like from an American perspective — particularly given that City & Guilds qualifications are not a typical pathway for textile artists in the US.

We talk about:

• why she chose formal study when she was already exhibiting

• what assessment and tutor feedback actually feel like

• how her work evolved through the programme

• whether studying remotely from the US presents any real barriers

• and what she would say to other American textile artists who are curious but unsure.

Links

IG: @flossinginthemoonlight

Website: https://flossinginthemoonlight.com

School of Stitched Textiles https://www.sofst.org/