Farmyard Friends: Hens, Pigs & Sheep - NEW PIECES EVERY SEASON
By Maggie Chinn
Textile collage and machine/hand stitching
Original artworks
Framed
Image size: various sizes, square and rectangular
£75 - £120 each
French knots and free machine embroidery couple with vintage fabrics and clever layering to create one of Maggie's much-loved, zany hen, sheep and pig textile pictures.
We call the chicken-focused designs her 'hen house runs'. They're sure to raise a smile, especially for anyone who either keeps chickens at home or has a friend who does. The munching saddleback pigs and skipping fluffy sheep are fellow favourite choices for Maggie.
Though these are from a range of similar titles and compositions, every artwork is handmade and unique. Maggie often incorporates the fabric designs and samples she once designed herself in her professional career, giving each picture an extra touch of artist authenticity.
ABOUT MAGGIE CHINN
Former fabric designer, Maggie, has been saving scraps of fabric ever since she worked for Viyella back in the 1980s. Now she turns them into embroidered pictures, often of farmyard animals like pigs, sheep and hens, each one unique.
More recently, she has branched out into other birds, seashores and wonderful floral appliqué pieces, some of which we have on show. They make eye-catching interior decorations as well as ideal, arty gifts.
Maggie attended Batley School of Art and Design (near Leeds) to study Surface Pattern Design, a highly commercial course covering all aspects of pattern design on textiles, including furnishing, fashion and wallpaper .
She joined women's clothing brand Viyella, in Derbyshire, as a fabric designer, then moved to a studio in Nottingham, working for large companies such as M & S and Next.
Later, in 2001, she completed an Interior Crafts and Creative Embroidery qualification at Warwickshire College in Leamington Spa. From all these roots her current work has developed, based on her unique designs and ideas.
Today, she works from her home near Rugby in Warwickshire.