Artist Focus | Harriet Popham

Harriet Popham is an illustrator, pattern designer and embroidery artist, and I've recently been researching her work a lot in relation to my own project and ideas. Popham uses her family farming background and her love of architecture as her main inspirations for her work and I love the way she combines colourful patterns with intricate embroidery!

Some of my favourite works of hers include detailed hand and machine embroidery of buildings that she's seen first hand in the world around her.

After my city walk around Birmingham, I also found a love of the architecture around me and I would love to apply some of Popham's techniques into my own work and perhaps create an intricate embroidery of one of my favourite buildings in the city.

My work so far has been heavily inspired by not only the architecture of Birmingham, but also the colourful indoor and outdoor markets in the city centre next to the Bullring. Popham is great at delivering pieces that combine two different inspirations - for example her piece linking the circus and architecture - and again, this is something I would like to explore and apply into my own work, perhaps integrating the market with my love of the Birmingham skyline and all of the beautiful buildings around the city. I have tried my hand at embroidering buildings with with my piece on the Mailbox (INSERT PHOTO) but would be keen to expand this more and perhaps produce something a little more detailed and relevant to my chosen theme.

Popham also made a garment influenced by her family's farming heritage and a story of their life featuring elaborate free machine embroidery text to write everything down as opposed to just printing it on the fabric. This is also something I could take inspiration from - using snippets of conversation heard around the city or perhaps stitching down the calls of the market vendors trying to sell their items! I think it's a really effective and unusual way to tell a story and convey everyday moments, and I'm excited to take inspiration from Harriet Popham and carry that over into my own work going forward.